Oregon Public Broadcasting

This week the first frosts of the season are expected across the Northwest.

That means green thumbs should bring in their sensitive plants, cover up their produce at night and say goodbye to their marigolds and basil.

But the coming of cold weather isn't all bad news for gardeners and farmers. Richland Correspondent Anna King explains.

Alan Schreiber farms in Eltopia in Eastern Washington. He's devised a way to grow produce all year round by using greenhouses.

This year Schreiber has started one of the very first Community Supported Agriculture farms east of the Cascades.

He plans to deliver fresh produce to his customers twice a week right through April. He says farmers love the summer, but the first hard frost means a new bounty.

Alan Schreiber: "It's like a little treasure trove of orange pumpkins, green and red and brown and yellow winter squashes and all of these odd looking gourds. There is no happier item of produce than a pumpkin. There is something magic about a pumpkin. And the pumpkins are coming."

Schreiber says one other frosty silver lining to the start of cold weather is an end to the war on bugs.