more food for thought

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i'm at borders, having used fossil fuel to get here and more of the same, no doubt, to sit in this air-conditioned space sipping a very, very sweet chai latte made from powder for which i shelled out way too much money. these conveniences and the means to them are very hard to resist.

i'm here this afternoon reading up on four season gardening. i'm astonished that in vermont, yes freezing vermont, you can have fresh vegetables 12 months of the year without using any heat sources or other high tech solutions, not even insulation.

how? according to elliot coleman: cold frames inside hoop houses. in his book, four-season harvest, published by chelsea green, right here in my building in white river junction, coleman describes covering crops with a cold frames or low tunnels of breathable fabric inside of a larger plastic-covered hoop house or green house providing double protection from freezing weather and trapping moisture and heat. even without the outer hoop house, the cold frames alone can provide enough protection.

this strategy nets up to a 72 degree difference between outside and inside temperatures on a sunny day in mid-winter and up to a 14 degree difference on a winter night. these thermal buffers are enough to keep hearty vegetables green and happy, though dormant, through the entire winter. by planting in late summer or early fall and growing vegetables to maturity by november, when cold sets in, the vegetables are maintained all winter-long for harvesting. coleman's garden is in harborside, maine, whose average low temperature is 26.7 degrees. white river junction, vermont's average low is a couple degrees lower at 24.1 degrees, but white river gets more sun. so, it seems completely feasible that i could be growing most of my own food out back of my place 12 months a year!