I first came across the BD preparations in 1981, the year of the Falklands War and when Prince Charles and Lady Diana tied the knot. That didn’t end well! It was mid Autumn and I was helping out a young french farmer re-build a disused barn deep in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. The smell of woodsmoke drifted through the trees, and leaves from the sweet chestnut forests started to build up in heaps on the ground. We had ample time, while sorting roof tiles, to put the world to rights and as the farm was bio-dynamic, the conversation got round to horns and manure! My French was little better than schoolboy standard, so I decided to follow this up to get the story straight! A couple of years later I found myself back in the UK, completing an apprenticeship on the now well known biodynamic farm in Sussex called Tablehurst. Forty years later my relationship with the BD preps is more familiar, but there is still so much to learn and understand how horn, manure and winter soil combine to result in the moist friable soil additive we commonly call “BD 500”. Anyone else have a first impression they would like to share?
