Winter Farming Question

[kalos72]

I need some help.

I am having issues with the time line and making a Staten Island NY campaign work in the opening days of my campaign. My story line drops my group in NYC in Nov and needs to prepare for a larger military force to drop by end of Febuary or so.

I am trying to figure out how to feed a division landing in NYC come spring. Fishing of course but I need farms up and running come spring for food as well as fuel.

I was thinking the PC's could build "square foot farming" cold boxes, have a heating cord (wouldnt this just need to be a power cord under a simple metal half pipe or soemthing?) run under the soil powered by a bicycle. These boxes would be inside out of the elements. Could that sort of condition be possible to grow in?

I am trying to resolve the issue with a division landing in Spring and not getting any produced food until fall. How do I feed them for 3-4 months while my crops are growing? Hehe...

I am not looking for, other alternatives, as I am aware of most of the other options since I have been involved in this topic before on the board but more so how I could prepare Staten Island for the landing of a division size force come spring and have food production in progress.