For me, stirring the preparations bring me back to my childhood. I remember being too small and too weak to be able to do it alone, so my father would stand me on an upturned bucket and stir with me. I would see the water going faster and faster; it would start to look like it was going down a plughole. The vortex would reach the bottom of the barrel and then “SMASH” the water was in turmoil.

 

Slowly by stirring around the edge we would bring the water back together and bring it again into a vortex. I would stand on this upturned bucket trying to keep my hands on the broom until I was wet. After an hour of stirring, with many different people doing a bit, we would fill small buckets up and go on the fields to spray.

Today it is very different;

I am now strong enough to do half an hour of stirring. Getting into a flow watching the water going around and around trying to create as deep a vortex as I can (I still cannot get it to the bottom)

After the hour it is then sieved into a tractor sprayer.

To make the preparation you need the horns of cows.

Then the manure. It is best when it is from a lactating cow as it brings the calcium process in. The horns are then filled with the manure and put into the ground around 20-30 cm deep. This is best done around the end of September or beginning of October. The horns can be laid flat so nothing comes out, or with the bottom to the ground thus making sure it cannot get water logged. The horns should be buried over the winter months; this is because in the winter the soil is most inwardly alive. All the life forces are then captured in the manure. In the spring, when the horn is dug up to use, the manure has all the life forces preserved thus making it a very enlivening fertilizer.

Mixing the manure should be done by bringing the water to a vortex then breaking it, causing chaos; then bringing it to a vortex in the other direction. This is done for one hour.

The stirring and spraying is best done in the afternoon.

Natalie Adams