Eat Local Challenge- when it’s freezing out
Welcome, everyone, new reader Another Joe. Here’s an excerpt from his comment on the recent post ["Progress."](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/346):
>I’m thinking of joining a local CSA, but I have the luxury of living in Central California. You[r] essay got me wondering, though, about the relative difficulty of eating locally year-round if one lives in the Upper Midwest or other frozen climes.
Well, the long answer to your question is Michael Pollan’s book In Defense of Food. The short answer to your question is that there is not one state in the union (including Alaska) that does not have a year-round growing season.
There is, admittedly, no local citrus in Milwaukee, likewise local sugar or coffee, but that kind of limited-supply trading has gone on for thousands of years. There are, however, literally hundreds of crops which start in March and grow well into December, not to mention dozens more that will grow throughout the year.
It’s true: cabbage, kale, squash, chard, spinach, celery, radishes, leeks; all have hardy varieties that grow through full winter. In fact, there are squashes that won’t flower above freezing, frostberries (just like they sound) and black radishes which grow *only* in winter. And all this is without even mentioning that you can grow lettuce in a greenhouse just about anywhere, too.
In addition, there is something called “cold storage” which the older among us, or country types may recall as root cellars. This is a hybrid indoor-outdoor storage method where produce of various hardy kinds are harvested in the cooler months, then go into storage that protects them from the elements, but does not insulate them, usually partially dug into a hill or in the cellar of a barn. This is absolutely by no means the same thing as refrigeration, however. Refrigeration acts by condensing moisture out of the air, and therefore out of your vegetables. You counteract this in your refrigerator with plastic bags or crisper drawers. Those things, however, hasten mold growth and mess around with the vegetable or fruit’s natural moisture stasis, as anyone who’s put a potato in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for too long can tell you. The right kinds of things put into cold storage will last for months.
Every farmer in an appropriate climate has a root cellar, and this provides the farmer’s market (and hence you) with apples, pears, onions, garlic, potatoes and other goodies throughout the winter.
Will you see baby arugula in February? No. Asparagus? No. You’ll see new fire lettuce and black kettle radishes, and you should be happy to see them. A varied diet is the way to health, and getting all the nutrients we need. Iceberg lettuce from Chile and a vitamin don’t taste good, aren’t good for your health, aren’t good for the planet, nor are they good for your local economy. Go to [localharvest.org]( http://www.localharvest.org/) and see just what it is that your local farmer has in store for you.
