Canning & Rudolf Steiner
I think it’s very healthy to maintain a curious mind and to keep learning even for just the sake of learning itself… though it’s entirely possible that’s just an excuse for my miscellaneous hyper-fixations on this and that. Regardless, I do love to dive down rabbit holes of history, science, art, and thought that are new to me. While editing a video project, I heard mention of Rudolf Steiner and his connection to Biodynamic Farming. Given the loose context I was given—a style of farming adjacent to organic but with a spiritual and astrological element—I was immediately interested. And it has since sent me down a wild twisting path covering super-fertilizer, weather control, esotericism, Waldorf school philosophy, home canning, and more.
I did my surface research on Biodynamic farming before starting my reading list. Below is the first round of books I checked out of the local library.
The first I bit into was Rudolf Steiner’s “The Renewal of the Social Organism,” which I have just finished. I’ve included a few quotes that I found particularly interesting and that tie into his philosophy of education. If the discussion(s) begun by Steiner have enough discourse to be found, I may expand my source material in order to write a kind of research essay on his philosophy.
“When spiritual life, even in practical affairs, comes to be seen as an ideological superstructure of economic life, how will a genuine unfolding of human individuality be possible?”
“One of the most important aspects of culture, education, was shaped by governmental interests. People were trained and taught according to the requirements of the state.”
“The real need of the present is that the schools be totally grounded in a free spiritual and cultural life...The question should not be: What does a human being need to know and be able to do for the social order that now exists?, but rather: What capacities are latent in this human being, and what lies within that can be developed?”
“One must devise institutions that will motivate men to continue to employ their powers for the benefit of the community even when not enticed to do so by the expectation of profit.”
All very interesting! And wholly new to me! I’ve since added Rudolf Steiner’s “The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone” to my immediate reading list. After reading more of his essays, I’ll start the process of perusing other’s responses to his philosophy and pseudoscience. And then, of course, it is important to learn how his philosophy ties into Biodynamic farming and what that looks like today in comparison to its birth.
Adjacent to all of this, it has also sparked an interest in learning the basics of home canning, pickling, and preserve-making.
I figured I’d start with the USDA’s book.
Next, I took a gander through the Foxfire book on my shelf only to find this page.
Which only served to bring me full circle back to elements of Biodynamic farming. So, though I may not have any good and logical reason to be delving into the general topic, I feel like I’m being led down a path of exciting discovery and consistent intrigue. If nothing else, my research thus far has prompted many ideas for stories and worldbuilding.
