As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
The reason settlers put garden vegetables in the root cellar is because most houses were so cold, that things froze in them most nights, and that spoiled the food.
In Germany, Martin Luther, spoke of his puddings, which were sausages, but they were hung by the fireplace, in fact there was a cupboard type niche in German hearths or the sausages hung by the back of the fireplace to keep being smoked daily.
The Lame Cherry reason for informing you of that is in these plague times, unless you have experience with storing things, most of you are going to have fruit flies from rotting potatoes which smell like shit, literally in your homes.
This year in our semi heated porch, we stored from October 15th on, as that was the only and last day to dig potatoes as we got snow then, our potatoes were in 5 gallon plastic buckets, on a cement floor, and they are still viable in July. The Purple Viking are keeping better than the more softer Yukon Gold.
We are talking of 8 months for potatoes without refrigeration or huge amounts of rot.
For squash, we placed them in the mother's bedroom, which is heated by Richard and Stephanie's furnace, and they lasted until June. In the porch I have had squash dehydrate, but they remained viable for 6 months without rotting. One in a Kuri never did rot, and the Sunshines never did rot.
What is the commonality of this is dry air. Basements have damp air and is cool. This is dry air which is in the 60's on the floor, and this creates a viable storage of garden crops, akin to a kitchen pantry of old, providing the coal stove did not go out and night, as my old man spoke of a frequent reality of having to use the dipper to bust ice on top of the water pail in the house, after a winter's night.
Most of you reading this, are fortunate to have an unheated garage which would in your zone 5's south will keep your produce without spoiling. That is not the case in zone 4 north as things freeze rock solid. That is ok in squash which I feed to the bunnies, but I would never eat them, and when they thaw they turn to mush.
It is possible though in unused rooms to store garden produce, providing it is dry air. That is the lesson I have found in this which has worked best. I would love to have a root cellar, but I do not, and I do not have sheds that are warm enough or a basement option. This experiment was out of necessity and it worked very well for us and will be repeated.
This is once again, another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
Nuff Said
agtG
