Puppies and Hydroponic Tomatoes

These puppies are part of the sled dog group at Chena Hot Springs.  I'm not sure about the puppies but I know the adult dogs live outside all winter.  They have 85 dogs and take the resort guests (mainly Japanese) on dog sled rides.

This is what their kennels look like.  I imagine the snow covers their houses and acts as insulation.

Chena Hot Springs even has Hydroponic Greenhouses where they grow tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and veggies for the resort restaurants and for the staff meals.  They also sell some of it.  The greenhouse manager told us that they keep the temperature at 72 degrees year round.  He said that people love to come over to the greenhouse in the winter when it is 40 below.

We bought some cherry tomatoes which were delicious.  Since we missed Harold, Maggie and Pat's tomatoes this year, we were glad to finally get some fresh tomatoes. 

It is very interesting to see how they grow them.  The roots are in buckets of vermiculite which they fill with a fertilizer-rich water.  As you can see, they wrap the vines around and around the buckets as they grow, and keep picking the tomatoes at the bottom.