Wouldn't it be great to have year-round, fresh, locally-grown, organic veggies?! In cold-winter climates like Canada's, this doesn't seem possible, at least, not without extremely expensive, energy-guzzling greenhouse operations.

The surprising reality is different. With an energetically open-minded approach to farming, featuring plenty of research, planning and trial-and-error experimentation, it IS possible to provide year-round organics, on a small and sustainable scale. This is a major goal at Thurston Organic Farm, one which we'll hopefully achieve a lot sooner than later. If you're interested in our progress, read on!

We start with our regular outdoor growing season here in southern Ontario, lasting from May through September, when the days are long and the temperature warm. In the best of years, with an early last frost of the spring, and a late first frost in the fall, that's only five months of good growing weather. For veggies that need lots of light and heat, like tomatoes, peppers, and corn, it's still a gamble, late frost in spring and early frost in fall can cut down the season by as much as another month!

Here on the Farm, in 2003 and 2004 we basically farmed au naturel, taking the conditions as they came, which meant living with Nature's five month average. In 2005, we began dipping into the farming toolbox to stretch the season...

What's in our toolbox?

To stretch the prime five months of the year right around the calendar, we have to combine several different methods and techniques:

1. Crop planning covers the types of veggies we grow, and the planting schedule. There are lots of possibilities. Some hardy crops are well-suited to colder conditions, and some varieties of a single crop can handle the cold better than others. By selecting cold-resistant varieties, we can usually add at least a couple of weeks of good harvest to the end of the season! Among the cold-hardy crops, some can germinate in colder soil, and all can withstand some degree of frost at both ends of the season. They can add at least month to the the average outdoor season. That brings us to a total of around six months!

2. Season extension refers to just about any approach to growing that somehow modifies the weather conditions at the beginning and end of the regular outdoor growing season to allow for longer production. The fully heated greenhouse is the ultimate season extender, but it also costs a fortune, both to build, and especially to heat and light. There are many other, more practical techniques. Some of the most interesting for our purposes include transplants, row covers, mulch, hoop houses, and unheated greenhouses. By combining various of these techniques with good crop planning, we can fairly easily add a couple of weeks to the beginning, and a month to the end of the season. The total is now between seven and eight months (these approaches still depend to quite a degree on the weather)!

3. Winter storage, as in a root cellar and preserving, is the traditional family farm way to have fresh veggies during the winter months. Given the proper cool conditions, a whole range of crops can be stored fresh for several weeks to several months, things like cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, even tomatoes. Crop planning plays a big part here too, because there are certain varieties that are especially good for long-term storage. Preserving food by a variety of methods, including pickling, canning and freezing, accommodates an even wider veggie selection. There's also winter harvest, a more extreme technique that can fill out the coldest months with absolutely fresh veggies. Certain hardy crops, including carrots, spinach, and a number of other greens, can be grown in the fall, left in the ground in unheated greenhouses, and harvested into February and March (in the low-light days of winter, they don't really continue to grow, but remain healthy and fresh). And that takes us right through the calendar!

Seasonal eating is the final factor. It's not exactly a farming technique, but it is a necessary part of the year-round, sustainable, field-to-fork equation. By adjusting to what is fresh and locally grown at different times of the year, expectations match the harvest and year-round, locally-grown organics...works!!