What appears on this page is what’s actually happening, following the natural cycle of the seasons + the “season” of TF work. From March through June, the main focus is what’s growing, perhaps what’s being distilled or extracted or thought about. I don’t play to expectations fueled by algorithms and consumer takeover by well-honed psychological marketing strategies plucking the strings of desire/escapism/self lack. Admittedly, it’s tricky, because this is a business, which needs to work, economically. Instead, something real, and unusual, is offered here. It truly is a beautiful environment & work, but super difficult, too. More is woven into the background of Biodynamic cultivation of the farm & plants; harvesting, extracting & formulating than you could ever guess: like almost a lifetime living library of esoteric and exoteric knowledge, experience and devotion, all of a very particular kind. I realize a small % people really care about the details, such as the two hours it takes to discerningly pick a small basket of tiny flowers; or how distilling to capture the fragrance and joie de vivre of blooms, most often precludes quantity of hydrosol. But I am firmly behind that quality. Even the knowledge, especially spiritual, that one carries affects the “produce”. Because it is how the spiritual works, in detail, into matter, that is really what TF is all about. And on this page is a tiny glimpse. #biodynamicfarm#plantartist#biodynamicskincare#wholeplantskincare#jevaisaupif#distillation#greenbeauty#slowscent#olfactiveartist#artisanperfumer#botanicalperfume#indieperfumery#naturelove#plantmagic

Black Locust blossoms perfume the air for a week or so in May, with an especially diffusive, enveloping top note. This year they opened in April, with their telltale grape Kool Aid scent, linking them to aspects of orange blossom, sweet pea and iris. All of these flowers appear in the locust blossom scent array. As it ages, a touch of coumarin and powdery orris (the iris root) present. While I use with natural materials, and as a Biodynamic farmer + Goethean Science practitioner in my plant, skincare & perfume work, and prefer the thinking, perception & language of the living realm, it’s helpful to also understand chemical compounds. Methyl anthranilate is the sugary faux-grape essence smell found in all the flowers mentioned above. See if you can detect it! Leguminous flowers with scent, such as locust, sweet pea & lespideza have an extra special quality to their scent quality, something almost like breathing, for in legumes, the astral world enters a little into the plant, instead of only surrounding it. Interested in learning more about Goethean Science in the realm of plants, aromatics/perfumery? Get on the newsletter list, summer classes are coming! #aromaticlife#indieperfumer#botanicalperfume#biodynamicfarm#goetheanscience#naturalperfumery#greenbeauty#slowscent#naturelove#plantmagic#plantlove#smellthis#fragrantpath#biodynamicskincare#wholeplantskincare#biodynamic#jevaisaupif#perfumeclasses#scenteducation

May 1st, and the 2nd rose distillation of the season is already happening! There are dogwoods, woodland phlox, locusts, peonies, scilla, hesperis, viola odorata, primula, alliums, and foxgloves in bloom all at once..valerian and yellow yarrow about to open. And the emblematic May Day flower, muguet ( 2nd photo) is winding down, instead of just beginning. With these new patterns, are we heading towards a different expression of “ seasons” across the planet? I think that may be. #mayday#springflowers#biodynamicfarm#biodynamicskincare#naturelove#greenbeauty#flowerlove#seasons#earthchanges#botanicalperfume#rosehydrosol#artisandistiller#natureobserver

Slowly moving through the thousands of plants needing planting, both ones grown here from seed, and those bought from a friend’s local nursery, plus a few speciality plants ordered ( more daphne! sweet fern! viola odorata!) . In Biodynamics this planting is all time-sensitive, as there are certain best windows for transplanting, for example, when the moon is descending. This phase isn’t the same as waning. There are best times and days for sowing seeds; or harvesting leaves, roots, flowers, fruits & seeds, all to do with the mighty dance and weave of life forces and influences radiating through the Sun, Moon, planets and constellations. Being practical-esoteric, BD cultivation of course considers conditions any individual farm is dealing with. Here in the mountains of Virginia, we have a short few months to plant out perennials: it simply gets too hot, sometimes droughty, in summer. I don’t use drip irrigation. Everything, including watering, is done by hand. Rarely will you find a monocrop bed or row around here. Whenever I have tried, the elementals, very demonstratively, let me know that’s not how they like it! The sequence of plant appearances (phenology) has been changing for some years, and now is a bit dramatic. The roses always have begun after peonies, and sometime in May. However roses began opening before peonies, while dogwoods, spring ephemerals, even narcissus are still flowering, this year. It’s not only plants expressing anomalies, either, but also the animal kingdom. Twenty four years ago I had a detailed “head’s up” in the inner planes that the phenology & weather would change if a particular world course continued. Here we are, and implications are immense, about which I’ll write in another post. #biodynamics#biodynamicfarm#smallfarm#aromaticlife#wholeplantskincare#biodynamicskincare#earthchanges #phenology#botanicalperfume#medicinalplants#aromaticplants#naturelove#plantmedicine#biosphere#planetearth#elementals

