Fennel preparation
The fennel preparation is a marginal application in the biodynamic tradition — an extract of fennel herb (Foeniculum vulgare) used here and there to support digestion in livestock and as a component of care in treating wounds on the farm. It is not part of the Steiner canon.
What is the fennel preparation?
The fennel preparation is a biodynamic special application based on fennel herb (Foeniculum vulgare). It is made as a tea, a decoction or a tincture and used here and there in the stable, in animal care or in wound care on the farm. It does not belong to the classical Steiner canon of biodynamic preparations (500–508) and is listed as a preparation in its own right neither in the Demeter standard nor in the main works on the practice of the preparations (Wistinghausen, Stappung, Masson).
The term “fennel preparation” is therefore used inconsistently in the biodynamic world — sometimes for an extract, sometimes for a homoeopathic trituration, sometimes for a component in a herbal mixture.
Where it comes from and how it is used
Fennel has a long tradition in European medicinal plant practice, above all as a means of supporting digestion in people and animals. In the biodynamic farm tradition it appears occasionally:
- as an addition for livestock (dairy cattle, poultry) to regulate digestion
- as a rinse in caring for wounds on an animal
- as a component of home-made herbal mixtures for the herd, much like the herbal portions in old stable preparations
- in homoeopathic trituration as part of certain biodynamic and anthroposophical remedies
Processing
There is no standardised biodynamic method of making it. Usual forms:
- tea from dried fennel seed — as part of stable herb mixtures
- fresh plant material added to manure or compost, to give it aroma and to strengthen the herd
- maceration in alcohol as a tincture — more in anthroposophical remedy practice than on the farm itself
In every form the same holds: biodynamic use understands fennel as a supporting herbal component, not as a directed spray preparation in the sense of the 502–507 logic.
Its place in the canon and in practice
The fennel preparation is an extended possibility for farms that work with herbal extracts in keeping livestock — and so belongs rather to a broader biodynamic and anthroposophical tradition of medicinal plants than to the practice of the preparations in the narrower sense.