“Being biodynamic is a lens you look through,” says Molly Chester, co-founder of biodynamic-certified Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, Calif. “First, you stop doing a lot of things. If your first instinct is to use chemicals to solve a problem, you’re going to pause that. If your first inclination is to take a pest out, pause that.” Instead, think of a problem — whether it’s insects, critters, disease or poor plant health — as an indicator of imbalance in the garden, then determine a way to naturally address what isn’t working. For example, a slug outbreak would be seen as an imbalance in the farm organism, rather than an issue requiring pesticides, so the gardener might introduce a natural predator, such as ducks, to deal with the issue.
