Lincroft, NJ – Three leaders of the national organics movement will be featured in January at the state’s largest gathering of nationally recognized speakers and regional experts in organic and sustainable agriculture, gardening, food and nutrition.
“This is a great opportunity for organic growers to learn from the best,” said Camille Miller, executive director of NOFA-NJ, the Northeast Organic Farm Association of New Jersey. The 23rd Annual Winter Food and Agriculture Conference will be held Jan. 26th and 27th at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ.
Eliot Coleman is making a rare appearance as Keynote Speaker. His Four Seasons Farm in Harborside, ME produces vegetables year-round and is nationally recognized as a model of small-scale sustainable agriculture. He is the author of The New Organic Grower,Four Season Harvest and The Winter Harvest Handbook.
Michael Phillips, orchardist and acclaimed author of The Apple Grower and The Holistic Orchard, will teach a pre-conference workshop Jan. 25 on sustainable orchard health techniques. His workshop provides essential knowledge to both professional orchardists and home gardeners with a single fruit tree.
Ellen Ecker-Ogden, the noted food and garden writer who foundedThe Cooks Garden Seed Catalog and wrote The Vermont Cheese Book andThe Complete Kitchen Garden, will lead hands-on workshops on kitchen garden design and will also lead a pre-conference workshop in which gardeners will be able to customize their own kitchen garden design.
Titled “Building on a History of Innovation in the Garden State,” the conference includes more than 40 workshops over two days. Topics range from farm policy issues in New Jersey to workshops for backyard beekeeping. The annual conference is expected to draw more than 1,000 experienced and beginner farmers, chefs, backyard gardeners, beekeepers, backyard chicken-farmers and policy makers from the northeast.
Additional conference information and the full list of speakers are available at www.nofanj.org.
Source: Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey
