Organic Farmers Meet Up in Massachusetts

"WORCESTER— Invite hundreds of organic farmers to lunch, tell each of them to bring food, and what do you get?

One heck of a healthy potluck, according to several people eating lunch at the winter conference of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts, held yesterday at Bancroft School on Shore Drive.

Besides chowing down at the pesticide-free potluck, farmers, gardeners, landscapers and agriculture enthusiasts of all ages attended workshops, browsed vendor booths and listened to speeches by Massachusetts Agricultural Commissioner Douglas W. Petersen and Elizabeth Henderson, the first president of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts.

“I came to be a part of a large group of people who are doing good work and have a vision for the future,” said Ivan Ussach as he finished eating a walnut multigrain cookie at lunch. He said he recently decided to start growing herbs with his wife at their Petersham home, and he planned to attend an afternoon workshop on “Herb Gardening in New England.”

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