Remember the story of Rapunzel?

It's the basis of the latest Disney Studios epic, Twisted. That title refers to what most folks remember about the story – which is that the poor girl was locked up in the mean ole witch's tower with no access  to a hair stylist. After years and years, her hair grew so long that it reached the ground – and a handsome young prince was able use it like a rope to climb up to her room several stories above.

Very few people remember how she wound up in that tower in the first place, however.

Turns out that back before she was born, Rapunzel's mom got a hankering for a salad made from some rampion, a member of the bellflower family, the German name of which is – you guessed it – rapunzel. This stuff was growing in the yard of her next door neighbor, the wicked old witch, and Rapunzel's mom sent her husband to go filch some for dinner.

Needless to say, the old witch was understandably ticked off when she found out – but was willing to make a deal, which seems to have been fairly common in those days: first-born child for all-you-can-eat rampion.

You know the rest of the story.

You probably enjoy salads with supper, but not to the point that you'd part with an arm or a leg for them. And since salads are a summertime thing, you might not be willing to go to the local grocer in the winter and buy out-of-season lettuce and tomatoes that taste flat, were grown who knows where under any number of horrible conditions and had to travel fifteen hundred miles or more.

So – do without and wait patiently for spring, right?

Not so fast. Consider the brassica.

This family includes what are known as cruciferous vegetables - cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower and mustard greens. Many of these do quite well even when it's snowing outside. The key is planting them early enough in the fall so they can get established before the temperature starts to plummet.  Alternatively, you can start them in a greenhouse or under hoops made from pcv pipe (there's an excellent video on that subject you can view here).

The other thing about these winter salad greens is that they are packed with nutrients that can help to prevent a whole host of diseases, including cancer and (for you guys over fifty) prostate issues.

You can learn a lot more about seasonal salads at the Four Seasons Farm website (http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/). This operation is located in Vermont, which is considered to be Zone 4 (in other words, winters are cold and nasty) – yet manages to produce healthful vegetables year-round using sustainable methods.