It’s an artichoke awakening at Four Season Farm!
Today, people want locally grown, organic food more than ever before. And that demand for fresh produce is year round – not just in the spring and summer months. Which makes us wonder – how much food can we grow at home when the temperatures outside drop below freezing?
For many home growers, vegetable gardening comes to a screeching halt when winter arrives. Cold temperatures and shorter days seem to make it difficult to grow things through the winter months. But our desire for fresh-from-the-garden produce doesn’t stop and in fact, we want – and need – it more than ever! Luckily for us, it is possible to grow food organically with some simple techniques in the dead of winter. All it just takes is a little know how.
Barbara and Eliot on chicken duty in the winter “Hoop Coop”
In this episode, we learn the tricks and advantages of winter gardening from some world-renowned pioneers in the field, Eliot Coleman and Barbara Damrosch of Four Season Farm. On their property in Maine they are able to produce food commercially all year round, simply and naturally, and without heaters. They are passionate about sharing their knowledge for gardening and producing fresh, healthy food year-round, and we will be sharing many of their tips with you today.
Finally, Chef Nathan Lyon really turns up the heat on a favorite cold-weather crop with his Pan-Roasted Broccolette with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes. Yum!
Additional links for this episode:
- Where to purchase the “Quick Hoops Bender” seen in the episode
- Four Season Farm, where this episode was filmed The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses
by Eliot Coleman
- Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition
by Eliot Coleman
- The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch
- Theme Gardens by Barbara Damrosch
- Joe’s Blog: You Can’t Change the Weather; But you CAN Garden in it!
- Chef Nathan’s Recipe: Pan-Roasted Broccolette with Garlic and Red Pepper Flakes
Disclosure: some product links on this page are affiliate links, which means we would get a commission if you purchase. However, none of the prices of these resources have been increased to compensate us. While the commissions are small, any received go towards helping to offset the expenses of bringing this free content to you. Thank you.
About GGWTV
Growing A Greener World is a national gardening series on Public Television that features organic gardening, green living and farm to table cooking. Each episode focuses on compelling and inspirational people making a difference through gardening. This gardening series covers everything from edible gardening and sustainable agriculture to seasonal cooking and preserving the harvest.
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Hi,
Could you post the step by step directions on how to build a hoop house?
Hi Mark. What we have on this subject is in the video and show notes for this episode 301. Rewatching it online may help a lot. Another option is to go to the link for JohnnySeeds, where we got all our material to build our hoop house, aka “low tunnels”. Johnny’s has a great library of instructional videos, including some on what you are looking for. Here’s the link to their video page. Scrool through this page and I think you are going to find a number of ones to help you. Good luck.
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-video.aspx
Can you tell me the author of the book “Living the Good Life” that was referenced by your guest in Episode 301 “Winter Gardening ” ??? thank you .. sounds like a good read
many thanks for all you do !
Hello, Crystal!
The book Eliot mentions is called “Living the Good Life: How to Live Simply and Sanely in a Troubled World” by Helen and Scott Nearing!
He probably read the first edition, out in 1973, but it looks like it was reissued in 1993 together with their later book in a new one-volume called “The Good Life: Helen and Scott Nearing’s Sixty Years of Self-Sufficient Living”.
Looks like it’s on sale on Amazon right now: http://ow.ly/gf5B1
Hope that helps! Cheers and thanks for watching!
Where can I get tot soy seed?
Sue, I’m sorry I just saw your question! Hope you get a notification with my reply.
Just off the top of my head I know we’ve bought soybean seed from Baker Creek (http://www.rareseed.com) and Sow True Seed (http://sowtrueseed.com/) in the past, both are reliable sources with GMO-free, untreated seed and a nice selection.
I’m sure there are other reliable mail-order sources online and (if you haven’t already) you might check/ask at your local garden center.
Hope that helps, and happy edamame to you!