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Make It Easy:  Root Cellar?  |
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
 Posted - May 26 2006 : 12:10:39 PM
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I saw on another thread, that Jodi has two root cellars. I'm curious - has anyone built their own root cellar? This is something I'd be very interested in. 
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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dargaonfly1054
True Blue Farmgirl
257 Posts
Georgette
Nicholville
NY
USA
257 Posts |
Posted - May 26 2006 : 12:17:51 PM
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No I haven't............but sweetie and I were watching Alton Brown ( a cooking show) and he had a suggestion of putting sand in a box and putting the veggies in that to store, rather like a root cellar..........I think we plan on trying that this winter.
"We need the tonic of wildness, to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk..." Thoreau |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - May 26 2006 : 6:43:47 PM
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My grandfather's house - the one he was born and raised in - has a wonderful root cellar - built by his father, I'd assume. It's been lined with concrete now, but was just a square "hole" about 8 feet deep with stairs leading down (talk about a LOT of digging!). It has a wooden short upper wall - maybe 2 feet tall - with a round log, I'd guess some sort of wood, and bentonite roof. It's SO nice down there now. There are windows around the short upper wall, so it gets light if you want it to, and it's been whitewashed so it's clean and cool. Ahhhhh... I wish it was mine! I'm interested in what anyone has done to build their own, also, as this one is, well, more work than I'm ready to bite off right now !
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - May 26 2006 : 6:51:04 PM
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Thanks Georgette & Libbie,
I do watch Alton Brown too. I think I'll try the sand in the box too. I know I've been in root cellars and they are so much cooler in the heat of summer. Would be nice if we could have one, but I can try boxes with sand and see how that goes. I don't think dh would go for digging a big whole... but you never know.
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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jallibunn
Farmgirl in Training
12 Posts
Jodi
Missoula
MT
USA
12 Posts |
Posted - May 29 2006 : 1:53:38 PM
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HI all:
Yes, I'm the one with two root cellars. One came with our 66-year-old house and is just a box under the concrete front steps. Not much air circulation, so we just keep apples in it (since they need to be moist).
The other we created by walling off the end of our furnace room in the basement. The old coal chute serves as ventilation (very important!); the rest is salvaged lumber and insulation with a door. One of the packs of college students that rented the house behind us left us a double futon frame, and my DH sawed in it half to create four ventilated shelves.
That one holds potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots (in plastic bags), beets (in bags), and celery root (also in bags). The temperature stays at a pretty steady 40 degrees, and the humidity about the same, all winter. We've still got onions, garlic, and carrots that were harvested in September and October. It's completely dark, which is essential if you don't want all those roots to wake up again.
The sand in the box is a good idea; I stored carrots that way a couple of years back but found the sand pretty messy. Plastic bags with holes poked in them work just fine.
Hope these ideas help. It's GREAT to have one--or two! |
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westernhorse51
True Blue Farmgirl
1681 Posts
michele
farmingdale
n.j.
USA
1681 Posts |
Posted - May 29 2006 : 2:09:51 PM
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I'd love to have one. As kids we had one, not a great one but it worked.
she selects wool and flax and works with eager hands Prov.31:13 |
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Make It Easy: Root Cellar? |
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Root Cellar?
