It continues to be one of the hottest foodie and gardening trends: the quest to know where your food is grown and how. That's why this year's Getting Started in Organic Farming Conference, put on by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Connecticut, is coming to Connecticut College on Saturday. The day-long conference, in its 10th year, has outgrown previous venues further inland. Its organizers also recognize the burgeoning interest in local, organic food production in this end of the state.

There is no typical organic grower in Connecticut, but in keeping with the state's farms and agricultural production, most are smaller and multi-crop, according to Eileen Hochberg, CT NOFA executive director, and they'd like to market directly to customers through community supported agriculture shares and farmers markets. While the average age of farmers in the state is 58, she also sees a surge in interest among younger people who often don't come from a traditional background or education in agricultural production or with family ties to farmland.

That's where CT NOFA comes in. It has helped shape organic farming beliefs, practices and techniques since it was formed in 1982. Anyone who has heard Bill Duesing speak - Duesing is the organization's sage, after leading it for 12 years - knows it all starts with feeding the soil with natural inputs and eschewing quick-fix synthetic chemistry to boost yields or knock down pests.

While "organic" is a marketing term regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture to define what can or cannot be used to produce a food labeled as such, the NOFA philosophy is much broader. It focuses on ecologically sound, economically viable and socially just farming, gardening and land care that respect biodiversity, soil, water, air and the needs of future generations.

Saturday's speakers will address certification to meet USDA National Organic Standards, holistic farmland management, and how to find quality farmland and financing. Patrick Horan of Waldingfield Farm, in Litchfield County, one of the state's largest certified organic farms, will talk about how organic food production has been a principal reason for the rise of the "locavore," or local food, movement in the Northeast.

Local livestock farmers Ed and Belinda Learned, who run their Stonyledge Farm in North Stonington as part of the Wingate family's Studio Farm line of organic products, will talk about the basics of raising beef, pork and chickens on a small scale. The conference is $40 for CT NOFA Members and students, $50 for non-members, and free to Conn College students who sign up in advance.

Also new this year is CT NOFA's technical assistance program, called Coming Together. This is a free service that puts farmers with questions in touch with experts in organic methods for quick answers and help.

Max Taylor of Provider Farm in Salem is one of the farmers in the program directory. He and his wife Kerry are starting their fourth season running their own farm on 15 leased acres. A Chicago suburbs kid who came to UMass Amherst to study philosophy but ended up in agriculture, Max worked for about five years on farms in the western Massachusetts Pioneer Valley. The couple decided to strike out for a market that wasn't already saturated with organic farmers and settled in this region.

"Having the skills and knowledge to start a farm is important," Max told me last week as he washed up carrots for Fiddleheads Market, a year-round farmers market at 13 Broad St. "I didn't grow up with any agricultural background, so Kerry and I are delighted to be a part of this. There seems to be a pretty fair knowledge gap."

Sustainable lawns and landscaping are equally important to CT NOFA, which is offering its four-day New England Regional Accreditation Course in Organic Land Care at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich from Feb. 9 to 12. This is a serious four-day commitment and accreditation program for landscaping professionals, environmental educators, horticulturists, and municipal and institutional groundskeepers. It's based on NOFA's Standards for Land Care: Practices for Design and Maintenance of an Ecological Landscape, first published in 2001 and revised semi-annually.

For those of us with less time but still passion for the cause, CT NOFA has launched an online organic lawn care certificate course that covers organic turf care, grounds maintenance, marketing and messaging of organic lawn care. The nine-subject course, which costs $150 per student, also is open to homeowners.

CT NOFA also is preparing for its annual winter conference, billed as the state's largest food, agriculture and sustainability conference, on Saturday, March 7, at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury. The organization welcomes farmers, landscaping professionals, consumers and anyone with an interest in organic production.

See details for all of these events and courses at ctnofa.org or call (203) 308-2584.

TO LEARN MORE

Want more organic info? Suzanne's "CT Outdoors" radio show guest on WLIS 1420 AM and WMRD 1150 AM next week is Baylee Rose Drown of Upper Pond Farm in Old Lyme. Listen on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 12:30-1 pm and 6:30-7 pm, streaming live at www.wliswmrd.net. Check the On Demand archives on the website for Suzanne's Jan. 13 interview with Eileen Hochberg of CT NOFA.