Peter Willliams

I found this site which is aimed more at commercial growing, but has some interesting information, https://extension.umn.edu/growing-systems/deep-winter-greenhouses

I expected to find Pigeons and Quails in the critters section - almost nothing. Why? At the beginning of the 20th century, pigeons were almost a staple in the USA. Quails, especially Japanese quails were a delicacy in the 1990s. What happened?

Do an internet search for Rabbit Recipes. My favourite is Rabbit Cacciatore, like Chicken Cacciatore, only better. Don't cook at too high a temperature. long and slow is better. Crock pots/slow cookers are ideal for rabbit. Remember that even domestic rabbits have very little fat compared to other meats and is mostly sub-cutaneous. If pan frying use a lot of butter, lard or oil. The lack of fat in muscles is what led to "rabbit starvation". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

I have search the forums and haven't found a specific topic for this. https://permies.com/t/143303/perennial-vegetables/Cold-hardy-perennial-vegetables inspired my topic, but it is very specific.

Whilst I grew up in Australia on the East coast, mostly in Sydney and South of Brisbane, my family lives in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia - Latitude 57° N, Köppen Dfb-Dfc. Over the past 20 years I have seen Summers where +30C is common and Winters of -30C are also common. Heavy snow in September, followed by an Indian summer in October, November, is not unheard of.

Normal Summer crops here are potatoes, carrots, cabbages, beetroot, onions, garlic, sunflowers, corn, Brussel sprouts, tomatoes, cucumbers and a wide variety of herbs and berries. Berries and fungi are also foraged. Some crops get an early start through cold frames, tomatoes and cucumbers especially. Watermelons and pumpkins are grown on waste ground. Imported fruits and vegetables are widely available, mostly from the 'Stans, South America or Turkey. I can buy bananas here cheaper than in Australia.

However, in Winter, I cannot get good salad greens easily. Pickled vegetables are readily available and I love them. But man cannot live by bread and pickles alone. Fresh fruit is also expensive, and often of poor quality du to long transport times.

We now grow sprouts and grow greens from vegetable tops on the windowsills. Carrots and beetroot are good for this. I want my grandchildren to have a varied and healthy diet. They "hate" vegetables. Unfortunately for them, I hide vegetables in almost everything I cook. The meatloaf that they love so much, cups of grated vegetables and cooked buckwheat, bound with eggs.

Anyhow, I'd like tis to be a thread about growing food in USDA Zones 1-4. I'd love for this old dog to learn new tricks.

Colorado beetles will attack anything in the Solanum family, so tomatoes and capsicums and chillies will also be attacked. As our growing season is too short for sweet potatoes to form edible tubers, I only grow them for leaves, and Colorado beetles have never attacked them. In fact by growing barriers of non Solanum crops between potatoes, you can greatly reduce the beetles.

Nasturtiums are quite hardy, leaves and flowers are edible with a nice peppery taste. Young seeds can be pickled to produce a caper substitute. There are some new red flowered varieties that brighten a salad up nicely. They die-off from frost and snows but germinate as soon as snow cover has melted.

Coriander and dill are other crops that survive in Uralskaya/Far Western Siberia. Strawberries are another hardy fruit that most people ignore, especially the wild forest or field strawberries. The fruit is only the size of a pea, but it is so flavoursome.

People also forget that onions and garlic can be sprouted in late winter for salad greens. It's very common in my daughters' part of Russia to sprout them for February 23 and March 8 celebrations. Windowsills are covered in jars of onion and garlic sprouts, and I have finally convinced the eldest daughter to sprout beans and seeds for salads.