Fresh Leaves All Winter, From an Unheated Greenhouse, in Maine!?!?

They’re on the Same Line of Lat­i­tude as the South of France

Goril­las can eat leaves all year round because they live in the trop­ics. What about those of us who live in the North? The only leaves I see around here today are pine nee­dles, which don’t seem edi­ble.

We could eat pro­duce that has been shipped from Flori­da or Cal­i­for­nia, but think of all the fos­sil fuel that would get burned up. Is there anoth­er alter­na­tive? Evi­dent­ly, there is. Eliot Cole­man has writ­ten books about how to grow tasty leaves all year round, in an unheat­ed green­house, in Maine. After he real­ized the shock­ing fact that his home in Maine is on the same line of lat­i­tude as the South of France, he start­ed using the same tech­niques that the Euro­peans have long used for extend­ing their grow­ing sea­son. He now har­vests sal­ad greens all year round.

http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/books/index.html#harvest

For the real­ly hard-core, here’s a green­house from Cana­da that works with­out sup­ple­men­tal heat in tem­per­a­tures of -30 degrees Fahren­heit. It’s insu­lat­ed with soap bub­bles.

http://www.tdc.ca/bubblegreenhouse.htm

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