by Omar Elsharkawy, CFICE Admin RA
We have to part ways with the warm weather at some point. Usually by November at the latest, plants will die off聽and we will have聽to wait until April to start growing our favorite fruits, vegetables, and herbs outside again. But just because our crops aren’t growing outdoors during the winter doesn’t mean we can’t continue to enjoy the fruits of our labour.聽Through some careful planning and effort, you can try out聽some of these food preservation and indoor growing techniques to continue enjoying your favourite food聽throughout聽the winter months.
Using Your Harvest
Baby tomatoes begin to grow in an outdoor community garden. 漏Jeffrey Horopw
If you have too much produce聽come harvest season and you’re afraid it will聽go to waste, consider canning it. I usually collect my excess tomatoes at the end of harvest season and turn them into salsa to be canned. This summer, I鈥檒l be learning to can dill pickles! Canning is fairly easy to learn, however, it鈥檚 recommended you learn from a professional because a bad canning job can lead to botulism, a particularly nasty form of food poisoning. Often, food co-ops and community centers will offer canning workshops. In Ottawa, offers canning workshops, and in Toronto, the hosts a number of different workshops on storing food for the winter. Your community probably offers them too. Just try Googling “canning workshop” and some results are sure to pop up.
Don’t want to can your excess produce? Why not donate it instead? Some food banks will accept fresh produce donations, but be sure to call and ask ahead of time. You could also share your produce with friends and family, and potentially partake in the delicious delicacies they create. If you have some fruit or nut trees and aren’t particularly interested in the work of harvesting all your excess produce, consider calling up an organization like . During the summer and fall, they聽organize harvest events where they send volunteers to collect your excess bounty. They then divide the harvest four ways, with聽1/4 each going to the nearest food agency, the homeowner, the volunteer harvesters, and Hidden Harvest Ottawa.
Extending the Growing Season
Tomatoes thriving under a grow light during the winter months. 漏Etienne Lefebvre 2015
The most common and easiest聽technique for extending the growing season into the winter is to simply move your plants, or start new plants, indoors in big pots. The key to success for indoor planting is to choose plants that do not need much space, sunlight, or high temperatures to grow. 鈥淲indowsill鈥� tomatoes are ones that can grow indoors and typically do not need as much sunlight. Some herbs also do really well indoors. Due to the short days in winter, it is recommended that you purchase a grow light for聽best results. Make sure to get an energy efficient grow light since聽sometimes they use a lot of energy, which isn’t exactly environmentally friendly. If used excessively or incorrectly, grow lights could also increase your energy bill to the point where growing your own vegetables to save money on groceries is no longer economically sustainable.
Another technique for indoor gardening that is rising in popularity is hydroponics. Hydroponic systems are systems that rely only on water, nutrients, and light (usually artificial light in winter) instead of using soil. Hydroponic systems are great when you are planning to grow a large amount of plants. A growing trend nowadays is for people to convert their basements into a space聽that houses hydroponic systems. 聽provides聽a great step by step guide on starting a hydroponic system. IKEA has also put out on indoor hydroponics.
Whether you’re planning to make the most of your summer gardening efforts, or hoping to extend your growing season, garden supplies are easiest to find in the spring. So be sure to purchase all the equipment you’ll need now to save yourself the stress and expense of trying to find the proper equipment in the fall.
Happy gardening!
This piece is part of CFICE鈥檚 4-part series on community gardening.
Additional Resources:
A Video on聽Canning Salsa
A wiki on growing tomatoes indoors