Lush, poufy Sir Winston Churchill (top) was added to the fragrant narcissi population here last autumn. I watched in wonder when the impossibly large flower buds appeared, looking like plants from science fiction ! The top note is soaring, radiant. My friend @gaua_project described it as orange blossom, in which I find also something terpenic and slightly peppery, like elemi. Live flowers and landscapes for me are the prima materia of perfumery. #smellthis#narcissi#botanicalperfume#indieperfumer#flowerlove#fragrantpath#aromaticlife#scentsy#olfaction#naturalperfumery#enfleurage#slowscent#perfumegarden#perfumery#jevaisaupif#scentbeauty

Warmth has arrived.. the air is full of bees droning and gorgeous scents. Being planting time, days are long, dirty, sometimes achey. I can’t speak proper English right now, just plant, bird and bee. #pottingshed#biodynamicfarm#smallfarm#herbfarm#naturelove#plantlove#plantmagic#biodynamicskincare#botanicalperfume#botanicalmagic#greenbeauty#flowerwhisperer #earthsteward

Yesterday was not…quite… the happy vernal celebration on the farm. Plans were to pot up seedlings and fulfill other pleasant chores, but we had high winds, a long electric outage and numerous fires, with smoke-thickened air throughout the county. A loud crash in the afternoon startled my tending the woodstove. The beloved (and enormous) 50 + year old crabapple tree came down, smashing a storm window at the finale.She was in full, full bud, just about to bloom. Having spent nearly half the tree’s life on this land, there are many vivid memories of seeing massive clouds of pink through every front window; the hum of thousands of bees feasting on her blooms; lying down below her canopy to join the dream of rosey scent and thrumming wings; watching the petals rain down in a thick pink carpet. Solemnly, I told the bees this morning. There is a younger crabapple, and apple trees, too: not all is lost. The buds will be distilled, a new tree will be ordered and planted, but still, the pangs of a dear friend’s departure lingers. (video has sounds of Spring) #vernalequinox#naturelove#plantlove#biodynamicfarm#biodynamicskincare#crabapple#springflowers#treefriends#artisanskincare#wholeplantskincare

Tender Spring arrives in the potting shed garden, fragrant with hyacinth perfume. Many more of the fluffy headed bulbs, blooming just outside the frame! Each year I add dozens, not just for enfleurage and beauty, but also for the revered honeybees. It has amazed me to watch over decades, the plant attractions of bees and other pollinating insects. Not the usual hash repeated from book to book to media. What underlies my work whether farming Biodynamically; creating skincare, perfume; perceiving scent,color, form; yearly cycle; the spiritual, the human .. is deep, penetrating observation. Which begins with a silence, shaped like an open question, in a warm heart. # goetheanscience#biodynamic #biodynamicfarm#wholeplantskincare#biodynamicskincare#botanicalperfume#indieperfumer#olfactoryart#plantartist#slowbeauty#naturelove#springflowers#spring#observe#goetheanscience

Fragrant signs of Spring….hyacinths, viola odorata, daphne odora, all flowers used in my enfleurages. Hyacinth scent profiles vary, along with their coloration, with notes such as clove, galbanum, rose water, the hexanal of cut grass, bananas just beginning to ripen, even jasmine. Fully opened blooms turn to smells as found in common with gingko, chestnut, and the Elegant Stinkhorn mushrooms. One need say no more! Paying deep attention to stages of flowering is equally important as discerning facets of scent, if you want to work with them. “A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning in Eden garden.— Have, get, before it cloy” noted Gerard Manley Hopkins quite rightly in his beloved poem, “Spring”. This moment in Spring when the forms, scents, colors and sounds are so fresh and pure is a kind of grace . And then, there’s a swift change, at some point in the season, when decay forces and a kind of coarseness set in. Do you notice this, too? # spring#enfleurage#cycleoftheyear#fragrantpath#aromas#botanicalperfume#indieperfumer#naturalperfume#slowscent#greenbeauty#olfaction#olfactoryartist#plantmagic#perfumery#smellthis#scents