Snow Harvest

We were introduced to a new winter activity yesterday that is more fun that I could have ever imagined. The snow this year stuck early, setting a record for November snowfall. As a result, many local farmers did not harvest their crops in time - expecting the first snow to melt, as it usually does. Even before the November snow had a chance to melt, the first snow ofDecember dropped almost a meter on some of the higher elevation areas of the village.

The vegetables are still fine - it never gets cold enough under the snow for the crops to freeze, and spending some time under snow even makes many taste better. The problem is that, for many elderly farmers, hiking through a meter of snow to get to the field is the least of the challenge. Having to dig through a meter of snow just to pick a head of cabbage almostguarantees that these crops will be lost when the spring thaw causes the snow cover to freeze, losing the preservative effects of winter snow-cover and causing the veggies to rot.

Yesterday we joined two university students here to study agriculture, and a representative from the Green Earth Center, which organized their visit. A local farmer drove us through the snow as far as possible before we set out on foot to the field of the family that invited us to lunch earlier in the day. When the truck would go no further, we set out on foot with a shovel and a sled to haul back the harvest.

It was only a few hundred kilometers to the area that we identified as the field based only on barely visible mounds in the snow that indicatecabbages deep beneath the snow. I can't even begin to communicate the feeling of digging through waist deep snow and hitting green! Its like digging for buried treasure. The best thing as that you can then walk a few feet in any direction and dig again, never knowing what treasure lies beneath - sometimes a cabbage sometimes spinach, sometimes a beet or a daikon radish.

Perhaps the reason it was so fun is that it legitimizes "playing in the snow" for adults. A child would not need a vegetable to make it fun, but somehow we have learned that fun for fun's sake is shameful. The winter harvest lets us have fun for a "good cause", helping us to feel proud, knowing that we were doing a good deed, helping someone, saving good food resources from being wasted.

In the end, though, I was most excited by the fun of it.