Two-year-old Huxton's favorite thing to do at his grandma Sara Ross' house is something not that typical for Wyoming winters. He loves to trudge past the snow and on into a toasty, warm underground garden, where he hand-picks a few fresh carrots from the ground for a little afternoon snack.
It doesn't matter that where grandma lives in Daniel, Wyoming, is in the deep freeze of winter. It doesn't matter because Ross has figured out a way to outsmart Mother Nature. Her little trick is something called a walipini, which translates to "warm place." A walipini is a greenhouse pit dug down into the earth so that it stays insulated and above freezing all winter long. That means when other Wyoming greenthumbs are starting to plan their spring and summer gardens, Ross is picking and growing produce.
"Right now, I've got some romaine lettuce and two different types of spinach growing in there," Ross said. "And the peas — regular table peas and some sugar snap peas — have just kind of poked their little heads up."
There are several herbs still growing in the underground greenhouse, as well as blackberry plants, leftover from the summer. "We just started some beans," Ross said. "And there are some just random little flowers that I held over from last year because I wanted to keep them going."
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