Tillin' like Bob Dylan

OK, there was really nothing folk-music-like about pushing this heavy machine through the uneven and grass-laden dirt.  But, it was funnnn!!!

And, it made me realize that I will need a MUCH more heavy-duty piece of machinery to actually till this massive plot of land.  However, if I did continue with the little rototiller, my arms would be in SICK shape!!!

Northeastern Organic Farmers Assoc. 2009 NJ Annual Conference

Oh yes. I was there.  Hosted by the Ag School at Rutgers, which is beautifully set right off Route 1 in Central Jersey, it was a very informative meeting of the very diverse farmers in the Garden State.  WE are quite a motley bunch...and there seem to be a VAST preponderance handle-bar mustaches among NJ farmers, a trend I will continue to study from afar.  

While I was in sessions like "Integrated Systems for Vegetable Production" and "Planning Crop Rotation," I started thinking that with all the white collar laborers in the massive metropolis's surrounding NJ feeling insecure, we who are in the labor of the land should feel pretty damn good.  

Aside from pondering deep thoughts of doomsday food security, I met some very helpful and interesting farmers, like David Earling of Gravity Hill Farm and Hugh Williams of Threshold Farm.  The former is an ex-Wall Streeter who brought his family out to live the farm life, the latter is a gruff, Aussie Paul Newman-clone who runs a Biodynamic orchard - AWESOME! 

I also bought my official soil testing bag...wait there at the edge of your seat until I get the results back from the Rutgers Extension "Soil Testing Laboratory".

Yes, A Youth Revival in Farming

Apparently, I was not the only person who thought the Young Farmer's Conference was really cool!  Read the Washington Post piece written by Barbara Damrosch in her weekly column, A Cook's Garden.  Also helpful to farmers like me, is her more recent piece on finding high-quality and organic seeds!! Barbara is one of the founders of the iconic Four Season Farm in Maine, which is a beautiful example of authentic year-round growing.