Biodynamic agriculture and the Cascine Orsine 🆙

Cascine Orsine, the biodynamic company of Pavia

A few kilometers from Milan, just outside Pavia, here is the farm Cascine Orsine which emerges as a green oasis in the equally luxuriant area of the Ticino river, rich in woods and meadows.

Here, in the perspective ofSteiner biodynamic agriculture theorized in the early 900s, the company-organism reality carries out its values and principles.

The consideration that the vitality of soils and their fertility it is something that does not end in a season, but that is part of a circle, a circle that draws a line that starts from the cosmos and reaches the earth, with everything that grows on it, is the basis of biodynamic production and pricipi that Cascine Orsine has been carrying out for some time now.

Moreover, the very term "biodynamic" means, in fact, vita "bio", which originates from theactivity of forces, "dynamics".

The rules of the cosmos and Steiner's school

Second Rudolf Steiner, founder ofanthroposophy, me too'farmer is a fundamental part of this process of creation of the world, which is not only made of matter, but also of spirit.

Thus follows a precise sowing schedule, air, soil and water are respected, as well as seeds, animals and organic material, and we are all equally involved in the same important process.

For this reason, in a company like the Cascine Orsine, in the morning we all meet together for one short briefing before starting the day, so that everyone knows what the other is doing, discusses the problems to be solved in everyday life and the works are distributed.

The community and biodynamic company it is handled differently compared to the traditional one and wants to demonstrate to the other realities, with which the comparison often opens, that biodynamic agriculture is a possible way.

The products of this agriculture, in addition to being able to become part of the biodynamic diet that everyone chooses to follow, they are sold in the small shop adjacent to the farmhouse or cooked in the courses and dishes of the refreshment point.

The product of the biodynamic company

Among the fundamental principles enunciated by Steiner, there is precisely the fact that the quality of food itself depends on the health and natural wealth of the land that is cultivated: gardens, fields and pallets that receive nitrates and chemical or synthetic substances lose their reactive strength and get sick, so consequently the products.

Natural and biodynamic preparations represent one of the foundations of the biodynamic agricultural method, which contribute to enrich the local humus present and the organic substance of a myriad of organisms useful for the earth.

Biodynamic agriculture operates in the context of legislation set for the organic one. However, the disciplinary that regulates biodynamic production has specific and well-defined peculiarities.

The biodynamic process is ultimately complex and at the same time extraordinarily simple and the final product is the result of this process that tends to the well-being and balance of all its elements.

To learn more: in the article published in 2002 in the magazine “Science“ (vol. 296 no.5573, pp. 1694-1697), we read that it has been shown that, by cultivating with biological and biodynamic methods, the soil improves its structure and increases its biological activity due to the increase of microbial biomass , mycorrhizae, and earthworms.