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Exactly. Gardening here is tough, we just had 3 days of snow with more predicted, and it was only 26 degrees this morning. If you want to garden a greenhouse, hotbeds and luck are paramount.
Usually we will get killing frost until the end of May, but we can plant some stuff in Mid-May because of germination of the seeds so no plants are really above ground until after June 1.
We can get a killing heat in July and August that because of our low humidity can suck the moisture right out of the plants almost as fast as you can put water on them.
In my area, normally the killing frosts don't come until the first of October, but that is no guarentee, so we plant with an eye towards very quick growing plants, 90 days or less. I can usually grow pumpkins with a mature date of less than 100 days, but that is pushing it and the pumpkins usually don't get over about 8-10 lbs.
Potatos and underground crops like carrots, turnips, parsnips do fairly well and store really well in the cellar.
We can/dry lots of summer produce to go through the winter and I just started another root cellar for my mother. This one is 8x16 and 6 1/2 feet inside to the ceiling. Storing enough to live on through the winter takes a lot of space.
Northern latitudes and high elevation are not gentle on either domestic or wild plants.
You certainly do have some harsh and challenging conditions. I have been told that greenhouses aren't nearly as useful out your way as they are here.
Root cellars are neat and can serve other purposes too. 8x16 is a good sized one. I can't have a traditional root cellar here because the water table is too high. It helps that I can get both spring and fall crops of root and other vegetables in each year.
You certainly do have some harsh and challenging conditions. I have been told that greenhouses aren't nearly as useful out your way as they are here.
Root cellars are neat and can serve other purposes too. 8x16 is a good sized one. I can't have a traditional root cellar here because the water table is too high. It helps that I can get both spring and fall crops of root and other vegetables in each year.
Greenhouses are about the only way to get an earlier start, but you are right, most of them around here are heated to keep them above freezing at night.
I agree, 16x8 is good sized, but we already had the hole there and just have to put up walls, dig an entry, and cover it up.
Always use what you have, if you have a hole in the ground, make a root cellar
The water table at my folks place is about 80 feet down, so no problems with damp there
I will still ventilate it, but I will also wire it for lights and so we can have a milkhouse heater in there in case of deep freeze because our frostline can be up to 6 feet deep, so even root cellars aren't immune to freezing here.
It is a unique set of challenges you face to live here alright.
Is Vegan meant for everyone, no. There are some who will be best served by not being vegans. I think its a question of what works for you.
Yup. My wife does very well on veggies and fruits. I fall flat on my face on that diet. I do better on meat and eggs. I tease her all the time, tell her I am a carnivorous predator, and she is an obvious grazer, so we really shouldn't be compatible.
Yup. My wife does very well on veggies and fruits. I fall flat on my face on that diet. I do better on meat and eggs. I tease her all the time, tell her I am a carnivorous predator, and she is an obvious grazer, so we really shouldn't be compatible.
LOL - non-competitive symbiosis, you probably wouldn't get along as well if you were fighting over the last drumstick
For people with short growing seasons, have you tried sprouting sprouts? They are power packed with nutrition. Something like only 4 oz of sprouted broccoli seeds has more nutrition than a dozen heads of broccoli or something like that.
For people with short growing seasons, have you tried sprouting sprouts? They are power packed with nutrition. Something like only 4 oz of sprouted broccoli seeds has more nutrition than a dozen heads of broccoli or something like that.
Yes, I sprout grains and greens for myself and for my livestock for a boost of "fresh" during the winter.
Since most seeds germinate in the dark, I can sprout even when we are reduced to only 3 hours of daylight without requiring fuel and power for supplemental light. And since seedlings don't require a ton of space or very high temperatures (40F for most), I can grow them indoors when it's -40F outside without encroaching on my living space or requiring additional fuel to heat a separate space.
I don't do sprouts, but I grow pumpkin and winter squash that will hold in the root cellar until nearly spring, as will turnips, parsnips, carrots, potatoes and rutabegas. Onions will hold pretty well to, but like potatoes, when spring comes you start to get sprouts.
Canning may not be "fresh", but it keeps the food value of plant material well, the onions and green peppers that I dehydrate taste just fine too. Some stuff like corn, green beans and peas freeze well.
Fruits are more delicate, but tomatoes can really well and berries like gooseberries/raspberries/serviceberry/buffalo berry/chokecherry all make great jams and jellies and freeze well.
Rhubarb is a staple for vitamin c as it grows well here and is not hard to can or freeze.
I am more of a northern type anyway so meat is my staple, I grow my own beef and my family raises pork, chicken and turkeys. I was raising rabbits for meat until a neighbor's rottweiler killed 60 in one night.
Up here, hunting is a way of life, so elk/bear/venison/grouse/pheasant/duck/goose/cottontail are readily available to someone with the skills to collect them, and meat cans/dries/smokes and freezes well too.
Providing a balanced diet and suffcient food for yourself isn't impossible, limiting yourself to one specific food group raises a lot of extra challenges, especially in places like where I live that have short growing seasons.
... limiting yourself to one specific food group raises a lot of extra challenges...
On a related note, I read an interesting article (I can't seem to find it now) the other day about "orthorexia." I'd never heard the term before, but I've known a few people over the years who definitely have this condition. It was interesting in that it pointed out a fairly common universal mentality/trait for our species (which is taking what is perhaps a viable idea to an inviable extreme) as applied to vegetarian (or any sort of) diet.
It gets to the point that by avoiding what these folks perceive to be "bad foods," they are essentially starving themselves to death, just as they would if they had anorexia. So, in essence, (assuming they are vegetarians, but that's not always the case) they have eliminated even most plant foods from their diet--no grains because of evil gluten; no rice, too many carbs; no potatoes, too much starch; no squash for whatever reason; no beets, bad for the liver; no this, no that... pretty soon they are trying to live off from celery sticks and lettuce alone. And in the process, they are starving themselves to death. They would have been better off and healthier eating big macs every day.
On a related note, I read an interesting article (I can't seem to find it now) the other day about "orthorexia." I'd never heard the term before, but I've known a few people over the years who definitely have this condition. It was interesting in that it pointed out a fairly common universal mentality/trait for our species (which is taking what is perhaps a viable idea to an inviable extreme) as applied to vegetarian (or any sort of) diet.
It gets to the point that by avoiding what these folks perceive to be "bad foods," they are essentially starving themselves to death, just as they would if they had anorexia. So, in essence, (assuming they are vegetarians, but that's not always the case) they have eliminated even most plant foods from their diet--no grains because of evil gluten; no rice, too many carbs; no potatoes, too much starch; no squash for whatever reason; no beets, bad for the liver; no this, no that... pretty soon they are trying to live off from celery sticks and lettuce alone. And in the process, they are starving themselves to death. They would have been better off and healthier eating big macs every day.
Yes, just like the people who exercise so much that they damage themselves; people become so obsessed with "eating healthy" that they become malnourished and emaciated. Limiting certain foods that are demonstrated to be problematic for you, and particularly limiting the serving sizes, is appropriate and sensible... but eliminating entire groups of food that do not cause you measurable bodily harm is just not healthy (not physically, and not mentally).
You have to be somewhat pragmatic about these things. For instance, I have a couple food allergies/sensitivities. I have eliminated the foods that cause severe reactions... just that food (ex: mangos & eggplant), not the entire food group or related food types (all tropical fruits and vegetables in the nightshade family). And I realize that some of the other foods that I have milder sensitivities to (corn, wheat) have important nutrients that I may or may not be able to obtain in other foods in those amounts... so I simply limit them so they aren't a huge component in my diet.
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