Living The Good Life With Helen And Scott Nearing

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We further extended our growing season by a small sun-heated greenhouse in which we wintered many plants and started others for spring planting. The south wall of our tool shed was 18 feet long ... just enough to accommodate six cold frame sash, 3 X 6 feet. The tool shed, like all of our buildings, was made of stone. This gave us a south-facing stone wall against which we built a concrete and wood structure that held the six cold frame sash in a semi-horizontal position. On mild, sunny days in winter, with no stove or artificial heating, the temperature inside this sun-heated greenhouse went up to 100° unless we ventilated it.

We designed the place for raising celery, tomato, lettuce, and other transplants for the garden. One October. however, we set out oak leaf lettuce plants, six inches apart. The lettuce had been sown outside early in September and transplanted to the pit greenhouse in mid-October; thus it had been hardened by early frosts. We continued to eat this lettuce until January 5th, and felt richly rewarded for our pains. We had almost bridged the winter gap in garden-fresh vegetables. We had not dreamed that lettuce would last so long in an unheated greenhouse under sub-zero weather conditions.

The next autumn we cleared two inches of soil from the back bench, replaced it by two inches of good compost, worked it lightly into the undersoil, and set out eighty-eight heads of oak leaf lettuce plants from the garden. They were then about two inches high. As the plants grew, we scattered leaves among them to pro tect the roots against frost. We lost only two of the lettuce plants. The remainder we ate through the winter ... the last of them the following May. On two occasions that winter the thermometer touched 25° below zero.

The winter after that we tried Simpson lettuce instead of oak leaf, with no leaves for mulch. Same result: lettuce until May. At the same time we included chives and parsley plants that had been growing all summer in the garden. These were equally successful. We had found an all-winter source of fresh greens. Had the greenhouse been roomy enough, we believe that we could have grown mustard greens, garden cress, leaf chicory, and turnip greens all winter with equal success.

For a large part of the winter the top and sides of this unheated greenhouse were covered with snow. With the sun blocked from entering and the temperature down to 250 below zero we often found the lettuce frozen stiff. When cut under these conditions, it wilted immediately upon being brought into the house. Even plunging in cold water failed to revive it. However, if we left it uncut and waited for a warmer day or a bit of sun, the lettuce thawed out itself and stood in the greenhouse, crisp and edible.

The food we produced organically during the regular May to October growing season kept us in good health. Then came the next question, how to make this fresh, delicious, health-giving food available throughout the year without benefit of icebox, refrigerator, or freezing unit.

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