During the Winter Hunger Gap, Nature Quietly Renews the Soil

"The biggest challenge of a regenerative farmer is getting fresh food to customers year round," says Dan, co-owner of a biodiverse vegetable farm, Local Harvest. He's standing in his field, surrounded by flourishing vegetables, but also by some that are wilted and returning to the earth.

Farming in tune with the cycles of nature means coming to terms with the hardest season: winter. Vegetables go out of season when they freeze and wilt in the fields. Before mass transit, once the field froze you'd have to rely on your preserves and root cellar, plus year-round food like meat, dairy, and eggs. Customers are now accustomed to getting whatever they want year round, so the reduction in options can be hard to communicate. Purchases naturally go down as there's less to sell.

Dan says that the need to relearn how to cook simple vegetable dishes from scratch. And we need to reintroduce hardy winter crops into our diets. It will enable us to receive complex nutrients year round, keeping our bodies healthy throughout a time of year where we're vulnerable to colds and flus. The nutrient-dense content of regeneratively grown winter vegetables supply us with vitamins, minerals, and anti-oxidants. 

Beyond the health benefits to our bodies, the winter season plays a vital role on the regenerative farm. It's a time to let the land rest and receive nutrients. Plants decompose and bring fertility into the soil. Cover crops protect the microscopic life in the soil while pulling in available nitrogen for future seedlings. Cold snaps can kill of a number of pests that could target next year's crop.

Food that can't be sold to people are given to livestock over the winter. Farm animals like cows and pigs process the food into healthy meat for us while also leaving manure to help the soil even more. Strategic livestock management is crucial to regenerative farming.