It ’s simple , really . I prefer the easy road . Grab a carrot , a couple white potato , perchance an onion plant or garlic and make a simple family dinner party . Whether it ’s August or the heart of February , I like my vegetable homegrown and fresh . And that ’s why my sept ramp up beginning cellars to help oneself put in the harvest from our one - eighth acre vegetable garden .
Root cellars are simple , pragmatic and a little romantic . A passive refrigeration organisation that stretch our undeniably short acquire time of year deep into wintertime is like having your own daily farmers ’ market .
Root Cellar Basics
Some vegetables require storage in a dry material, such as sawdust.
You need three things to grow a root word - cellar garden : blank space , careful timing and most importantly , right depot .
Plenty of infinite
Our former metropolis lot was too small to grow enough food for year - troll eating , but on a larger suburban passel we have room to produce much more . We currently have about the same amount of space as our prior circumstances had in total in a surround vegetable garden to keep out deer . Some cervid - resistant vegetable , such as onions and scallion , are embed outside the fencing . Having this much infinite makes the concept of feeding ourselves twelvemonth - round so tangible that we want to sample that freedom . We are not nearly there yet , but each yr we adjust our capitulation planting schedule to give everything the best chance possible to mature before winter sets in .
Timing and Seed set out
To have a root cellar , you need to turn the right intellectual nourishment at the correct time . We really enjoy the provision process , map out straight footage essential for each vegetable . We implant a diverse lineup of solid food , and keep planting all summertime long , starting plant from source throughout the summer . Succession planting is key to having nutrient for the etymon cellar garden . About one - third of our summer and the vast majority of our fall garden harvests go into the cellar .
The first seminal fluid destined for the root cellar get sown out of doors as early as mid - April , and continue to be sown through August . rootage cellar carrots are sown later - June through mid - July , in beds where leaping cabbage and broccoli have been harvested . Brussels sprouts are space hogs but a holiday custom in our category , so they get their own garden space from May until November . Potatoes and butternut squash take a full season , too , requiring consecrate expanse . onion and garlic go into the garden betimes and come out in time for drop crop such as lettuce , pea plant , Apium graveolens dulce and radishes . It ’s a bit of a vegetable waltz , and start most veggie indoors under light four calendar week before transplanting is how we are able to maximise harvest for the cellar and our summer mesa .
Storage Styles
eventually , for successful root cellar retention , you need two type of storage to maximise your endeavour : moist and dry .
ancestor vegetables require similar conditions to their outdoor growing state of affairs : a dark-skinned , dampish surround where humidity approaches 100 percent . Imagine create a space that emulates still being in the ground after a fall frost . It ’s chilly , but not suspend . You ’re hem in by damp but not soaking soil , and it ’s pitching pitch-black . All those comestible you ’ve pick from the flat coat like potatoes , carrots , beets , parsnip , rutabaga , wintertime radish and so on need a storage sphere that is consistently dark , humid and chilly to remain at peak harvest conditions . Included in this damp environs are cole crops and leeks in addition to yield such as apples and pears .
While the term root cellar probably raise memory of your grandmother ’s frowsty cellar where jars of preserved yield , canned tomatoes and dilly noodle mingled with bins of Allium cepa and gunny dismission of potatoes , antecedent cellars can take on many shapes , form and locations . Our ascendent root cellar is locate above ground in our garage . It faces southeast making it less than ideal due to heat from the sunshine . To ameliorate the solar amplification , which are a foe to solid food storage , we insulate both the walls and ceiling really well , loosely succeed the guidelines laid out in the wonderfully enlightening bookRoot Cellaring(Storey Publishing , 1991 ) by Mike and Nancy Bubel .
We pick out materials that would not take in moisture , thus minimizing any possibility of mold establish in this mellow humidness environment . For the walls , we put in foil - lined insulation panels and used alloy HVAC tape in lieu of sheetrock and mud . For the shelf , we invested in metallic element shelving systems and metal basket instead of wood . We build up this to last for decades to come as we hone our acquisition and perfect our system for eating fresh during the summertime while growing muckle of vegetables that can be easy stored for late usance .
To monitor humidness , we have a digital thermometer with a hygrometer . This is a must - have for a ascendant basement . A less ideal way to measure interior wet of your root cellar would be the firmness of your roots , though once they begin to lose moisture , they wo n’t find it . And that ’s not a risk worth pick out after all that endeavour to turn our own food . We bosom the shading of forward-looking technologies such as a digital hygrometer with the traditional practice of store garden harvest with minimal processing .
carrot , wintertime radishes , turnip , beets , daikons and the like all require damp bedding for storage . Sand is a common mass medium used , but we chose okay sawdust from our local farm supply store . We tone down the sawdust evenly , switch layers of sawdust with a single bed of veggie . Between layers we amply cover the veggie with more damp sawdust and repeat . As the wintertime wears on , you excavate deeper and deeply for carrots until one day you ’re left with simply sawdust in the bin . It is profoundly satisfying and delightful meal prep task to cheat on out to my service department for garden - fresh produce on a sub - zero day .
Dry Storage
Not all veggie store well under gamy humidness . Some ask warmer , dryer conditions , which makes storing them much easier with importantly less investment and campaign . suppose the inside of your dry , winter home , where humidness is of course low-toned — that ’s where you ’d tuck crate of these vegetable in dark corner where temperatures are consistently a turn downhearted than the rest of your abode . veggie in this category include onions , garlic , shallots , winter squash and sweet potato .
Because it was a no - cost choice , put up vegetables in a juiceless cellar is where we began our root cellar journey three years ago . A teetotal root basement does n’t need to be a big or consecrate infinite , specially if you have a small kitchen garden . Just toss some cured Allium cepa into a milk cartonful and set them in a corner of your entryway . It ’s not attractive , but works just as well as clean out your draftiest closet for bins of vegetables . I ’ve done both .
take root in Joy
I do n’t anticipate ever being amply self - sufficient , but exploring solid food storage and the ego - imposed challenge of eat ourselves for as many months as possible throughout the yr drives our longing to expand what is possible in a northern climate . It grounds me in all the best ways , highlighting the ravisher and abundance beleaguer us every day , especially when a cultivated carrot sown by my nipper on July 1 is casually plucked from a storage bank identification number in our root wine cellar in the heart of a February blizzard and is as sweet , crunchy , and saucy as the twenty-four hour period we harvested it in October .
Meg Cowdenis a self - taught nurseryman , writer and photographer , who has grow to love northerly gardening . Her book isPlant Grow Harvest Repeat(Timber Press , 2022 )
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