With 700 new greenhouses, Alaska is growing its own produce as deep into winter as the sun keeps rising.

有了七百个新的温室之后，只要太阳照常升起，即使在深冬，阿拉斯加也可以种植自己的作物了。

撰文/播音：艾米丽什维莹 (Emily Schwing)

翻译：路识宇

审校：杨枭/郭晓

What comes to mind when you think of Alaska? Probably snow. And ice. And extreme cold. But what about tomatoes?

一提到阿拉斯加你第一时间会想到什么？大概是冰雪和极寒。但是你会想到番茄吗？

In fact, agriculture is booming in the 49th state. Because in the last seven years, nearly 700 giant greenhouses have popped up there, thanks to aprogram funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.

事实上，农业在这第四十九个州上正在迅速发展。因为在过去的七年中，这里建起了近700座大型温室，这一切都多亏了由美国农业部自然资源保育服务部门资助的一个项目。

One greenhouse just outside Homer—an area better known for its halibut fishing—includes a tunnel packed with plants that produce fruits and vegetables that you’d expect to find on a dinner table closer to Mexico.

在荷马（这个地方更出名的其实是钓比目鱼)周边的一个温室里有种植植物的隧道，你或许还能在墨西哥附近的餐桌上看到这里产的蔬果。

ES: “Look at all those tomatoes back there… This is like the salsa tunnel…”

ES说: “看隧道里的那些番茄……这里简直是莎莎酱（salsa）(一种用用蕃茄洋葱和辣椒制成的辣酱)的隧道……”

DF: “It is! It is! Come, come walk inside for a minute.”

DF说: “是的是的！进来走一走吧。”

ES: Okay!”

ES说: “好的!”

Farmer Donna Rae Faulkner.  She guides me through rows of wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling greenery.

多娜雷福克纳（Donna Rae Faulkner）是当地农户，她带着我穿过一排排爬满墙的绿植，这些植物从地上一直长到了天花板。

DM: “Yeah, this is the nightshades. So, all things nightshade: eggplants and peppers and tomatoes and tomatillos.”

DM说: “对,这些就是茄属植物。 所有的都是茄属植物:茄子, 甜椒, 番茄和树番茄。”

And that’s her husband, Don McNamara.

那是她的丈夫, 唐麦克纳马拉（Don McNamara）。

With help from the sun, the inside of the tunnel becomes a region with what’s called a good hardiness zone—a standard the USDA uses to describe places where certain plants grow best. Meaning that Alaskan farmers can grow everything from corn to melons. Such tunnels are reliably warm and they help extend the growing season so that even in January, when the sun is only up for about five hours along Alaska’s southern coast, Donna Rae Faulkner can still farm.

在太阳的帮助下,隧道的里面成为了一个良好的耐寒区域, USDA用耐寒区域这种标准来形容能让某些植物长得很好的区域。这意味着阿拉斯加的农民们可以种植包括玉米和甜瓜在内的任何东西。这些隧道能保持足够温暖,并能帮助延长种植的季节；因此，即使在一月份，太阳只会在阿拉斯加南部海岸升起五个小时，多娜雷福克纳仍然可以进行劳作。

DF: “Yeah, some of the Asian greens and kales and things like that can keep going through the winter. We often do covers within covers, so in addition to the high tunnel, which has a double layer of plastic, we might have, for instance, another low tunnel over those things in the winter time to give them the extra added protection.”

DF说: “是的, 有些亚洲绿色蔬菜、甘蓝和一些类似的东西能在冬季一直生长。我们一般会在隧道里面再加一个保护层,所以除了两层塑料的高隧道之外,在冬天，我们可能还会在植物上方加一层低隧道, 这样就能够给植物们增加额外的保护。”

Community greenhouses have even popped up above the Arctic Circle in Alaska’s northernmost village, Barrow. That means Barrow residents can now farm for 11 months out of the year. But still not in January. Because that far north the sun never rises in January at all.

社区温室甚至出现在了北极圈内阿拉斯加最北端的小村落巴罗。这意味着巴罗的居民们现在可以每年务农11个月。不过1月份还是不可以。因为在那么远的北面,太阳在1月份从来都不升起。

—Emily Schwing