As you gear up for the harvest season, you are no doubt getting excited to taste the fruits of your labor, especially if you are new to organic gardening. But you need to start thinking about what you are going to do with all that produce. It just isn’t feasible to plan on eating it all the first week, and letting it all go to waste is a waste of your time. You need to start thinking about preservation. Knowing how to make your fruits and vegetables last is a crucial skill for any home gardener.

But where to start? Well, you have quite a few options and many gardeners find ways to make their harvest last throughout the year.

One of the simplest ways to stretch out your harvest is to know how long you can wait to harvest particular crops. Root vegetables are really resistant to a frost and some can be left in the ground all the way to the following spring and dug up as they are needed. Some, such as carrots, brussel sprouts, and cabbage, will even taste better after some exposure to the colder weather.

This is referred to as wintering over, and it is very location specific. In particularly cold climates where freezing occurs in the winter, you can apply thick layers of mulch to keep the crops from being damaged. Usually seed packets give some idea of when it is best to harvest, but by talking to more experienced organic gardeners in your area you can get a better idea about what is realistic for your climate.

Freezing is a great, simple method of preservation that takes very little know-how. Bag up fruits and berries and you can blend them with organic juices later to make delicious smoothies without the ice. Better for you and better tasting. Keep in mind what you will be doing with the items later. You might want to chop up bulkier vegetables and fruits first depending on what you need them for. Bigger fruits, for instance, are a lot easier to blend later if you chop them into smaller pieces.

Also, a lot of vegetables will need to undergo a quick process called blanching before you throw them in the freezer. Blanching is a cooking technique in which you scald the vegetables in a pot of boiling water and then put it in cold water immediately after. This stops the production of enzymes which might otherwise cause the produce to continue growing and develop a strange taste in the freezer. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a list of blanching times for different vegetables of different sizes.

Canning is perhaps the most well known method of preservation, but many amateur gardeners are overwhelmed by what they see as a very complicated process. It really is not too complex, and people have been doing this for years so it is easy to find information.

Canned produce can last for years. This is particularly a great idea for prepared products, such as pasta sauces or jams. It is nice to just grab a jar of sauce out of the pantry when you want to make some dinner rather than running to the store or preparing something from scratch. The HomeCanning.com offers some great advice for getting started. (homecanning.com)

Drying, or dehydration, is another well known form of preservation that works especially well for herbs and fruits. Dried fruits make an excellent snack. The process of dehydration, whether using a fancy dehydrating machine or more traditional methods, removes the moisture from fruits and vegetables so bacteria can?t grow and cause the produce to spoil. It is usually best to use special recipes on the fruits to preserve a more high quality product and add more flavor. Click here for a simple guide to drying and dehydrating foods.

Another effective preservation tool is a root cellar. These have been used for a long time as well, and you don?t necessarily have to have a big elaborate cellar built for the purpose. You just need to create a similar environment with high humidity and very cool temperatures. Earth-House.com has a great list of resources about root cellaring.

We all know fruits and veggies are best when you pluck them straight from the vine and dice them up, but unfortunately we have no say about what is in season and when. So make the most of your harvest. Stretch it out and turn it into the resource it is supposed to be. The information is out there, you just have to put in a little effort and put it all to use.

At the University of New Hampshire, my Soils Science teacher, Art LeClair, turned me on to solar energy. He was my favorite teacher – enthusiastic, intelligent, knowledgeable, experimental, fun and funny. I naturally absorbed what he conveyed.

On a winter field trip, our Soils class visited Solar Survival in Harrisville, NH. This was the home and lab of Leandre and Gretchen Poisson, authors of ‘Solar Gardening: Growing Vegetables Year-Round the American Intensive Way.’ They grew food all winter in frigid, frozen, snowed-in northern New England using solar pods, which they developed.

A solar pod is a 4′x8′ cold frame surrounded on the outside with rigid foam insulation and buried partially in the ground. The lid is not a piece of glass or an old window, like a typical cold frame. It is an arch of two layers of KalwallR greenhouse glazing with Angel Hair, a fine and translucent, yet heavy duty, insulation, sandwiched in between.

The thermal mass inside the pod is a black 55-gallon drum filled with water and laid on its side at the north end. During the day, the water absorbs the sun’s heat and slowly radiates it back out over night.

This photo is a series of pods lined up end to end. You can see the drum laying on its side at the far end of the front pod.

The translucence of the insulation is key. It must transmit enough solar energy in low-light winter for healthy plant growth and to warm the water in the drum to a high enough temperature that it can radiate heat on a cold New Hampshire night.

