I drove to Pittsburgh last weekend to attend a seminar on Biodynamics. I had never heard anything about the subject and wanted to learn more about it. They use special herbs and fermented manure as well as the fazes of the moon and stars to guide their planting times, picking times etc. There seemed to me to be some good points in the program, but some parts that were hard to understand [ swallow ] The flier said that it just pumped up organic gardening with out much work and with out much money. That sounded good to me so I drove to the City. I hate going to the City. The seminar was held at the Carniagie Library in East Liberty. Its about an hour drive Turn pike and parkway to the Wilkinsburg Exit. Wilkinsburg used to be a very nice neighborhood in the Burgh but it has declined and most all of the store fronts are boarded shut now. I was looking for a place to eat because I was early for the Talk but had a little trouble finding a place where an old guy from the Country like me would feel comfortable stopping. I found the Library and then just continued driving up Penn Avenue. I found a place on a corner that had a big sign that said SOUP with big windows and there was a mixed crowd in there. So I figured I wouldn't get mugged in there and stopped to eat. Turns out it was a Vegan Restaurant, I am more of a Meat and Potatoes kind of a guy myself, but I was there, and I had not seen any place else that looked good to me, so I sat down and ordered the soup of the day, red cabbage with fake bacon. It was very tasty, I actually enjoyed the meal, maybe I was just very hungry. After stopping to inspect a local community garden on a vacant lot near by I went back to the Library. Parking was a problem for me, oh there were lots of parking spots, no problem there, the lot was right next to the Library , no problem there, you had to go to a computerized parking meter that was for the entire lot. I couldn't get it to work. A very nice fellow came up and tried to help me, he said that the City does not make it easy for you to use these things, he has had trouble as well. He even called the phone number in the meter for help. I still could not get it to work right, and it would not take my Discover Card, and one of the Master Cards in my wallet had expired [ I never use Master Card ] I went into the Library and asked for Quarters, they were not allowed to give any out. I asked the Librarian how much a parking ticket cost, He had no clue, I think he took the Bus, he finally said he thought $30 to $60. I decided for that much money I would go back and try again. You have to enter your cars Lic number, then insert the credit card, then push some buttons for how long you want to park. After about 10 tries I finally became smarted than that Damn machine and was able to park legally in a City Lot.
Back to Biodynamics, The woman who spoke was age 70, she felt that she looked very good for her age and contributed that to the fact that she had been growing her garden using Biodynamics for 10 years now. The idea of this was started in the 1920's by a guy named Steiner. He believed that everything was alive, and everything was interconnected. The soil, the plants , the animals, the water, the sun, the moon, everything works together, everything in connected to and effects everything else. I can buy that, all factors in Nature work together and effect each other. Then she got into astrology and started talking about the 4 main signs, earth, fire, water and wind. You should only work on certain plants like onions and garlic etc when you are in an earth sign because they grow in the earth. Tomatoes and peppers etc need heat to grow so you mess with them during the fire signs. They sold you a special calendar that was not only by day but was broken down by hour of the day as to when you should work on certain plants and what times you work on other plants. Some days were just Bad days to work in the Garden because of the stars, she suggested that you go shopping on those days. They believe that if you are going to plant and weed and fertilize and pick, you might as well do those things at the Best times to do them. She felt apples picked on the right days [ according to their calendar ] would keep better and not spoil as quickly. They use a number of things to work with nature and improve garden production. Cow manure put into a cow horn and buried in the ground to ferment. & other things