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Home is where the Garden is...
Burton Worth, student on the Certificate in Applied Organics and Biodynamics has trodden many trails, but the best one he says he ever took was the one leading home.
“When times are tough we return home and home for me was sitting in the garden. There was my place of healing.”
“Biodynamics ticked all the boxes for me – there’s 101 different ways to garden and I guess this one works for me.”
Not so long ago he was immersed in the corporate world – sales and marketing, developing property. “The corporate world is about living in that head space. What I’d neglected was here in my gut and when your mind starts ruling the gut you can make pretty bad fundamental errors. I guess this new stage of growth for me was about marrying the two and that was in my heart.”
So how did he get to Taruna? In order to take a much needed break from the corporate whirl, Burton returned to his family land, at Kumeu north of Auckland.
“I got to point where I was literally forced to go back to the garden. I thought: right what am I going to do here? Like the prodigal’s son being forced to go home and seeing that the time has come. I realised it was there that I was always the happiest.”
Faced with the 9 acre family farm (ex-kiwifruit and nashi pears) he wondered how he could work with the land in new ways.
“One thing that really showed up was that the chemical way is no way at all.”
“By chance someone mentioned biodynamics and I did a bit of research and thought this sounds like a good model.”
By the time Burton came face to face with biodynamics he was already on the road to developing his own land into a sustainable organic garden. It was while doing a course called Sustainable Rural Development (SRD) at NorthTec last year, that he found “One Man, One Cow”, the DVD about Peter Proctor’s biodynamic work in India.
“It grabbed me. I watched it 4 times. Through that DVD Peter Proctor has become one of my heroes and before this all my heroes were in the corporate world. I really admire what he’s done in India and saw that there was a lot more than just gardening in this.”
Did the course meet his expectations?
“Absolutely and exceeded it.
The places it takes you speak volumes.”
He talks about the rich experience of working with others in a group and of meeting so many dedicated people. “Respecting how other people see the world and appreciating that sometimes there’s a time to stand up and speak but at other times we just sit back and listen.”
“In all walks of life and all vocations there are people out there who are passionate about what they do and really follow their heart in what they do enjoy everyday for what it is.”
And this has been Burton’s path, the path back to his garden. “It was a bit like the story of The Alchemist – it was always under your nose the whole time – until you realise it you don’t see it.”
Burton enjoying a lecture from Rachel Pomeroy with his class.
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“You’re connected with the elements whether you like it or not. In a handful of soil there’s as much life as in a city teeming with life. As humans we can forget we are connected. Biodynamics certainly opened my eyes to this.”
Burton says that one very special thing about the course has been the people. “The people on the course, the people we meet and the people who take the course.”
“We are all like minded people and it’s natural that we are drawn together. There’s a nice kind of unity in that – we all come together for one common reason. While the whole concept of organic or biodynamic farming or gardening is nothing new it feels pioneering because we’re at an age when we really need to come back to some of these basics.”
“In biodynamics there’s a certain amount of humility. I think they have an appreciation of what life is around them – very selfless. It’s very much about appreciating life.”
Burton and his family have now resettled in Cambridge. Upon completion of his Taruna studies Burton looks towards many future possibilities, but first, he says, and foremost is “to go home set up my garden and focus my intention on that. Then that will start opening up the next doors.”
“It’s that journey of going out and looking and returning home. All the skills I have learnt I bring (back) to my garden.”
Article by Althea Lambert |
