Monday, March 30, 2009

Root cellaring

There are two things we want to accomplish in this new house: reduce our expenses as much as possible by super insulating the house and generate some income through the installation of solar panels.

We want to carry these ideas into the landscaping as well: everything we are going to plant is going to have an edible function (saving money). We also plan on growing enough to be able to sell some of our produce at the local Farmer's Market in a few years.

Root cellaring seems to actually blend these 2 things together. With a cellar, we could keep more for the winter, thus saving us money. Plus, if we have a big enough harvest, we could potentially extend the selling season as well.

Now I've never had a root cellar so I don't know how to build them nor how to use them! Again, my friend from The Veggie Patch Re-imagined had a book to recommend so I ordered it from the library.


Root Cellaring, Natural cold storage of fruit and Vegetables by Mike and Nancy Bubel.

Of course, you've figured out that I really thought this book was worth the read. If fact, I'm planning on buying it now. The authors not only explain how to build a cellar, but also how to organise it. What I really want the book for though is for its list of good fruit and vegetables to be kept in a root cellar, how to pack them for long keeping and what temperature and humidity level is best for them.

Talk about taking the guess work out of it!

2 comments:

  1. You are certainly building a library of useful books. I have looked at a couple of books on preserving and root cellaring -- to extend the time we can eat from our garden. Right now we just have a cool pantry and the fridge to use for cold storage.

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  2. We are actually trying to get rid of as many books as possible right now. : )

    But, yes, I am also trying to get books that would be a great asset for our home library. This one has such a great list of fruit and vegetables and how best keep them that it is not a good one to just check out of the public library again at a later date. We need it as a reference.

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