The traditional fresh produce season for market gardeners in the colder parts of North America begins in June and ends in September. For the past eight years, in defiance of our long, cold Maine winters, we have been developing an environmentally sound, resource efficient, and economically viable system for extending fresh vegetable production into "the other eight months." We call it the "winter harvest." Our success thus far is very encouraging. We currently sell freshly harvested salads and main course vegetables from the 1st of October until the 31st of May.

This manual records our recent experiences in planning, carrying out, and fine tuning a fresh vegetable production and marketing operation on the back side of the calendar.

Section 1 Description 1
Section 2 Rationale 5
Section 3 Background 7
Section 4 Technical Details 11
Section 5 Biological Details 17
Section 6 Crops 19
Section 7 Fertilization, Sowing, Weeding...27
Section 8 Harvest 29
Section 9 Marketing 31
Section 10 Economics 33
Section 11 Pests 35
Section 12 Plastic 37
Section 13 Tools 41
Section 14 Greenhouse Design 45

A Climate Maps 51
B Effects of Temperature 57
C Tools and Supplies 58
D Seeds 59
E Sowing Dates 60
F Further Reading 61
G Data for Energy-Use Comparison

Now that "organic" foods have become an international business, and more and more bulk organic produce is shipped from far-away places, the "organic" label alone won't help local growers compete. The most important word to stress now is "fresh!" No matter who grew it or how well it was grown, long distance produce is a week old by the time it gets to New England. Week-old food is not "fresh." That is why knowledgeable food buyers eagerly seek out local produce during the summer months. But to make a real difference in creating a local food system, local growers need to be able to continue supplying "fresh" food through the winter months. Our goal has been to do that without markedly increasing our expenses or our consumption of non-renewable resources.

The "winter-harvest," as described in this publication, can produce high quality, organically grown crops for fresh sale during the traditional non-farming months in all parts of the country by using locally available resources and inexpensive climate modification. It achieves that aim by combining the biological potential of cold-hardy vegetables with the minimal protection of simple greenhouse technologies. The cold-hardy crops are appropriate to the season ad the simple greenhouse techniques are appropriate to the needs of those crops. We think this minimalist approach has potential for growers in any part of the country where winter presently constrains production.