Grand Opening! グランドオープンに向けて

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2010/02/05
Grand Opening! グランドオープンに向けて

Hi diary,We have now pasted our inspection for a bakery business permit so now we are introducing our grand opening on Feb 11 from 11am until 7pm.We will give a welcoming speech and introduce ourselves and try to tell you what we are doing on this farm.We will have bread and other baked goods for sale along with free samples of bread and free pizza and tea.We hope to have a musician to come and play music for us but we are not sure about that yet.We want to tell you that we are not only opening a bakery but we are finally settled in and are open for business.That means we are accepting csa members and bread orders.

We will have a list of upcoming events here on the farm and other events that we are involved with to promote the organic/biodynamic movements.We are accepting community members and volunteers workers.We are starting a biodynamic community and we are not able to take care of them yet.But If someone wants to join us we can only offer shelter.We can probably get food from our friends and nieghbors to give to our community members.We have spent all our money on getting things setup for this community.and now we are ready to start business.We will get money from bread sales and csa signups.We have already ordered our seeds and will recieve them in a couple of weeksThis is really big news for us to announce our grand opening we are finally in a position to do what we came to Japan to do.We wanted to make the Biodynamic preparations,operate a csa,conduct workshops on how to use and make the Biodynamic preparations,and try to help establish a Biodynamic association that can get the Demeter certification to Japan.We hope we can becomeDemeter certified.We have a good chance for that here.We have an agricultural college nearby where we hopefully can attract college students to be interested in organic gardening and farming.There are lots of opportunities for the organic movement in this area.We can get access to an abandoned elementary schoolhouse for large events.In order to do these events of course we will need help.Not only for these events but for all the work that needs done on the farm.We can teach an apprentice a lot about farming and gardening.I've probaby told you already about our future goals so i'll move on to other things to talk about.

One thing is that J.P.I. is hosting their 9th annual prep makers conference and will feature the preparation 508 which is the horsetail weed spray.Some people don't use the spray but in Hokkaido i think it is very necessary because of all the rain.Horsetail prep or 508 is suppose to help protect plants from fungus disease which usually happens when there is too much rain.It is also used as a susquential spray amomg other preps to encourage rain or reduce the rain.It will not actually stop the rain but helps the air balance it's enviroment.I made some 508 last week and it will be ready in about a couple days.This is my first time making the 508 and it was harvested the first year we were here,so it has been dried for two years, after it is made it will stay good for up to 6 months then we'll have to make more.There is two recipes that i know of.One is from freah horsetail and the other is to ferment it.I used the fermented tea method using the dried herb.Later during the summer, probably at one of our workshop i'll make both kinds.To make the 508 I used the recipe from J.P.I. newsletter this month.A doctor from Dr Steiners days made a recipe that most people use now.Her name is Lilly Kolisko she also wrote a couple of books about biodynamics and was a scientist who helped develop homeopathy among other things.Her husband was a scientist too. his name was Eugene.One of her books is now back in print but costs around $80.00.Wish i could afford it.It will probably sellout very fast.

I’ve been working on our yarrow flowers.We harvested them after the sun was in scorpio and on fruit days.last summer.Now is good time to pick the flowers of the stems.We now have 17 deer bladders.This spring when we make our 502 we will have lots of deer bladders and hopefully enough yarrow to fill them.We may share some of the deer bladders with B.A.A.J. and Pokawapa in Kyu shu.And maybe get some more before then.

Other things that have been happening here lately is that we went cross country sking with a club in our area in Honbetsu.Here what we did was considered ski walking with cross country skis or nordic sking.Later this month we will go on a trip with a ski club to a hot springs to ski 8 kilometers out and 8 kilometers back and then a hot bath. Sounds like fun in the great oiutdoors.We met some people there who were very nice and we decided to join the club and get some exercise.Plus we might find some people who want to be our csa members.Usually people interested in their health would want healthy food for themselves or for someone they know who needs good healthy food.Intelligent people and young parents are usually good candidates for csa members.

We got a delivery van from Konomi's mom Thank you mom.It is a diesel 4wd 5 speed and big enough for our first year csa and our bread delivery route. We like our new van very much.

We sent one of our cows to the slaughter house and picked up the meat yesterday.This cow was very mean to the other cows and would not get pregnant and was a good size cow for beef.Hayashi-san will sell the beef to his friends and clients from the farm corporation.

Thats about it for now.Just a little bit about our plans for the future and our present status.We still love each other very much and are working hard to make a good place to make a biodynamic farm community happen.It is going to be our first year here and we have a lot to learn but you can learn with us as we will learn from our nieghbors.We haven’t had time to make friends around here yet but now we are finally settled in and are ready to live productive lives and have fun doing it.

Our next event after the grand opening is the spring equinox festival and some csa gatherings in between.Please try to come by or keep us in your prayers as we start what we came here to do.We are finally starting business yeah!!!!!!!!!

Love and peace.Ben.

[ベン／ Ben Campbell｜Comment(2)]

Edited by ベン／ Ben Campbell 2010/02/06 10:44:56
Last Modified 2010/02/06 18:18:15

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