[Sca-cooks] Root Vegetable Storage

[Moramarsh at aol.com]

When I was a teen, the parents decided to expand the kitchen. Before they  
dug the framing in they notified the kids they needed "help" digging the 
cellar.  They didn't tell us before hand what was involved.
 
We used a pick- lots of rocks and shale -and shovels and it took us all  
summer to dig out a space 
10 x 15 feet x 10 feet deep.  They actually dug in the stairs down  into 
the dirt and then covered it all with a trussed frame and built the kitchen  
on top of that.
 
At first they thought that would be fine.
 
Until the rains started and they had their own mud hole with 3 feet of  
water.
 
When it was pumped and  dried out , the parents concreted the walls  and 
the steps.
They wanted the base as natural as possible as they were storing  
vegetables, canned glass jars and extra paper supplies for the house. ( This was  
also the emergency tornado shelter - Oklahoma)
 
The walls held but the stairs broke. But everything got bugs in it. They  
burrowed up through the floor!
 
Last resort was another layer of concrete ( with mold resistant  
ingredients) on the walls, floors, and the stairs were reinforced with metal and  
repoured with stronger concrete.
 
Next year all the crops were safely in their sand beds and the jars were on 
 the shelves and the paper goods stayed dry.   This has how it has been  
for over 40 years now. It is well used.
 
The only thing they added was a sump pump for the occasional condensation  
that naturally occurs.
 
Going down there to pick out vegetables and canned goods, when we  visit, 
reminds me of years ago as it has not lost the cellar smell.
 
If it is good for wine why can't it be good for vegs?
 
Mora
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 5/5/2009 2:30:17 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
katiracook at hotmail.com writes:


I  have been doing research on 'winter gardening' for my community garden 
and one  of the ways to have fresh veggies during the winter is a take on the 
old root  cellar.  Grow your root crops to maturity, leave in the ground 
and if  necessary, mulch well to protect from frosts.  Just dig up what you 
need  when you need it.  I am going to try it with carrots and perhaps  
parsnips.  The only dark/dry/cool place I have in my condo is the  under-stair 
closet and that is where I store my  WINE!



Katira

> From: susanne.mayer5 at chello.at
>  To: sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org
> Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 22:29:41  +0200
> Subject: [Sca-cooks] Root Vegetable Storage
> 
>  Hello all,
> 
> my Grandmother used to store potatoes, carrots and  other root vegetable 
it 
> the cellar in a sand patch (about 1x 2 meter  and about 1/2 a meter of 
lose 
> sand / dry earth mix) from the harvest  time in autum during winter.
> So if you can store the bucket (I would  take a small wash tub, the 
bigger 
> the better) in a dark, dry and cool  place it should be OK. I would not 
sorti 
> somewhere warm.
>  Can't remeber if we had bugs in the veggies (35years ago is a long 
time,..)  
> but I know the carrots and potatoes did work and were kept for quite  
some 
> time.
> 
> Katharina
> Drachenwald
>  Austria Ad Flumen Caerulum
> 
> 

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