Winter Root Crops and Kimchi

When you live in a snowy and mountainous climate (such as Vermont) for much of the year, eating fresh, locally grown vegetables doesn't have to be a challenge if you plan ahead and borrow ideas from other cultures who live in a similar environment, such as Korea.

While New Englanders are proud of their ingenuity (some will call it stubbornness) other cultures are equally proud of their heritage and certainly traditional food is part of that equation. Koreans have an obsession with a type of spicy fermented cabbage they call kimchi. Traditionally made with Napa cabbage, kimchi was historically produced in autumn and preserved in clay pots buried for winter consumption.

It might be said the key to food sustainability is storage; the proper storage of root crops is vital if you wish to survive a long cold winter eating fresh vegetables that haven't been trucked hundreds of miles across the country.  In Vermont, a new generation of farmer is using specially designed greenhouses and root cellars to produce and preserve fresh vegetables, even when the ground is covered in snow.  I recently took a trip to Cabot, Vermont to visit just such a place, the Blackwell Roots Farm owned by Lee Blackwell, and his wife Ruth.

The Blackwell Roots Farm, located on 4-acre hillside farmstead originally settled in the 1800s, specializes in certified organic winter storage vegetables and produce sauerkraut and kimchi. They primarily sell wholesale to regional co-ops and organic food stores, but can be found at the Montpelier Winter Farmers Market on the first and third Saturdays of the month, December through April.

Produce for sale at the Montpelier Winter Farmer's Market.

Their largest crops are carrots and various cabbage and beets which are harvested in October through mid-November, as well as squash, potato, parsnip, turnips, onions, leeks, radish, daikon, garlic, ginger, pepper and celeriac, which is celery root.

The farm comprises an insulated multipurpose barn structure built into the side of hill, three greenhouses, plus a chicken coop. The barn includes a hay loft and machinery storage on the top floor plus a small livestock stable which leads out to an upper pasture.

The ground floor of the barn houses the produce tumbler and packaging area, a large refrigerated walk-in storage room for carrots, beets and celeriac, several smaller cooler rooms for potatoes, cabbage, rutabaga and a fermentation room. In a separate room, the sauerkraut and kimchi are produced using a lacto fermentation process.

Spicy tasting and funky smelling, it takes approximately 13 days to produce kimchi; the national dish of Korea. And I promise, with just one spoonful, you'll get hooked on what some have called "the crack" of cabbage.                                      Photo: Francis Moran

Squash and garlic are stored together in separate room kept at a temperature in the mid-50s and at 50% humidity. Carrots, parsnips, beets, celeriac, daikon, rutabaga and cabbage are kept refrigerated very cold and very moist at between 32-38 degrees and 90-98% humidity.

Potatoes are kept cold and very moist at 40 degrees and 90 – 98% humidity in complete darkness, while onions are kept dry but even colder at between 32-38 degrees and not over 75% humidity, and also in darkness. All that refrigeration requires power but the farm currently generates 30% of their electricity from solar panels.

Lee also showed me the winter greens in grows in one of the greenhouses; Mache and Claytoni from France which have more vitamins than spinach. He explained how winter spinach is sweeter than summer spinach because of the higher sugar content in the leaves as a result of the diminished daylight hours.