[upbeat folk music]
- Inga: I traveled to Duluth, Minnesota
to pick up some fresh greens
from the Denfeld Deep Winter Greenhouse.
Deep winter greenhouses are passive solar structures
that concentrate energy from the sun
to maintain a favorable temperature for growing plants,
even on the coldest days of the year.
They use a specially-angled south-facing wall
to harness the solar energy that heats the air inside.
Vertical rows of hanging plant beds
ensure that the small space inside
is used efficiently
for an abundant yield of delicious, leafy greens.
This greenhouse has become a local source of lettuces,
herbs, brassicas, greens, and sprouts
that are grown fresh year-round.
I couldn't wait to see how it's possible
to grow these fresh greens
in the middle of a cold, Midwestern winter.
I've made it to Duluth, Minnesota;
we're right downtown, and in the midst of the snowstorm
while everyone's digging out, I'm happy to go in
and see greens growing in the greenhouse.
Hi, Brandon! - Welcome, Inga!
- Thanks for waiting outside for me.
- Of course; well, welcome to the Deep Winter Greenhouse
here in Duluth.
- Oh, I'm excited to be here and see inside.
I am cold today.
- Well, it's a little warmer in there.
- So tell me a little bit about what you guys do
for the community here. - The greenhouse here
is operated by Community Action Duluth,
and we grow mainly greens throughout the winter,
and then we sell 'em at two of our farmers' markets
that we have. - And what's the goal?
- The main goal is that these areas
are both USDA food deserts in urban settings,
and so we bring food directly into those neighborhoods
and sell them at our farmers' markets.
- For folks who don't know what a food desert is,
can you explain that?
- In rural areas, it's usually if you don't have something
within five miles of you, and in urban areas,
I believe it's within one mile.
- Okay, so it's just providing fresh foods?
- Providing fresh food directly to people
that may not have transportation ability
to get to grocery stores. - Right.
How are you still growing greens in this climate,
in this temperature?
- As you can see here, we have a building
and it's facing directly south,
and you can see, as a greenhouse,
that angle looks a little steep.
And that's because our sun is so low in the winter
that allows the maximum use of sun.
- So it's a lot warmer in there? - It's a lot warmer in there.
- Well, I'm gonna head in there,
'cause my little tushy is gonna freeze right off.
So thanks, nice to see you. - Nice to see you.
[gentle folksy music]
- Hi, Gian!
- Hey, Inga, welcome to the greenhouse.
- Nice to see you. - Yeah, you too.
- Well, I'd love to see all the different things
you have going on here.
Can you show me around? - Sure, let's do a tour.
- These look familiar.
- Yeah, so this is a brassica mixture.
You can see there's a mizuna in there, you know,
you've got your little kales, some kohlrabi here,
probably some non-heading broccoli in there.
- Nice; this is the way I like to eat my brassicas,
especially if I have my nephews around,
because if you put a big hunk of kale in front of them,
they're never gonna sit at the table.
But this way, it still has that great flavor and nutrition,
and they wanna eat it.
- Yep, it's fresh and very nutrient-dense.
- Well, what's one of your favorite things
you've got growing?
- So I do really like the collards here.
Collard greens is one that a lot of people
in the community have-- - Inga: Really?
- Gion: Through surveys and stuff,
communicated that they want people to grow it for them.
- Yeah, I always think of collards
as, like, a Southern food but, yeah, nice.
- Gion: So this right here is a wasabi arugula.
- Inga: So wasabi, that's something that we would use
when we're dipping our sushi into with a little soy sauce?
- Yep, and yeah, a lot of the times at restaurants,
they'll use just horseradish that's been dyed green to--
'cause wasabi is very expensive.
- Wow, woo!
- So yeah, anything that... - It's got that kick.
- Packs that punch is an excellent crop to grow.
- It's good though.
Can we gather some?
I'd love to take some of this home,
but I'm cooking for my nephews,
and I think that they would be, uh...
- Absolutely.
- They wouldn't love it with their little palates,
but maybe we can get some lettuces or something?
- Yeah, totally.
- Wow, there's a lot of greens here.
- This is mizuna here.
- And will all these go into a mix then,
to be sold to the farmers' market?
- So I have done mixes in the past, you know,
mixing a salad mix of just spinach and lettuce
and you throw in a brassica.
Definitely some people like to have just the one thing.
There's kale people out there that want nothing but kale.
- Those kale people. - Yeah. [both laughing]
- Do you have to keep thinking about when you're gonna reseed
or how, when you harvest it, what do you do?
Do you throw everything else in the compost and replant it?
- A lot of the hardy stuff will just come right back.
So this mizuna, I can just cut the whole top off of it,
and then it'll sprout right back.
- Right, okay. - For a second cutting.
- It must make you feel good
that you're growing nutritious food
for those people in your community,
and especially for those people who don't have the opportunity
to go to the Whole Foods and things like that.
- As a program, we've made it our mission
to battle the effects of poverty.
All of our prices at the farmers' market
are set to reflect that.
We don't ever sell things for more than they're worth.
We always sell things a little bit below
so that we can get the food to the people
that need it the most.
- I love what you've done here.
It seems like... It's warm in here,
there's not a lot of technology here, is that right?
- No, this is all sun power.
So the panes behind me, each one acts as a prism
and maximizes the sunlight that comes in.
- Inga: Wow. So that's the only heat source?
- Yep, when the sun comes in,
it heats it up, and then that warms the greenhouse
to get through the night.
- Inga: Well, this has been so fun.
I'd love to be able to harvest some things with you
for my frittatas.
[upbeat folk music]