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It was a typical snow-covered winter day, but something very atypical was happening cabbages, broccoli and even strawberries were improbably green and alive in a northeast Minneapolis backyard.
“It’s working,” said Greg Strong of the garden he tends several times a week. “It’s very warm, the plants are growing.”
“It” is Sophia, the nickname for an experimental garden project built by an enthusiastic group of volunteers. Sophia is a walipini, a South American word for a sunken, solar-heated greenhouse with earthen walls. Strong and his fellow gardeners are optimistic that Sophia will become a prototype for how to grow food in harsh climates.