There have been two major influences on the way I grow the vegetables at my farm in Bedford, N.Y. One is Eliot Coleman, who lives in Maine and has perfected the art of growing nutritious and beautiful vegetables year-round in unheated greenhouses, and the other is the team at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture, in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., where organic food is produced sustainably and elegantly throughout the year.

I had always grown my own vegetables and had extended the season as much as I could by using cold frames, polytunnels or hoop houses, and deep mulches. But growing certainly slowed; quantities dwindled in January, February, and March, and there was very little to cook.