Extending the Season
Farmers and gardeners in every region have ways to extend the growing season. Kitchen gardeners have used cloches (glass bells put over tender plants to ward off the cold), cold frames (south-facing raised beds protected against the cold) and greenhouses. Many organic farmers now use poly-tunnels (which function as portable greenhouses) that allow them to get crops in the ground sooner and extend the end of the season. We can also continue to
savor seasonal bounty by pre- serving the harvest. Farm wives and gardeners who understand the realities of feast and famine, glut and scarcity turn excess yields into what they call “val- ue-added products.” Cucumbers become pickles; basil mixes into pesto; tomatoes provide a base for salsa. They also freeze fresh, whole berries on cookie sheets, then move them to containers to store in the freezer. Local state agriculture extension ser- vices offer free detailed infor- mation about preserving foods.
around the same time that cowboys were herding longhorn cattle from Texas along the Chisholm Trail to rail- yards in Abilene, Kan- sas.) The Mennonites brought bags of turkey red winter wheat seeds that helped transform the wild prairie into the cultivated “breadbas- ket” it is today.
In a similar fash- ion, Italian families coming to California brought their love of wine to a hilly region that benefited from moisture granted by the fog rolling in from the Pacific. They knew how to make the most of a climate with a spring rainy season followed by a dry summer—great conditions for growing wine grapes.
Good for Us Food
Foods naturally suited to their environment grow better, taste bet- ter and are packed with more nutrients, reports Sustainable Table, an educational nonprofit working to build healthy communities through sustainable eating habits (SustainableTable. org). When grown and consumed locally, foods escape the degradation of being irradiated for longer shelf life. When they come from organic farms, they’re also grown without pesticides and herbicides.
Bauer uses regional Midwestern ingredi- ents—including organic milk from grass-fed cows, local goat cheese, foraged wild foods and organic berries— for Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. “We couldn’t believe the difference in flavor in milk from grass-fed versus grain- fed cows,” she says. “It’s because grass-fed cows produce milk with more conjugated linoleic acid, a cancer-fighting compound, as well as healthful omega-3 fatty acids.” Local examples such as hers illustrate the larger truth.
“Indian beliefs are the same and different [from one another]. For us, the sacred food is salmon; for the Plains Indians it was buffalo; in the Southwest it was corn. We all see food as part of our religion, but different foods give us our strengths… if we move about from place to place, we become separate from our sacred foods; we become weak.”
Consider also that milk from dairy cattle raised in areas where they can eat grass for most of the year has a better flavor and contains more beneficial nutrients than milk from grain-fed cows. Jeni Britton
22 NA Pensacola/FWB Emerald Coast
~ Louie H. Dick, Jr. of Oregon’s Umatilla tribe in “Water is a Medicine that Can Touch Your Heart” from Native Heritage: Personal Accounts by American Indians 1790 to the Present, edited by Arlene Hirschfelder
Good for Our Community
Growing and eating regional foods is equally beneficial for our com- munities. According to Larry West, a writer for E/The Environmental Magazine, most farm- ers on average receive only 20 cents of each food dollar spent on what they produce. The remaining profit gets consumed by trans- portation, processing, packaging, refrigeration and marketing costs when their crops travel far and wide. Farmers who choose to sell their foods to local customers see a better return on their investment. When neighbors choose to eat locally, it supports local agriculture and encour- ages continued use of area land for farms, keeping development in check while preserving open space.
There are even more benefits.
Research by Duncan Hilchey, a senior extension associate at Cornell Universi-
www.emcoast.naturalawakeningsmag.com
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