Greenhouses where it is cold for a long time...

The purpose of my question:  I want to set up a system that will yield fruits and veggies 365 days a year, at about the same rate.  This will minimize the need to can, dehydrate, freeze dry or freeze.  I have seen a lot of greenhouses....all have lots of transparent/translucent roofs to let lots of sun in.  For those of you who have a green house in a zone 4, 5 or 6, do you try to do this?  or just use your gh to get a head start on spring?  Feel free to give me terminology to search in giggle :)

Hi Tom,
I typically use my greenhouse for starts and then use it for chickens in the winter. There are a number of ways to accomplish what you are describing, but most of them will require quite a bit of time and work to build insulations walls, heat storage, heat producing devices, etc.

Probably the simplest concept I think would come from Eliot Coleman who lives here in Maine and wrote a book called 4 season harvest. You will notice he did not call it 4 season growing. But by changing up a little of what we grow and using a greenhouse and row cover, he is cable to harvest vegetables all year round. Changing some of what vegetables you grow is part of it too. You are not going to be growing a tomato, even in a greenhouse, in Maine during the winter without a source of heat.

**Edit
It is like the story of growing a lemon tree in the alps. Can you do it? Yes... is your time better spent on growing something that will grow more easily? Perhaps. I think you can absolutely do what you are talking about, but I worry trying to grow "normal" vegetables in a "normal" greenhouse may require more effort than you want to invest for the output you get.