ELGIN, Minnesota – The closest a Minnesotan can get to an invincible summer might be found inside Pam Benike's insulated hoop barn near Rochester.
Inside the barn, which stretches the length of a hockey rink, grow green vegetables — red spinach, Bok choy, radishes — while a balmy 65 degrees or more prevails. On frigid nights, the thin parallel rows are covered with white plastic tarps. The nose-tingling aroma of summer hovers as the only sound is the slow drip from an elevated drainage pipe.
"This is how we grow vegetables up here," said Benike, who runs Prairie Hollow Farm with her family. There's no artificial heating, just insulated plastic walls and sunshine. "The ground is a heat sink."
