Celebrating Rachel Carson
The autumn equinox was the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s book, Silent Spring, a book that changed the world, and Rachel Carson made the mother of the environmental movements. First by getting DDT banned, and then by waking people up to the insanity of using pesticides at all. Her book is even more relevant now, and we can add microplastics and raw sewage to the list of human offences committed on unsuspecting creatures of nature.
Although people of a certain generation, like me, will remember Rachel Carson and Silent Spring, what is less known is her connection to biodynamics. In fact, it was the American Biodynamic Association who sponsored and supported Rachel Carson in the writing of her 14 books, giving nature a voice.
Biodynamics are rethinking horticulture and agriculture. And the Healing Garden is part of that movement. As you probably know, we have our offices and now also a classroom in the Rachel Carson Centre at Emerson College. The Centre was built in 2001 with funds from Germany, with the specific purpose of supporting biodynamics and training biodynamic growers.
The Biodynamic Agriculture College at Emerson College is where many current biodynamic farmers started their journey, but only ten years after the Rachel Carson Centre was established for the purpose, the Biodynamic College closed and the building was left empty until the Forest Row School of Ceramics rented one end of the building, and some local artists the other. Dr Philip Kilner also rented an office to use as a workshop for his study of the mysteries of the heart, from blood flow to intricate muscle movement. Funnily enough, Iain Millership and I both attended one of Philip’s workshops, and that was the beginning of a friendship which has now led to us reestablishing the building again as the Rachel Carson Centre.
The Healing Garden was first part of Heartwood’s study centre which I managed, but when they decided to go 100% online (like so many others have done), we had to part company. I stayed with my feet on the ground in the garden, as Heartwood flew off into cyberspace.
The last years have been challenging for everyone, but I am always up for a challenge – and especially when I discovered that I share a birthday with Rachel Carson! I feel a call to carry on her work in some way. Or, in other words, that’s what I do.
Interestingly, the building has not had a name plaque in its 21 years of existence. When we got the Demeter certification for all of the Emerson Gardens last year – mainly thanks to Udo Ottow – we started talking about bringing the building back to its purpose but in a more inclusive and open way that would also include the healing arts, conservation, sustainability, and botany. Our vision is for the Rachel Carson Centre to become a visitor centre for the Biodynamic Botanic Garden at Emerson College, and a lab, a library, office, clinic, dispensary, shop, and classrooms.
This is beginning to happen, and the first step was to have a proper opening event and a proper name plaque by the door. St Anthony’s Trust are the custodians of many hundreds of acres of biodynamic land, as well as Plawhatch Farm and Tablehurst Farm, including the Rachel Carson Centre and the Healing Garden. They commissioned a local artist to make the plaque from a local oak, and we had Camilla al Fayed come and unveil it for us, bringing her sparkle and celebrity to the event. Totally wonderful!
To run the enterprise, we have set up the Rachel Carson Centre charity with visions of bringing biodynamics and sustainability in focus, and helping make it possible for people everywhere to create their own healing gardens.