My friend, Hugh, and I partnered up in lab to build a solar pod. We didn’t get to grow anything in it, but witnessing that process at Solar Survival was proof enough that it worked. After that field trip and construction project, I was completely sold on solar energy!

Art shared another source of information with us, a book by Rick Fisher and Bill Yanda of Zomeworks in Santa Fe, New Mexico, called ‘The Food and Heat Producing Solar Greenhouse.’ It was published in 1980 and already out of print the following year. Solar hadn’t caught on yet, so I guess it was not deemed an important book. I tracked down a copy, though (remember, this was way before Amazon and used books!), and studied it as though I was having an exam on it. I now have a dog-eared copy, which I repeatedly refer to, because, like I said last week, solar principles never change.

After that semester at UNH, my love for solar construction and New Mexico was burgeoning.

(Glazing and insulation materials to build Poisson’s solar pod and solar cones are available from Solar Components, www.solar-components.com/sun.html)

In these challenging economic times, it can often be difficult to justify the expense of organic foods. Everyday items like milk, eggs, vegetables and meat are already pricey, and adding the USDA Certified Organic label jacks prices even higher. For those of us who have to stretch fewer dollars further than we ever thought possible, the organic option seems fully out-of-reach. After all, when it comes down to affording organic, free-range beef or affording 5 nights worth of dinners, it’s obvious that the organic option is simply irrelevant.

The option of eating organically grown goods however, should not be determined by the (often elevated) costs associated with organic food. One reason organic goods are so expensive is that in order to become a certified organic producer, you have to spend a significant amount of time and money to establish the organic integrity of your goods. It’s not easy to become a certified organic supplier, and those who attain this status certainly deserve ample compensation for their efforts.

So what can we do to make organic goods accessible to everyone? On one hand we have a huge group of consumers who may want to eat organically but who, at least in the short term, simply cannot afford to do so. On the other hand we have an already financially struggling group of farmers who are committed to growing organic goods, but who also have mortgages, loans, bills and their own groceries to buy- they can’t afford to drop the extra costs associated with growing organic goods.

Clearly I don’t have the million dollar answer to this complex dilemma – there are all kinds of organizations and special interest groups whose positions need to be considered, and true systematic change to the process of producing organic goods has to include the reformation of agribusiness and agricultural legislation at the Congressional and/or Executive level within the government. Perhaps farmers who go organic shouldn’t have to pay to do so – perhaps organic producers should get tax breaks, subsidies and government assistance for their efforts… It may sound crazy now, but someday soon the powers that be may wake up and realize it’s time to produce the nation’s food in a more sustainable manner.

In the meantime, I’d like to offer some suggestions on how you can incorporate organic (or even less processed) foods into your family’s meals. There are all kinds of people and businesses out there who are growing, cooking, and selling foods that, while they may not necessarily be stamped with the USDA Certified Organic label, are still grown using few (if any) pesticides or chemicals, are locally produced, and are just as healthy (and tasty) as certified organic goods.

1. Buy vegetables, fruit, eggs, herbs, wine and meat at your local farmer’s market. Farmer’s markets are popping up all over the place these day, and chances are excellent that there’s at least one near you. While not all of the items found at a farmer’s market are organic, goods do tend to be produced using fewer toxins than do similar items found in your grocery store. And if you really want to know how the food for sale has been grown, just ask the farmers! Farmer’s markets are also great places if you want to eat seasonally-appropriate and completely fresh foods given that most of the items for sale are grown within 50-100 miles of the markets.

2. Grow your own! I know that not everyone has the time or space for a full-scale vegetable garden, but that doesn’t mean everyone can’t grow something they love. If you’re limited by space, try growing fresh herbs in small pots on your window sill. Herbs (especially organic herbs) are expensive to purchase, but easy to grow. You can also plant all kinds of veggies in containers and have a healthy harvest of lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and other food all summer. If you have the space for a large garden, just go for it! Growing food is one of the most satisfying things you can do, and when you harvest the fruits of your labors, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing your food is truly organic.

3. Shop at local farm stands. The growing season where I live in New England is relatively short, but that doesn’t stop our local farmers from putting out all the stops and stocking their stands with an abundance of fresh, local goods from late spring to late fall. And while not all of the farms in this region are organic, you can always find a selection of fresh foods grown by people from your community. If you have questions about what you’re buying from a farm stand, you can actually talk to the people who grew it, and come to understand how and why they grow their food.

