Among the ideas offered is High Tunnel Agriculture. Farmers practicing HTA grow their crops inside a plastic covered structures similar to a greenhouse. Only the "tunnel" can be temperature controlled allowing farmers to grow year-round.

"Extending the growing season. That's what it's all about," said Randy Metzler with Four Seasons Tools. "Extending the front and the back end of the growing season and even providing harvesting straight through the winter months."

Barry George, a farmer from Minnesota just started HTA with his tomato crop. He says the method has made a huge difference in how much work he puts into his crops and how much profit he gets back from them.

"What it does is it gets me to the market early." said George. "Tomatoes are a good market that everybody has. And when everybody has them, they're not worth much. But when you're the only game in town, you get a lot more money for the same thing."

George gets that extra cash because he can start growing in April, where most farmers can't plant for another couple of months. George can also keep producing through December, long after other farmers have closed up shop for the winter.

And the extended growing season isn't the only benefit HTA offers.

"You get triple the growing season. And, you improve your crop yield, and those crops are a better quality." said Daniel Mielke, a farmer and High Tunnel Agriculture specialist. "Those crops are a better quality because the farmer can control the environment. He can grow in snow, he can grow in ice, and rain is no longer an issue."

Mielke started experimenting with HTA after his kids grew up and could no longer help him on the farm.

"It's great. I only need one fifth of the labor to produce three times the crops I used to."