So maybe a hoop HOUSE isn’t the first thing you’d think of relating to hoops at this time of year, but it should be (all love and respect to UK basketball aside!)
A hoop house is basically a low-tech greenhouse, one that uses passive solar energy to get a jump on the growing season, helping seeds to grow into warm, nourished seedlings to later be put into open fields, or even to extend the growing season in winter by shielding established plants from the harsher winter conditions.
A sample hoop house
It’s our hope that Seedleaf will be building one of these fantastic structures downtown in the near future, but in the meantime, what better way to experience the process than to help someone else build theirs (read, make your mistakes on someone else’s project!).
Enter Jeremy and Karissa Porter and their heroic farming efforts for Eden’s Gate CSA.
Located on a picturesque piece of land just beyond Midway, Jeremy kicked off his CSA later in the growing season of 2009, but he’s ramping up in a big way for the 2010 season. As part of this effort, he organized a group of friends and family to help build his inaugural hoop house.
Think of it like a traditional barn raising, with perhaps a few more unknowns, a lot less experience, but no less determination and fun!
We gathered this past Saturday in the morning, each of us anxious to learn about the process and hopeful to lend a helping hand. It wasn’t our intention to complete the structure, but we got a great start.
While it started frosty, with the ground frozen solid, it wasn’t long before we’d worked the 20 foot by 50 foot area of land into a muddy mess. We hope we left more dirt in the field then we took home on our boots! But all in all, it was a terrific experience and the camaraderie throughout warmed the mood long before the temperatures followed suit. Not the mention the hearty home cooked meal of beans and cornbread they fed us!
Alas, I couldn’t stay for the entire day, but I left not only with the pleasure of having helped in the creation of the hoop house, but charged with excitement as I envisioned the future for this chosen patch of sheltered land.
Don’t worry though, there will be plenty more opportunities for you to get involved, both with Jeremy’s effort and for Seedleaf’s hoop house in town.
Stay tuned, but in the meantime, take a peek at these videos to give you just a taste of what it what the day involved.
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