4. Buy organic goods selectively. I can’t always afford all of the organic food that I’d like, so instead I buy what matters the most to me. This means that I always have organic eggs, cream and yogurt, and I sometimes have organic meat, produce and snacks. By educating yourself as to the ins and outs of what goes into your favorite foods, you can prioritize how to spend your organic dollars, and compromise on your food choices. Think about what foods you eat the most, who in your family eats which foods, and how these foods are impacted when produced using pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals. By understanding how different foods are impacted and altered by these additives, you can decide when things have to be organic and when they can be otherwise.

5. Buy a share in a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Sometimes farms won’t sell food at farmer’s markets or via a farm stand, and will instead participate in a CSA. By purchasing a share in a CSA, you show your financial support to a farmer, and they use your money to grow food all season. Each week you’re rewarded with a ’share’ of the farm’s crops, and the farmer is able to feed their community without breaking the bank. Again, when purchasing food direct from a farm, you may not always get organic goods, but you buy food grown in your community and invest your money in a local farm.

Eating healthy, seasonal, local organic food doesn’t have to be a luxury only the wealthy can afford. We all deserve to eat food that nurtures and sustains our bodies, and there are plenty of options out there that allow us to do so. And while it may not be as easy to go to the farm stand or join a CSA as it is to go to the grocery store and buy what’s there, the benefits you reap from eating that which is grown by people you know – people who live in and are vested in your community – far outweigh the benefits of picking up cheap goods from a faceless corporation.

Happy eating!

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For the past few months now I’ve been working toward starting an agricultural business that will be powered by alternative energy, restored to meet green certification standards, and managed with the goal of achieving profitability through sustainable business practices. In order to understand what’s really involved in building a green business, I’ve spent all of my time learning about other organic businesses, researching alternative energy technologies, tracking down grants, loans and funding options, and pitching my project to anyone who would listen.

By centering my business around the concept of long-term environmental sustainability, I am standing up to the status quo, and making a statement that I will not compromise when it comes to doing what’s right by the environment. I know that building a green business from scratch isn’t cheap – I’ve done the research, and I know that it will cost me more to build sustainability into my business than it would were I to throw those philosophies aside.

Money isn’t everything, and I believe that by doing what’s good and what’s right, I can succeed and build the business of my dreams. And while I do understand the practical realities involved in starting a business, buying a farm, and installing all kinds of energy projects, I’m also learning that there are organizations out there who are dedicated to helping people like me grow these kinds of businesses.

A few weeks ago I received a message from a young man named Owen. In his message, Owen introduced himself, explained that he worked for a company called NativeEnergy, and stated that he had been given my business card at the Craft Brewer’s Convention a few weeks earlier. I had been at the Craft Brewer’s Convention (part of the business I am developing is a commercial hop farm), but didn’t recall meeting Owen, and had never heard of NativeEnergy.

Our "test crop" of hops.

NativeEnergy, I’ve since learned, is a carbon-solutions consulting company that helps business reduce their carbon footprint by selling carbon offsets and renewable energy credits, and also by investing in companies that want to install renewable energy projects. Having heard of my plan from my Development Officer (aka “mom”), Owen contacted me to learn more about my project and offer ideas on how NativeEnergy and I could work together.

Founded in 2001, NativeEnergy is based out of Burlington, Vermont, and has helped well-know companies, including Stonyfield Farm, Timberland, and The Dave Matthews Band, to install renewable energy projects and offset carbon emissions. The company helps businesses understand their options when it comes to creating carbon neutral projects, and points organizations in the directions they need when it comes to the early development of their plans. At the same time, NativeEnergy works with carbon emitting businesses to help them offset their carbon pollution.

Since receiving that initial message from Owen, I’ve had 2 productive conversations about my business, NativeEnergy’s initiatives, and what I can do moving forward to try and develop my renewable energy projects to line up with NativeEnergy’s model. And even though I’m still in the early stages of building my business (I don’t even own land yet), the people I’ve talked to have been helpful, enthusiastic and eager to see me succeed. It amazes me that there is a business out there who contacted me, who wants to help me, and who may eventually play a role in actually financing my dream!

When I realized that I had to build this farm, and do it in the greenest manner possible, I empowered myself to challenge the way business has always been done, and make change happen from the bottom up.? So even though I don’t have a farm yet, I’ve already invested time and energy in figuring out what I need to make my farm sustainable. Building a business like this – with a mind to what REALLY matters – is a win-win situation. By planning for the long-term health of the earth and environment, I think that I am planning for the long-term success of my business and my vision.

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