Christmas presented an opportune time for me as I was able to acquire a very good book about root cellaring food to get through a winter with fresh, local produce. The book is called Root Cellaring-Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables. I started to read it shortly after I got it, and it made profound changes to the way I was planning to store some of our root crop items over the winter. I had planned to store them in our garage, but come to find out that squash and sweet potatoes need one temperature, while potatoes, onions and apples need another temperature, and garlic has a different set of requirements. So, I had to readjust my plans. We’ve moved our crops around to different areas of the house, taking advantage of natural differences in temperatures in different places.

One thing that is great about this book is that they show you how to use a root cellar if you have one. If you don’t they will show you a million different ways to build one. But, they will also discuss how you can use other areas of your house as a root cellar if you are willing to monitor the items and use a thermometer to keep watch on them. That’s what I did. By moving a portable thermometer around the house I was able to locate different areas of the house that will work for our different items. Our squash and sweet potatoes are hanging out in our basement, while the potatoes and onions are in an attic crawlspace. The apples are still in the garage, but in a cooler.

This is really a great book and I consider it a must have for people trying to eat completely local. A root cellar is a great way to preserve food stuffs through the winter, and a root cellar doesn’t use any energy to preserve your food. Canning and drying foods are great, but they are fairly energy intensive (unless you dry your stuff in the desert), but a root cellar naturally keeps items fresh for you to use. If you want to know more about storing food through the winter this book is a must have. Besides, imagine less canning in the summer because you were going to depend on a root cellar? Sounds like a winner to me!