Season Extenders

One way to improve resiliency as well as quality of life is to grow your own vegetables locally. However, gardeners in northern climates are especially challenged by limited growing seasons. In this brief article I will show examples of how to easily extend and preserve the harvest and have fun doing it.

Why Extend Your Harvest?

Presently we can drive to the supermarket to get nearly anything we want even in winter. The fresh fruits and vegetables we see have often been grown thousands of miles away in a tropical climate and flown in using a lot of energy may not be so cheap or plentiful in the future. As well as potentially reducing dependence on energy, extending the harvest of your own foods has advantages including:

• Less work and simpler than preserving by canning or freezing
• Fresher, higher quality than canned
• Less expensive than supermarket
• Increased resiliency with the option to of a local food source
• Controlling your own food sources is more pleasurable and rewarding