This winter I spent a day ice climbing in Hyalite Canyon with my dear friends Kate Rutherford and Anne Gilbert Chase, Farm to Crag founder and board member, respectively. Between laps on the Scepter, we talked about food, snacked on dried fruit and jerky, and reveled in the wintry beauty. And while we all tend veggie gardens in summer and buy local, there’s more needed to support healthy food systems.

Out the kitchen window, 40 mile-an-hour gusts rip dry, brown leaves from the cottonwood branches. Beyond them, snow covers my garden. The oven has warmed the house, and steam rises as I rake a fork across golden strands of spaghetti squash.