With Mac Mead, Megan Durney, Cynthia Hoven, Harald Hoven, Kim Pace, Sea-Anna Vasilas, and Sherry Wildfeuer

This year’s Midwinter Agriculture Intensive will explore the cosmic and earthly expressions of the four elements by illuminating the interweaving forces of Earth, Water, Air, and Fire: how they manifest in polarities and what is born in between. The art and practice of eurythmy is interwoven throughout the program to provide an artistic lens through which we can actually experience spiritual content and truths.

Through our personal experiences, group conversations, and presentations, we hope to shine light on the unseen forces and relationships that influence the cycle of the seasons, the metamorphosis of the plant, the four kingdoms, the work of the nature spirits, and the biodynamic preparations.

This long weekend is truly a unique educational and social opportunity to broaden and deepen your understanding of the role of biodynamics in the development of humanity and agriculture. Join us!

Schedule

Faculty

MAC MEAD, a biodynamic farmer since 1975, mentors the Pfeiffer Center and Duryea Farm Leadership Team and is lead faculty of the Pfeiffer Center’s adult education programs. Mac regularly speaks at conferences of the Biodynamic Association (BDA), the Northeast Organic Farming Association, and the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. In 2016, he was an invited speaker at “The Spirit of Sustainable Agriculture,” a conference of the Harvard Divinity School.

MEGAN DURNEY coordinates the daily work of the Pfeiffer Center and Duryea Farm, and is an instructor in the Pfeiffer Center’s One-Year Part-Time Training in Biodynamics. A Biodynamic Association board member, Megan has served on the core planning group for the BDA’s national conference, conducted workshops at BDA national conferences, and hosted many young farmer meet-ups. Megan joined the Pfeiffer Center as an intern in 2006 and became a staff member in 2010. In 2014-15, she studied seed saving under Harald Hoven at Raphael Garden in Fair Oaks, CA.

CYNTHIA HOVEN has worked as a eurythmy teacher, performer, and therapist for over 35 years. Her work has also included in-depth teaching of biodynamic students and practitioners in collaborative workshops with her husband. She worked as a key professor at Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, CA, for over 25 years, where she also founded and directed a full-time eurythmy training program. She now offers extensive workshops in China, Taiwan, Guatemala, and elsewhere.

HARALD HOVEN founded and ran Raphael Garden at Rudolf Steiner College (Fair Oaks, CA) from 1987 to 2007. There he trained close to 100 apprentices, created a seed-saving and breeding program, established biodynamic adult education at RSC, and operated a year-round 70-member CSA. Since his retirement from RSC in 2017 he has consulted for, trained, and mentored biodynamic farmers in the US and abroad, focusing on preparation making and biodynamic practices.

KIM PACE manages the Duryea Farm dairy, in addition to supporting all aspects of farm operations at the Pfeiffer Center and Duryea Farm. Kim first met biodynamics while studying under Harald Hoven at Raphael Garden in Fair Oaks, CA. In 2016, Kim stepped away from Waldorf kindergarten teaching to become a full-time apprentice at Raphael Garden, followed by a stint at Fulcrum Farm in Grass Valley, CA, where she helped tend a small herd of Scottish Highland cows.

SEA-ANNA VASILAS has been teaching eurythmy internationally since 2011, after graduating from the four-year eurythmy training at Eurythmy Spring Valley in Spring Valley, NY. She first encountered eurythmy through her work with biodynamic agriculture and has continually been inspired by the living relationship between biodynamics and eurythmy. Sea-Anna earned her M.A. in performance eurythmy from Alanus University, and is currently a member of the Eurythmy Spring Valley faculty and ensemble.

SHERRY WILDFEUER is the editor of the Stella Natura Biodynamic Planting Calendar, a co-worker at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, PA, and a long-time active member of the Anthroposophical Society and the Agriculture Section of the School of Spiritual Science.

Reading

Rudolf Steiner, The Agriculture Course, Lectures 1, 2, and 4.
Rudolf Steiner, “The Christmas Imagination,” Lecture 2 from Four Seasons and the Archangels.
Rudolf Steiner, Man as Symphony of the Creative Word, Lecture 7.

Meals and Lodging

The registration fee includes five meals at Threefold Café: Dinner on Saturday and Sunday, and lunch on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Lodging is not included in the conference fee; visit this page for information about visitor housing options in the Threefold community.