For cooks used to supermarket produce, the rootsy offerings of a winter CSA — a community supported agriculture program in which customers buy their produce in advance — can expand one’s culinary horizons, especially when staring into a flaming-pink slice of watermelon radish.

These intensely colorful vegetables prove that the fair-weather dates of our growing season are not set in stone. In a winter CSA participants pay in the fall for vegetables they receive throughout the frigid months, thanks to simple technology such as greenhouses and climate-controlled storage space. Because cold temperatures concentrate the sweetness of vegetables such as spinach and carrots, winter CSA shares provide members with some of the most flavorful produce at a very welcome moment.