As long as there has been agriculture, farmers have done whatever they believed would bring the best crop. In the last half century, this has meant use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to bring the biggest yields, and in the last few decades, genetic engineering as well. In response to growing awareness of the nutritional and environmental problems caused by these practices, smaller organic farms and urban gardens are gaining ground. In light of this, it is wise to examine some of the old beliefs about farming, brought about before modern farming technologies literally changed the landscape.

Because many of the old beliefs arise out of preindustrial worldviews, in which natural forces and energies, sometimes equated with spirits or even gods, had to be worked with and sometimes placated, many of those old beliefs are, to us, mere superstition. It may be impossible to completely differentiate superstition from what would be consistent with scientific truth.

Science says nothing about the need to honor gods or spirits or work with the energies of particular phases of the moon, all of which are inherent in old farming superstitions. But it is true that a plant’s chemical properties, and therefore its nutritional or medicinal value, are affected by a variety of factors. Where it is grown may change the outcome, as the mineral, microbial, and chemical contents of the soil become part of the plant’s nutritional properties. Herbalists in particular are well aware that how and when a plant is harvested and prepared affects its medicinal properties. It may be good for one ailment if harvested in the late spring and another if harvested at the end of summer, or more desirable for a particular purpose if it grew, say, on the bank of a river than anywhere else.

Sometimes even the superstitious disagree. Equally strong superstitions advise planting potatoes at the dark of the moon or by the light of the moon. A variation holds that all root crops, not just potatoes, should be planted during the dark of the moon, and crops whose food parts grow above ground by moonlight. Still other variations advise planting root crops at or shortly after the full moon and seed bearing vegetables, such as cucumbers or squash, during the waxing moon. However, there is probably no culture in existence, except for those that have always gathered rather than farmed, where there is no advice on when in the lunar cycle to plant or harvest crops.

Going far back, there are rumors of animal and sometimes even human sacrifices having been done to ensure a good harvest. This may have stemmed from a simple sense of the balance of nature. All life must die to feed life. It follows that taking life from the land would require also giving life to it, to maintain the balance. Sacrifices to the gods would have been sacrifices to the natural forces representing this balance of life.

In modern times, biodynamic farming is on the rise. A description of it published in Utne Magazine relates the slaughter of a young bull, which was subsequently butchered and his various body parts buried all around a small farm. The philosophy of biodynamics, borrowing from this ancient concept of sacrifice, holds that the life energy of the animal goes into the earth where it is buried, and returns in the resulting crops. Infused with this energy, the crops do better and harvest is good. From a scientific perspective, any dead animal decomposes and contributes its nutrients to the soil and to the plants that grow in it. Science, religion, and superstition walk hand in hand here.

Old beliefs from northern Europe, now considered superstition, say that fire brings a lucky harvest, and a good year for livestock as well. In the late spring or beginning of summer, there was an old tradition of lighting bonfires in honor of the gods that would bring the harvest. This may or may not have been accompanied by sacrifice, and the practice continues in many summer solstice traditions, though more for celebration than anything else. In keeping with the powerful energies of summer solstice, plants picked on that night were considered to have especially strong healing properties.

For us, magic and science are separate things, and magic equated with superstition. For the ancients, they were one and the same. It is no surprise that farming, now considered to be under the province of science, was once ruled by magic.

Sources:

http://chestofbooks.com/food/ingredients/Potato-Compilation/Chapter-XXVII-Potato-Superstitions-And-Prejudices.html

http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtnties/signs.html

http://www.crystalinks.com/summersolstice.html