Social care charity Camphill Village Trust has announced its intention to extend its support model by developing a Shared Lives care and support programme. The charity, which supports adults with learning disabilities, mental health problems and other support needs, plans a phased development of this well-established model over the next three to four years. It will complement the work of the charity’s nine existing communities and widen the support and housing opportunities the charity offers across England. Camphill Village Trust’s Shared Lives scheme will recruit, assess and approve local people to become Shared Lives carers. (Wednesday May 4th, 2016 — ResponseSource (press release) )

U.S. solar is generating the amount of electricity used by the entire state of Pennsylvania. And that contribution is only growing: By the end of 2016, there will be twice as much solar as there was in 2014. (Wednesday May 4th, 2016 — Think Progress - USA)

Rudolf Steiner gave indications how each verse in the Calendar of the Soul is to be moved in eurythmy, the art of harmonious movement. His verse that inspired these week’s sparks, holds a special place in my heart: with four of my classmates, we performed it in July of 2014 in Dornach, Switzerland, at the gathering of the graduates from eurythmy schools world-wide. The Steiner’s form is a harmonious co-existence of a square, a triangle, circles, six-pointed and five-pointed stars. (Monday May 2nd, 2016 — Huffington Post - USA)

Most small farms have to follow the same rules as big corporate ones. In Maine, flexible food ordinances have increased the number of small farmers. (Friday April 29th, 2016 — alternet.org)

King Estate Winery is on track to become the nation's largest biodynamic vineyard. (Friday April 29th, 2016 — KVAL - Eugene, Oregon USA)

The Waldorf program is hailed by many, parents and educators, as a high-quality program where the school balances work and play into a curriculum. It’s not just any program though; it’s a high-quality program. According to the HighScope Perry Preschool Study, which followed individuals from the ages of 3 and 4 when they were in preschool until age 40, those in high-quality programs benefited more in the long run. (Friday April 29th, 2016 — wivb.com - Buffalo, New York USA)

A kindergarten, ‘Bhoomi’, which offers a Waldorf-inspired learning system, is set to open in Kochi. The Waldorf system is based on the educational philosophy of Rudolf Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and social reformer, which lays emphasis on the holistic development of the child. “The Waldorf system is about the joy of learning. Education in the early formative years should in no way burden the child; that is what the system aims at achieving,” says Sara Gonzalez, a Waldorf teacher from Mexico. She was in Kochi recently, working out the modalities of instruction with the founders of ‘Bhoomi’, Bachan Anand and Rahmi Hidayat. (Thursday April 28th, 2016 — The Hindu - India)

Building A Non-Raised Garden Bed, Step by Step (Tuesday April 26th, 2016 — Mother Earth News - USA)

“Throughout 2014, the team and I were constantly in the vineyard working, but also observing and comparing with previous years. We could see clearly that eight years after we embarked on the organic and biodynamic conversion of Waterkloof, the estate had really found natural balance,” says farm manager Christiaan Loots. (Saturday April 23rd, 2016 — eNCA - Johannesburg, South Africa)

According to the educationist, Alternative Education, a system based on the Waldorf model brought up by Rudolf Steiner, is completely different from the conventional and competitive system. Making matters simpler, he adds that waldorf education model looks at a free environment for chilldren without any pressure, in an effort to make learning a pleasant experience for children. (Friday April 22nd, 2016 — The New Indian Express )

Weleda, founded in 1921 by Rudolf Steiner, offers organically farmed plant-based products and naturopathic medicines. Since the beginning, Weleda has established deep roots in farming healthy plants. Its own founder, Steiner, was the father of biodynamic farming. They were organic long before organic was trending. Skin Food, which turned 90 this year, is used on dry skin to nourish and protect. Key plants like pansy, chamomile, sunflower and calendula work together to calm inflammation, soothe and moisturize. (Tuesday April 19th, 2016 — Examiner.com - Canada)

One of the oldest biodynamic estates in the world says they don’t need chemicals in a great environment like this. (Saturday April 16th, 2016 — Gisborne Herald )

A French sailing boat packed with organic and biodynamic wine has arrived on British shores, as part of an initiative to make exports more environmentally friendly. (Thursday April 14th, 2016 — decanter.com)

For many wineries, every day is Earth Day as, more and more, they're committing to sustainable practices as a fundamental business model. One of the leaders in the movement is Benziger Family Winery in California. At this Sonoma Mountain site established in 1980, sustainability is a family affair with about two dozen people involved. Convinced that natural techniques yield more flavorful, aromatic grapes with more site-specific character, they converted the property into a biodynamic farm. (Wednesday April 13th, 2016 — Colorado Springs Gazette -- Colorado Springs, Colorado USA)

HAILED the father of local garlic by some locals, biodynamic Barrington farmer Jan Goroncy is nothing if not passionate about the produce he grows. “Dirt is so precious. Just smelling it and seeing the life in there, then knowing that that medium provides everything for us to survive... You have to look after it!” the former pianist said. (Friday April 8th, 2016 — Gloucester Advocate - Gloucester, New South Wales, Australia)

Horticulture teacher from High Mowing School, one of 120 Waldorf schools in the United States, uses intuition, curiosity and persistence to teach teenagers how to work in the garden -- and be in the world. (Tuesday April 5th, 2016 — PR Newswire (press release) )

Through lectures, discussions, sketches and debates, Grade 12 students at Whistler Waldorf School explore and discover a completely unfamiliar space reality. Throughout the course, the students develop their thinking skills to a high level of critical and creative capacities — a skill which educators around the world are advocating as essential for students graduating and working in the global environment of the 21st century. (Monday April 4th, 2016 — Whistler Question - Whistler. British Columbia Canada)

Millions of Nigerians are urging the Nigerian government to reject Monsanto’s attempts to introduce genetically modified (GMO) cotton and maize into the country’s food and farming systems. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — Alternet.org)

The global trend is towards biodynamic cuisine, even biodynamic wine. Our biodynamic coffee fetches us the best international prices,” says Manoj Kumar, CEO of Naandi Foundation, which has brought about a radical change in the lives of the adivasis in the 15 years they have worked here. ... though coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world, its profit margins are wafer thin with too many price fluctuations that make growing coffee unviable for the small farmer. A better idea would be to export coffee, but there were too many intermediaries and Araku was not even known as a coffee-growing region. Naandi Foundation nudged the adivasi farmers to grow biodynamic coffee and helped set up cooperatives, that took most of the major decisions. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — The New Indian Express )

My fellow Tri-City News columnist Karen Curtis, who writes Market Fresh monthly, paid tribute last fall when our community lost biodynamic farming pioneer Mary Forstbauer. Mary passionately preached healthy soils, a practice the Forstbauer Family Natural Food Farm in Chilliwack has been doing for nearly three decades. (Saturday April 2nd, 2016 — The Tri-City News - Port Coquitlam, British Columbia Canada)