SWF BLOG
Winter
By Ladleah Dunn
Winter has meant many things to me over the years. As a child growing up on an island off the coast of Maine it meant anxiously hoping and waiting for enough snow or enough cold to go sledding or to go skating on the dark, black ice of the quarry. As a young adult in college it meant bitter cold, early mornings putting on every piece of insulating clothing I owned to get to the lobster boat I worked on to help pay for school. The opportunity to spend a winter teaching sailing in the “back-country” of the Florida Keys sent me packing to spend the dark months skidding over sand bars, bouncing over waves, and coated by salt spray. Along the way I met my husband and we crafted a life of teaching and sailing that found us island hopping, fishing, and working on boats under the bright tropical sun for quite a few years. Our hearts were elsewhere though. Come the new year, we would dream of crackling fires, hearty stews and cheeks pink from the chill. It’s hard to believe that one can grow weary of the sun and the heat, but I am an island girl of the granite and spruce variety and making your living under the sun everyday is no easier than waking at 3am to catch a lobster boat in December. Both are challenging in their own ways. These days, having settled back in Maine not too far from the ocean I can look out over the ice and frozen ground to the high-tunnel greenhouse my husband and I built together in November just before winter shut in.
For many, the coming of winter means an end to gardening. Many breath a sigh of relief as the season of weeding, watering, and constant vigilance over the garden comes to a close. This year I have found myself weeding in December. Planting in January! Harvesting fresh greens in February! The planting I did in August and September has fed us with fresh greens all winter with no added heat or light, and now that the sun is coming around to over 10 hours a day the spinach and lettuces I planted on the new year are emerging from the dark brown soil in the high tunnel. Is it necessary to build a huge greenhouse? Certainly not- but I do make a living doing this stuff. There are many terrific resources out there for you to extend your growing season simply and inexpensively. Elliot Coleman has some fantastic books out there and he, together with Johnny’s Selected Seeds have come up with some great do it yourself methods to have parsley, carrots, lettuces, spinach, kales, collards (shall I go on?) in the depth of winter. Go on. See for yourself that winter can be both about skating out over the dark mysterious ice and about green, living things.
Click on this to see a great video for a do it yourself approach:
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