This week on Friday we got to visit the Pfeiffer Center, we traveled up to Chestnut, New York with Wanda and we learned so much about the area and about biodynamic farming. Our day started off by getting to meet Mac Mead who is the program director of the center. He gave us a walking tour of everything the Pfeiffer center had. He told us that the most important take away about biodynamics is “having what you need for the farm, from the farm”. He told us about their composting process and the biodynamic preps that went into it. He explained that the center collected waste from the surrounding areas every Tuesday and then they dump the waste into special bins that have wire sides and bottoms to keep the rats out. Once the bins become filled they are combined and a tablespoon of various preps are added to the piles, which are turned and combined every couple of months until they are ready to be mixed into the soil.
While we were there we also learned that the organization was under the umbrella of the Threefold Community. Along with the Pfeiffer center the grounds had a Waldorf and Eurythmy School, a k-12 school, a Fellowship Community, a café and several other small local shops that sold bread, crystals, books, candles, and children toys. I thought it was really interesting to see how the kindergarten classes on the grounds where having hands on experiences with the animals and the school garden available to them. It was lovely to see the kindergarten students walking around and being excited by the animals.
After we had lunch we got to sit down and talk with Mary and Eric and talk about what they needed help with overall. Mary gave sent us an email with a document about an internship idea and some topics that they wanted us to research. So for our project we are going to look into the different areas that Mary addressed in that document. You can follow along with out research under the “Pfeiffer Collaboration” page. Also you can see pictures from out trip under "our adventure"