Winter Green

Paul Wiediger, owner of Au Naturel Farm near Smiths Grove, Ky., works in one of his high tunnels that allow him to grow greens year-round. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)

Story and Photos by Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork

A steaming plate of vegetarian strata–spinach, mushroom and artichoke hearts with cheese baked in homemade bread–is the special today.

The spinach was grown in Bowling Green soil and served at Greener Groundz Café– local food, from garden to plate.

It sprouted in November as one of the many crops grown throughout winter in high tunnels, a type of greenhouse, on Au Naturel farm in Smiths Grove, Ky. and at the O’Daniel farm, six miles outside of Bowling Green, on the Barren River.

“It’s easy to eat local in Bowling Green, even throughout winter,” said Paul Wiediger, who owns Au Naturel with his wife, Alison.

As the trees turned yellow and rusty-orange and the days got cooler and shorter, Paul, Alison and their seasonal intern, Emma Franklin, from Carrollton, Missouri, started waking up later.

“There is still work to be done, but it’s not as fast paced,” said Franklin.

The morning began at 7 a.m. with a breakfast of eggs, fresh from their chicken coop, as well as greens, potatoes and peppers from their own crops and cheese from a neighboring farm,

“For many, it is time to put their farms to sleep, but with our high tunnels we can grow year-round,” Paul Wiediger said.

The five plastic-covered tunnels totaling 10,000 square feet, house flourishing rows of greens, lettuce, spinach, kale, collards, beets and carrots planted for the winter months.

Heat from the sun is trapped beneath the plastic and heat the tunnels.

“They give us an element of control over the weather and allow us to have a steady cash flow throughout the winter months,” Paul Wiediger said.

Molly Kirby, co-owner of Greener Groundz Café, is dedicated to purchasing local cheese, wine, eggs, dairy and produce.

“We get the same amount of our food locally in the winter as we do in the summer,” she said. “And we buy it all from the O’Daniels or the Wiedigers.”

Greener Groundz adjusts its menu to the seasonal local produce being grown.

“We try to keep everything local,” she said. “The food is better for you and it tastes better. It’s good for the local economy.”

BG Green Partnership for a Sustainable Community hosted the second annual local dinner at Greener Groundz this year, a menu comprised of food grown within a 100-mile radius. Last year’s dinner was hosted at Verdi’s with food from a 50-mile radius.

BG Green is trying to educate on how to live sustainability and eat locally said Program Director Nancy Givens.

“Bowling Green has a terrific capacity for local produce and local producers,” she said. “There is so much being produced, but the consuming market has not supported it yet.”

October was the last month that the SKY Farmer’s Market at The Medical Center on the 31W bypass, to be open until spring.

When open, the market hosts 40 vendors during summer months but its attendance starts dwindling towards late October, down to 11 vendors and a few handfuls of customers. Most of the customers that do come out are there to pick up pre-orders from the Wiedigers or the O’Daniels, orders they call or email in.

Lexington senior Greg Capillo buys produce from the O’Daniels throughout the year.

“For one thing, I value eating local, and for another– it is so much easier and tastes so much better,” Capillo said.

“I have to be creative with what I’m cooking when I eat seasonally. It’s a more conscious way to eat and they care about me more than Krogers does.”

Each week, the O’Daniels send out an email listing products and prices. Capillo said he places an order and they deliver his order to his doorstep on Saturdays, leaving a self-addressed envelop for him to send payment.

Cauliflower, cabbage, radishes, mustard greens, spinach, arugula, turnips and Brussels sprouts are plants that thrive during winter months on the O’Daniel farm, Joe O’Daniel said.

He constructs about 7,700 square feet of high tunnels for each winter season. The plastic he can be used for up to five years and the tunnels pay for themselves in production.

“They are kind of labor intensive at first, but they give me a huge advantage because I can grow through winter and get an early start on spring growing,” O’Daniel said.

“With the tunnels, I can actually make a living farming. I can do what I love 12 months of every year.”

This winter will be the sixth winter that the O’Daniels have been growing in the high tunnels. Their food is grown naturally on their 116-acre farm located six miles outside of Bowling Green on the Barren River.

O’Daniel said each year he has been getting more customers during the winter. Last week he had 56 and this week, 48.

“There is a huge potential market here for fresh winter produce,” he said.

Their customer growth has been expanding mainly through word of mouth, O’Daniel said.

The O’Daniels and Wiedigers are, so far, the only farms in South Central Kentucky to grow with high tunnels.

“We’re the only ones with produce left in the winter,” said Wiediger.

“We have an advantage because we can grow all year and maintain our loyal customers,” said Wiediger.

The 84-acres of rolling hills on the Au Naturel farm contain, amongst the high tunnels and crops, are pastures for grass-fed cattle, sheep, chickens, turkeys and hogs.

Au Naturel also contacts their customers weekly to tell them what produce they offer at different times during the season.

“The average American is so removed from food production.

They don’t understand why we don’t have watermelon in April,” Wiediger said.

Both farms operate solely by pre-order throughout winter, once the market closes.

Au Naturel aims to be as self-sustaining as possible, Wiedeger said. “Everything I’ve eaten today has been off of the farm or from local farmers… except for a piece of chocolate.”

Alison Wiediger, who bought the farm 20 years ago, said their customers tell them their organic produce and meat taste distinctly better than that found in grocery stores.

“The tomatoes are soft and juicy, the chickens are coarse and flavorful… this is real food. It takes patience,” she said.

Paul Wiedeger and intern Franklin feed the livestock their second meal of the day as the sun sets. They close up the open windows of the tunnels and they collect the year’s last round of chickens to be processed and distributed.

“This is our life. We live food and we live produce,” said Wiedeger. “It doesn’t stop when the weather gets cold.”

Alison Wiediger, owner of Au Naturel Farm, and intern Emma Franklin hold two of the seven turkeys the farm raised this winter. (Colleen Stewart/Farm to Fork)