By: centraljersey.com
"Sowing New Seeds" was the theme at last weekend’s winter conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey (NOFA-NJ), which is aimed at farmers, home gardeners, and consumers who are interested in local, organic, and sustainably grown products. Evidence that the Hillsborough-based organization was doing just that was everywhere in and around Princeton University’s Friend Center, where the event was held.
For one thing, name tags with the designation "Beginning Farmer" were numerous and hard to miss among the almost 600 conference-goers at this, the 21st annual such event. That attendance figure, by the way, is about double last year’s, according to Michelle Glenn, who, with her husband, David, is co-executive director of NOFA-NJ. (They had anticipated about 40 walk-ins, and got 80.)
In fact, an entire track of talks, seminars, and workshops over the two-day conference were aimed directly at new and young farmers. And on Saturday, an exploratory half-hour session invited women in agriculture to network. Leaders Michelle Glenn and Robin Corson, herself a young farmer, had hoped to attract four or five women; almost 10 times that number showed up.
But the most forward-looking initiative to sow new seeds was another first: The concurrent Kids’ Conference, which offered a full slate of expert-led talks and activities for children ages 6 to 12 who had a parent attending the conference. The aim, according to the program, was to "excite the newest generation of gardeners, farmers, and healthy consumers."
Because this track, which was co-sponsored by the New Jersey Farm to School Network, was experimental, registration was limited to around 12 participants. According to NOFA-NJ volunteer Stacy Brody, who coordinated the program, they had 13 on Saturday and 11 on Sunday. Ms. Brody, a junior in agriculture and plant science at Rutgers University, reports, "We had a great group of kids. Everyone got along very well, and the parents were so thankful that there was something there the kids could attend." The youngsters particularly enjoyed sessions on becoming a "supermarket spy" led by Stacey Antine of HealthBarnUSA, based in Wyckoff, which had them going up and down simulated supermarket aisles comparing side-by-side jars of peanut butter, jams, cereals, tomato sauces, and other kid-friendly favorites.
Princeton area experts were particularly well represented among the many speakers and presenters. Fran McManus, marketing manager of the Whole Earth Center, spoke to the adults on how to make sense of food labels, and had the children exploring the fundamentals of flavor, and Sharon Vecchiarelli of Hopewell’s To Nourish had them making homemade scents. Matt Wilkinson, a physical education teacher at Princeton High who developed the school’s gardening program, detailed a method of building an earthen pizza oven in your own backyard. Dorothy Mullen of Princeton’s Suppers Program spoke about how our bodies communicate important data about the effect of the foods we eat. On Sunday, Dr. Timothy Searchinger of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School discussed strategies needed by the year 2050 to feed what he calls "a hot and hungry planet."
Of course, local farmers were also among the speakers, including Kelly Harding of Cherry Grove Farm in Lawrenceville, who imparted firsthand tips on making cheese on the farm, and Mike Rassweiler of Lambertville’s North Slope Farm, who spoke to his peers about the latest thinking in cover crops. Mikey Azzara, whose business, Zone 7, distributes farm products to restaurants, instructed farmers on how to scale up production in order to sell in quantity to institutions.
One local chef, Christopher Albrecht of Kingston’s Eno Terra, also spoke. Along with Ann Karlen and Emily Gunther of Fair Food Farmstand in Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, he discussed how farmers and chefs can build mutually beneficial relationships to get locally grown products onto restaurant menus. Eno Terra, by the way, was also a sponsor of the NOFA-NJ conference, as were other local businesses including The Bent Spoon, Cherry Grove Farm, Henderson Sotheby’s International Realty, North Slope Farm, Rosedale Mills, Small World Coffee (which also supplied coffee), Terhune Orchards (which supplied apples), the Waldorf School of Princeton, and the Whole Earth Center.
On Saturday evening, Eno Terra donated and hosted a dinner and "farmer roundtable" for about 50 attendees. Before the group feasted on housemade sausages, gnocchi, polenta, and other specialties – all served family-style – Chef Albrecht and Ann Karlen of Fair Food Farmstand spoke to the assemblage. Mr. Albrecht led off by imploring the many farmers there to consider growing one of his favorite crops: Tuscan kale. He then explained how the dinner was a reflection of Eno Terra’s philosophy, based on an Italian concept, of "cooking with what’s available just on the other side of the hill." He spoke a bit about the restaurant’s own farm, which will grow from one to two acres this year. He said that, when he sends his staff over to work the farm and gather the crops, the payback is "even bigger than just getting the actual product. The understanding they get is invaluable in the kitchen."
Ms. Karlen reinforced with the farmers that the demand for local products is real (and growing) by relating that her nonprofit store, a project of White Dog Community Enterprises, grosses $1 million a year selling farm products, year round, from about 90 farms in southeastern Pennsylvania southern New Jersey. Among these, by the way, are Cherry Grove cheeses.
As one of the conference attendees, I, too, came away with new "seeds" having been "sown" in my thinking about the state of farming and sustainability. In a very informative session on current issues in and developments with the state’s Farmland Preservation and Right to Farm programs, I learned that wrestling with the emerging issues of solar, wind, and biomass farming is pretty complicated and challenging.
More importantly, I learned that the term and meaning of "sustainability" continues to evolve. As the conference’s keynote speaker, Dr. Michael Hamm of Michigan State University (and for 20 years prior to that, Rutgers University), noted in his remarks on "Organic Agriculture in a 21st Century Food System", "Right now we’re not sure what the picture of sustainability looks like. Today’s workable definition of sustainability is: Do it better than the previous generation. [Aim for] constant improvement rather than a defined end point."
Michelle Glenn of NOFA-NJ later picked up on that stance, saying that "regenerative" and "resilient" are the new buzzwords relating to food systems. She recognized the value of those terms when it comes to her nonprofit, she told the women-in-agriculture group, when someone from the Rodale organization asked her if she would ever want to describe her own marriage as simply "sustainable."
"I thought, no! I want it to be a lot more than that," she said with a laugh.