How studying Biodynamics gave Sparrow wings

Sparrow is apologetic as he jumps on the call. “I had to finish my meeting with the members. We’ve been walking backwards and forwards across the same spot 20 times, trying to stay in the sun!”

It’s mid-December in southern Germany, and the temperature is dropping. It hit –10˚C last year, so before it gets too late, Sparrow is outlining what he plans to buy and sow next year.

An organic farm certified by Bioland and covering 3 acres, Blumenthal has 80 members who all contribute a fee in the German version of a CSA, known as Solawi. But it’s also a listed castle, hotel, restaurant, seminar space, cheese-making venue and garden. There are 47 adults plus 30 children living on site. And some strict rules.

New residents have just two weeks to get on with everyone. “If one or two people don’t like you, you’re gone. Luckily, we avoided that whole scenario because I’m employed here!” 

The previous gardener was on the receiving end of this cut-throat environment. “They weren’t happy with the quality of the vegetables, the way the place was laid out, and how other people working there were treated. So she was voted out.”

The realisation that the site needed a proper grower led them to Sparrow. But with a secure position working for one of the most famous growers in the UK, Ian Tolhurst, known as ‘Tolly’, what made him leave both job and country?

Main buildings at Schloss Blumenthal, Germany

Really into biodynamics

Sparrow grew up in Pontefract, West Yorkshire. His parents both came from a family of glass blowers and weren’t into growing. There was a coal mine, a chemical factory and canals in the town. “It would have been a thriving place. But when I was growing up, the flats nearby had addicts, the mine had closed.”

But his grandparents on both sides of the family grew apple and plum trees, as well as gooseberry bushes and beans. “They let me help out from a young age”. Sparrow also loved music and took a degree in psychology at Huddersfield. After graduating, he moved to Garvald West Linton, a residential centre for people with learning disabilities. Garvald has a biodynamic farm attached, and it was there that Sparrow discovered a whole new world.

Yet instead of the natural next step of becoming a grower, he hitchhiked all the way to India and spent four years exploring. “I knew I wanted to be a gardener, but I also wanted to go travelling.” He certainly did that.

“I was running the garden with little experience, five volunteers, and a tractor, all while looking after adults with learning difficulties amidst some questionable politics in the Centre.”

On returning to the UK, Sparrow joined a band playing gigs in Bristol. But “I needed something to keep me busy during the day.” So he applied for an apprenticeship at the Biodynamic Agricultural College. Sparrow could have worked for Andy Dibben at Abbey Home Farm as part of the Soil Association’s apprenticeship scheme, “but I was really into biodynamics.”

He was taken on by Oaklands Park, a Camphill community in the Forest of Dean. His first job was weeding blackcurrants in the middle of winter with snow covering the ground. “I thought: ‘this is going to be hard’.” 

It didn’t get any easier. “I was running the garden with little experience, five volunteers, and a tractor, all while looking after adults with learning difficulties amidst some questionable politics in the Centre. It was challenging, but I wanted to finish the course.”

What he was learning with the Biodynamic Agricultural College provided the extra motivation. “There were some really good teachers. Jonathan Code on elemental beings was most people’s least favourite, but I thought it was brilliant. To learn about that living presence within plants and space was really something. It made me have reverence for the sacred space we enter as a grower. We were taught how to observe. Just sitting in a part of the garden, jotting down what changes throughout the year. I felt a connection.

“There were a thousand apple trees that needed pruning at Oaklands Park. I took time to look at and prune each tree. It was a turning point in my life. 

Learning through discovery

Sparrow at The Oxford Real Farming Conference, 2023

So why, after all that, did he take a job at a stock-free, organic farm, far from what he’d learnt about biodynamics? First, at Growing with Grace, a two-acre growing space under glass near Lancaster. And then Tolhurst Organics?

A talk he gave at the Oxford Real Farming Conference hints at why. It covered the biodynamic preparations, but plant-based versions. “There wasn’t a lot of love for it. People were frustrated. But they need to be more open-minded!” The kind of biodynamics I like is what Enzo Nastati talks about and what Mark Moodie practices in the Forest of Dean. It’s really out there, exploring what Steiner meant. 

“Tolly had seen a lot of middle-class boys coming through who’d got what they wanted and then bought some land for themselves”

So in the spirit of exploration rather than following a set philosophy, Sparrow applied for an interview at Tolhurst. “Tolly gave me the job straight away. He saw I was working-class like him. He’d had a lot of middle-class boys coming through who’d got what they wanted and then bought some land for themselves.”

It almost didn’t happen because Sparrow’s partner became pregnant shortly after he started. “Tolly was convinced I’d leave. But he had no plans to give up such an opportunity. Working with one of the most famous UK growers on 17 acres, with agroforestry, cover cropping and, let’s not forget, lots of woodchip, was not something to be missed. ‘Tolly spent plenty of time training me up.”

But then it was time to leave. “Four years under Tolly? Well most folk haven’t stuck it out that long. I’d learnt a lot, but I needed to go out on my own, and do things my own way.”

A different environment for organics

It was what Sparrow describes as “a leap of faith.” A risk, a foolhardy step? His partner is German. “I wanted to go there more than she did. I could have easily got a job in England. But everything made me come here. The standard of living is higher. Healthcare, schools are better, and rivers are clean. They have stronger environmental policies. And money gets reinvested in society.”

The organic scene is more organised as well. Sparrow can buy seedlings for 10 cents per plant, which saves on greenhouse space, water, and labour. “In England, everything is from seed. Here I get them the week I want them and fit them straight into the planting machine”. It means he can cover a 50-metre bed with three rows in ten minutes – he has four 50-metre by 50-metre blocks containing 33 beds on each. His tractor, made by Fendt, has a long axle front. A steerage hoe goes on the middle and front, and a power harrow can fit too. “It just needs one person, which cuts labour costs in half and means I can do it when I want.”

Locals were bemused: ‘why are we getting kale in summer?’ they asked

The bigger challenge has been a different type of customer. “Germans like lots of kohlrabi, white cabbage, and radicchio. They prefer curly kale cut in one piece rather than leaves pulled as in the UK.” His normal practice of sowing this brassica in February left locals bemused: ‘Why are we getting kale in summer?’ they asked. 

There are other cultural differences. “I haven’t used a single plastic bag, In the UK everyone told me organic produce had to go in plastic bags.” If he has loose leaves, he puts a rubber band around them.

An exciting year lies ahead

Yet already, Sparrow has turned the business around. The number of members had dropped to 56 when he arrived, but he’s brought it back up to 85 in less than a year. That’s despite charging more: “the first thing I did was put prices up. Income comes from a set amount paid by members for the year, currently €85 a month per person. Members vote for how much they can contribute, more for those who are better off, and less for those who can’t afford it. “It’s the most socially responsible system I’ve ever come across”.

Sparrow is targeting 120 members. Those extra funds will pay for an additional member of staff, in addition to occasional comms work contributed by his partner, one person packing on two mornings a week and a seasonal worker.

He has more plans: a European version of the Organic Growers Gathering at Blumenthal plus the fifth instalment of the UK version in 2026 – despite Tolly’s land no longer being available, and a drop in numbers this year. With so much going on, you wonder when he’ll get time to rest. And if and when his love for biodynamics will reappear. Surely in a country where Steiner has had such an influence, and with the joy that Sparrow got from studying at the Biodynamic Agricultural College, it will appear again.