Root cellars
Does anyone still have one and use it? The good old EPA ordered our little village of 300 to build a sanitary sewer system and we were forced to crush or remove our septic tanks. We kept our wells as a water system would have been way too expensive and not practical for us.
I came up with this bright idea of taking part of the area where our septic tank used to be, buying a large garbage can and using it for a "root cellar" to store my onions, potatoes, carrots and the like.
We plan on lining the bottom of the can with straw and I've saved onion and potato bags to put stuff in. We plan on putting straw on the top of our goodies and then straw on top of the garbage can lid. We are going to paint the lid florescent yellow and put those reflective markers near it so we can find the can in the snow.
How have root cellars worked for you?
Re: Root cellars
we just use our cellar, potatoes, carrots, onions, squash, and apples stay fresh down there just about into spring, even in the summer it is cool down there, on hot days we go down there and sit in lawn chairs and sip lemonade and watch an old tv we have hooked up down there, it is always cooler than upstairs, someday when I have the money I would like to finish it and put in a bedroom and small bathroom down there, extra space and a cool place to sleep in the summer without the a/c making the electric bills go sky high
Re: Root cellars
Anyone interested, there is a really interesting place in Newfoundland. It's called Elliston and it's the root cellar capital of the world. It's one of the places my family landed at in the early 1800's. It was really neat seeing all those old root cellars.
Re: Root cellars
When I was a child in upstate NY, there was a root cellar next to the college cafeteria. It was dug out under a hill. If I recall correctly, it would have been about 6' high and 8' wide. It always smelled like potatoes. I used to be scared of going in there after anything--seemed like a good place for the Boogie Man to live.
Now I'm in Florida and I'd give my right arm for a naturally cool storage area.
Re: Root cellars
There is a good book called "Root Cellaring" by Mike and Nancy Bubel. It has many different ideas on the subject,with instuctions. We have always been gonna build a root cellar, it is still a someday project! I'm with you,Paulaayn, I think food storage is more important than ever in these times.
Re: Root cellars
I saw something in a magazine the other day about making a root cellar like that. I'd love to have a root cellar/cold room. I worry about not having enough food stored, especially with the pork industry crashing. Let us know how it works.
Re: Root cellars
Pork industry crashing? I think I musta missed something when I was on my vacation last week. I knew the dairy industry was in trouble, but pork too?
Re: Root cellars
The Canadian dairy industy is going strong -gotta love quota.
Pork farmers are facing the worst economic conditions they have ever faced.
The reasons are many. For example:
* American Protectionism: American pork processing plants are no longer importing pigs from Canada due to the paper work involved in complying with their own Country of Origin Labeling rules. Resulting in hundreds of thousands of pigs backing up in the supply chain in Canada.
* The missed named H1N1 Flu (swine flu) has drastically reduced world wide demand for pork.
* The rise in the Canadian dollar makes our pork less attractive on the world export market.
* Sky-rocketing input cost (supplies like feed, seed, etc)
We are currently losing $3000 a week. And it's that low because we have our own corn. It's a scary prospect that Canada will have no pork industry left and we'll have to import all our pork for other countries like Mexico and China
Re: Root cellars
I normally buy very specifically labeled fresh meats, cash was low, and I happened to be at a certain store, a secondary store not my main source for shopping. The bulk ground beef from the butcher counter, was labeled as being a product of the US, New Zealand, Canada and a couple other countries that I can't recall at the moment. It was priced low, I almost didn't buy it just because the labelling was so random. I'm fine with US or Canadian products, but please. Paula you don't want to eat pork from Mexico, isn't that where the "Swine" Flu got started? So, process the pig, turn it into a ham then ship it to the US? I'm sure our deli at our regular store sells true raised and made in Canada, hams and other products.
Re: Root cellars
Sigh, swine flu -that's a large part of our problem right now. Just days before it hit the news, the pork price was almost at cost of production -something we've been waiting 5 years for. The price has been crashing since. Right now we are getting about $1/lb (or kg, I can't remember and DH is out) and average cost of production is $1.50.
The H1N1 was so badly misnamed. There has yet to be any pigs found who have this version of flu. There was a herd out west, but they were infected by the people. And besides, the flu is respitory, it's not in the meat. But perception is everything.
I really wouldn't suggest buying meat from anywhere other than Canada or US. Just can't guarantee what they have been fed/given. Also, what kind of regulations does the meat go through to get processes. Our pigs are examined at least 3 times before the meat hits the stores.
Re: Root cellars
I will be sure to let you know how it works.
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