sun heart school for spiritual agriculture
Developing Relationships between Nature, Human Beings and the Spirit
April to November Three days a week at Sun Heart Farm in Stephentown, NY
Sun Heart School for Spiritual Agriculture is a 7-month on-farm cohort-based program exploring the sacred relationship of agriculture to both the human being and the spirit. From April through November a cohort of students and teachers will gather on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9am to 5pm to work and learn together through a combination of morning classroom experiences and hands-on work on the land as a group, and through independent projects and mentorship.
Based at Sun Heart Farm in Stephentown, New York and the surrounding community in the Hudson Valley of NY. Our foundation is working with a place, a landscape filled with fields, forest, a pond and stream, plants, animals and a growing community.
In Partnership With
Our curriculum centers on lessons from the Biodynamic Agriculture and Nutrition and Foundations in Anthropsophy courses from EduCareDo
Program Elements
Morning sessions: deepening how we learn and relate
How can we openly inquire, question, and converse, with each other and the natural world so that our deeper, truer beings can be revealed? We will spend three mornings a week working with Goethean science, artistic experiences, and exploring the backgrounds of spiritual ecology and biodynamic agriculture. We’ll strive towards understanding soils, plants, animals, and social and economic health. Basics of astronomy, working with medicinal plants, nutrition, farm education, and seasonal festivals will bring the ideas into living action. Underpinnings of inner development and therapeutic care for ourselves and each other will run throughout, as well as have times for deeper focus.
Afternoon sessions: deepening how we serve and give
How can we help nature and the spirit work together more harmoniously and creatively, in us and in the outer world? We will spend three afternoons a week working on the farm in a structured learning environment. Production will happen; our focus will be on learning, serving and giving. A large, diverse vegetable, flower, and herb garden will host a place for seeds to be sown, nourished and cared for. A variety of animals including cows, chickens, pigs, and goats will be guided across the fields and pastures to graze while offering their unique gifts. We’ll harvest food for ourselves, and others, sharing the abundance that we create together. Integrating care for the pond, stream, forest, and other wild land will weave throughout. The opportunity to visit and learn from other area farms will be a regular feature.
Mentorship, Group Dynamics, and Independent Project
Integral to the program are opportunities to share one-on-one and group experiences and reflections to support and guide each individual, and the group as whole, through the learning journey of the year. Ample time to design and implement an independent project connected to a question you wish to explore will be offered with an individual garden plot to work.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Anyone interested in healing and caring for the earth and the human being., and the intersection of inner work and outer work, holistic thinking, feeling and doing in the context of agriculture.
Those new to biodynamic agriculture and those looking to deepen and further their existing work and understandings are welcome to apply.
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We strive to be fully inclusive while meeting program needs. Full tuition is $10,000 for the 7 month program. Financial aid is available at up to 75% of full tuition on a needs-basis. Financial aid decisions are based on conversation with the applicant.
Please contact us for details.
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Participants will share in the bounty we help create with the land, including a wide variety of vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs, and eggs, as they are available throughout the season. There is also the opportunity to make yogurt, sauerkraut, and other products together as well as share in bulk purchasing.
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On-farm housing is available for rent as well as community connections to other nearby affordable housing opportunities. Contact us for more details.
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Schedule an exploratory call with program director, Anthony Mecca, to find out more about joining the April 2026 cohort.
Program director and lead Facilitator
Anthony has been farming for 20 years. Anthony is a mentor and adult educator, offering farmer training, education, and programs for the Biodynamic Association (BDA) where he serves as Co-Director of the organization. He is a teacher and author on the themes of biodynamic agriculture, developing new faculties of perception, the nature of substance, and an understanding of nutrition based on Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture Course to support soil, plant, animal, and human health. Anthony also consults and offers mentorship in biodynamic agriculture for all ages, and is the author of the EduCareDo year-long distance learning subject course Biodynamic Agriculture and Nutrition. He also holds workshops and conferences on the themes of biodynamic agriculture and nutrition at Sun Heart Farm where he live and works with his partner and child.
Previously, Anthony founded Great Song Farm in 2010, the community-supported-agriculture farm he ran for 8 seasons, working with biodynamic practices and principles to grow a diversity of vegetables and care for a small cow herd and two draft horses who did all the heavy work He also has rich practical experience with nearly any type of farm animal, dairying including processing, medicinal herbs and pharmacy, small grains, and perennial crops including berries and tree fruit.
The program draws on a diverse range of teachers and mentors local to the Hudson Valley and beyond, including other farmers, artists, teachers, craftspeople, health practitioners, and social and economic innovators. We will also visit other farms, places, and people to experience the diversity needed to support developing health.
Additional Facilitators
Why Biodynamics?
Biodynamics is a holistic, coevolutionary, earth-friendly practice and way of being that creates abundant health for soil, plants, animals, people, and planet. Each unique and self-sustaining farm organism contributes generously to the ecological, economic, social, and spiritual vitality of its surrounding community and landscape, and the whole living earth. Through biodynamics, we can access new capacities in human creativity to sense and respond to the needs of the planet, and unfold new solutions in a living and dynamic way. Biodynamics is both a way to bring health and healing to agriculture and a potent movement for new thinking and practices in all aspects of life connected to food and agriculture.
The principles and practices of biodynamics can be applied anywhere, with thoughtful adaptation to scale, landscape, climate, and culture.
Our Educational Principles
— Every situation and every being has something to offer and something to teach. We strive to have open and honest conversations, and challenge our views and opinions.
— We are all students, and work to help each other learn and grow.
— Each person is recognized as a whole human being. Our thinking, feeling, and willing are engaged fully through our heads, hearts, and hands.
— Dialogue and direct experience are primary learning tools.
— A diversity of questions, perspectives, and abilities are welcomed. Our complex individual lives are honored and respected. We work to harness the potential of diversity and integrate it into a cohesive whole.
— The human being has a rich inner life as well as an outer life, and the health of this inner life is intimately connected to the progression and health of our communities, culture, and societal systems.
— Active engagement, self-awareness, and the respect of the freedom of each individual are core responsibilities of all participants.
apply
Space is limited. Applications accepted on a rolling basis.