School begins tommorrow and I will be doing my posts in the evening from now on. I will also no longer be posting on weekends.
We are very busy planning for more cold storage in our basement. Cold storage is the perfect way to keep food for a preparedness program. Once the space is ready, food can be stored with no inputs from fossil fuels and regardless of what is happening to the grid. Vegetables and fruits that store well are beets, carrots, turnips and apples. Cabbage, leeks and Brussel sprouts also store well this way. Believe it or not, many hard cheeses, hard salamis and hams also store well as long as the space can be kept at a constant cold temperature and free of vermin. The closer you can keep the temperature to 38 degrees, the longer your food will last.
We have a corner of the basement that has a high window. Our plan is to build walls and insulate them and the ceiling with r-36 batting . The floor is already damp. Bruce is running a vent from the window to the floor to bring in colder out side air. We can block the vent if it gets too cold. I will store produce in individual bins between layers of dry leaves. It is critical that any produce chosen for long term storage be in perfect condition and checked regularly. I would go so far as to suggest that you plan menus each week that utilize your stored produce. It is so easy to forget about it and then find yourself with a mess to clean up and bins of wasted food.
Potatoes and onions need a different kind of environment. Both can tolerate somewhat warmer temperatures but need it dryer. Squash and pumpkins like it warmer yet. In fact, we have had good luck storing them in an unused bedroom.
Be sure any food you store has been properly cured. I hope you have a good book on this subject in your library. There are lots of variables and it’s important to do it right. I lost a whole bunch of potatoes my first year gardening because I didn’t know that they couldn’t be stored with apples. The ethylene the apples give off turn the potatoes green.
We actually had a totally different idea for our cold room but the best laid plans as they say. It pays to be flexible, Once Bruce had built a room for the new freezer, he realized how much easier it would be to replicate that on the other side of the basement than to build a whole new set of hinged stairs. it will also be easier to regulate the temperature and retrieve the produce.
It occurs to me just how lucky I am to have a partner with the kind of skills Bruce has. If I didn’t, I would be looking for a friend or neighbor I could swap skills for food with. I know people who do this stuff as a single but I couldn’t. I need husband and children to get it all done.
Just to end on a really happy note. We just finished a fabulous dinner with corn, potato, kale and leek soup with home made bread. The entire meal came from our garden except the milk in the soup and that came from a local farmer. I usually add white fish to this soup. I gave Bruce a whole set of fishing gear for Christmas. I think fishing gear is something every family near a body of fishable water should have in their storage supplies. I would love to have my own fish in the freezer.
September 1, 2009 at 7:55 am
I have an excellent book that shows how to and explains cold storage. I am not in the position to do cold storage at our house, but the idea has plenty of merit.
September 1, 2009 at 8:26 am
Your very own Storey Press has a good book on the subject, which I checked out of the library: Root Cellaring, by Nancy and Mike Bubel.
http://www.storey.com/search.php?s=root+cellaring
This is when I envy those of you in the Great North. It doesn’t get consistently cold enough down South for winter storage off the grid, hence my new focus on dehydrating foods.
September 1, 2009 at 8:54 am
Kathy,
Your cold storage is a great idea … but really not necessary.
Twice in our history, canned food over 100-years-old has been found, and determined to be edible and still nutritious.
You can read the details at
http://www.internet-grocer.net/how-long.htm
September 1, 2009 at 11:12 am
Cold Storage for Fruits & Vegetables: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-87 (Paperback)talks about using in ground units made from garbage cans with lids to old wooden barrels laid on their sides. As well as pits and trenches which can be used for storing root crops. They also have a section beginning on page 20 where they list alot of vegetables and the best storage method. Beginning on page 26 they list the storage life expectancies of various vegetables. They also wisely caution to NOT store canned goods in cold storage areas.
September 1, 2009 at 12:19 pm
Kathy, what do you do about spiders in your storage area? I found a website that suggests traps. My concern is that they have a food scent on them. Have you had any experience with these?
September 1, 2009 at 12:28 pm
One of the benefits of living in the cold Northeast is a lack of dangerous spiders. I get the occasional harmless little thing but nothing I worry about. I am actually glad to see the daddy longlegs as they east some of the bugs I really dislike. I will confess to having a horror of hairy aracnids. So glad we don’t have them.
September 1, 2009 at 1:27 pm
One of the things I really miss about the acreage we owned in Alberta was that the house had a cold storage room. We didn’t have a full basement, more like a partly cemented in cellar. The cold room was nothing fancy, just a framed off area with wood siding and wooden door on hinges. It had a window that could be opened if we needed to adjust the temperature. Our potatoes kept beautifully all winter in a bin Dave made out of 1X4s spaced about a inch apart to allow for air circulation.
We didn’t have apples to keep in there, but it’s good to know, for the future not to do that.
We lived too far away to take advantage of this, but one of my cousins actually dug into a hill on his property and built a fairly large underground cold storage. Then he built a small shed that sits over top of it with stairs leading down through a trap door in the floor of the shed. This allows easy access in winter without having to dig through snow. Several members of the family store their potatoes and other root vegetables there and go get what they need, as they need it. The potatoes keep well right into late spring. In fact, the seed potatoes have to be brought out and allowed to warm for a several days before they can be planted.
On the list of must haves for our next home is a basement where we can build a room for storing home canned goods and a separate cold storage room. Or where we can build something like what my cousin has.
September 1, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Kimberly, I don’t know if it’s fact or not, but I’ve always heard that hedge-apples are great in cellars and basements for deterring spiders. And you can find them on the side of the road fairly easily.
September 1, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I’m so glad I found you here. . . your writing is succinctly lovely and full of information, without being overwhelming to anyone who’s either been doing these things for years or just starting out. . .
urban and rural homesteader alike will find perfect musings here!
I have wonderful memories of growing up and having a pantry full of cold-stored carrots, beets, potatoes, squash, leeks, etc., a freezer full of homemade stocks, gifts of alaskan salmon when friends came back from their trips, and jars upon jars of the blueberry, rhubarb, strawberry jam, applesauce and tomato sauce that we labored over alongside my mum in the hot, hot August kitchen after long days of picking (where we ate almost as much as went in the pails- think Blueberries for Sal!). . .
although i live in the city now, i still can, pickle, freeze and find i can eat as locally and frugally as ever with vermiculture bins, abundant farmer’s markets in the squares, and the wonderful restaurants that are jumping on the local only bandwagon.
Looking forward to many more visits here!
Jenny
September 2, 2009 at 8:33 am
For those who can’t build a clever room like you are getting an old refrigerator or freezer (not plugged in) can make a great cold storage unit either inside or outside. We have heard of them being used filled with sand/peat to store carrots in and dug into the ground for storage too.
I saw one the other day on a country road that had been tipped on it’s side, dug into the ground about a foot, and was being used as a raised bed for a lady in a wheelchair!
They can be easy to find on craigslist too, for free, my fave word!
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