The NOFA NJ Education Committee has resurrected our book club, and they are starting out with a classic! Pick up a copy of The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman (30th Anniversary Edition published in 2018) and join NOFA NJ at the Ringoes Grange on May 13, 2024, at 7PM for a discussion. This free event is being held in association with the Grange; participants should read as much of the book as possible in advance to engage in intelligent discussion and are welcome to bring an organic food item to share. REGISTER HERE

Professor Joseph Heckman teaches Principles of Organic Crop Production and Soil Fertility at Rutgers University.  He will initiate the discussion by sharing some excerpts from each of the chapters in The New Organic Grower. Participants should come prepared with questions or points of view about how to adapt the tools and techniques described by Eliot Coleman to organic vegetable growing in New Jersey.  Another aspect to be discussed is about how raising livestock maybe integrated with vegetable production.

Book Author Bio: Eliot Coleman, a native of New Jersey, is an organic farmer at Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine.  He is also a prolific writer on horticulture and organic farming methods.  His books The New Organic Grower, Four Season Harvest, and The Winter Harvest Handbook are widely read by students getting started in organic vegetable growing.  The applied research he conducts on year-round production of vegetables in Maine has been adopted by both certified organic and many non-organic growers across the United States.  He is cited more frequently than any other author as an inspiration and educator about organic agriculture (Abbott, A. 2023, Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems).

Reference: Organic information: influential authors and organizations in the Midwestern and Northeastern United States organic and sustainable agriculture community

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/renewable-agriculture-and-food-systems/article/organic-information-influential-authors-and-organizations-in-the-midwestern-and-northeastern-united-states-organic-and-sustainable-agriculture-community/54F22993F84A32E667F77E0A71D704BA