Mock Root Cellars
I attended the Utah Preparedness Expo at the Davis Conference center and
attended a Mock Root Cellar class taught by Mark Standing. He showed us a crisp
hard potato that he just pulled out of his mock root cellar (April 14th). Firm,
no sprouts and actually better than store quality. I thought we could all
benefit from storing our fresh vegetables or fruits longer without an official
root cellar. Mark Standing's mock root cellar design was taken from PrepareAware's
Blog, Root Cellars on May 5, 2010. The following is information taken from that article and
Mark's class.
Did you know you can make your own
root cellar at home and you don’t need to spend a fortune? The cost
is about $35 and you will have longer lasting fruits and vegetables through the
cold season. Or even a place to keep your food storage when summer temps
spike and you don’t have a place cool to keep it.
First the science behind preserving
veggies and fruits is essential to making your
own root cellar work well (I promise it will be in layman terms and I won’t
bore you to death). In order for root cellars to work (for most
veggies and fruits) you need 90 – 95% humidity. Which here in Utah
(the second dryest state in the union) is tough to come by. Also, most
fruits and veggies store best at 32 degrees.
That said, LET’S BUILD A ROOT
CELLAR:
1. Buy a 20 – 30 gallon
plastic trash can with a lid (plastic is better – if you use galvanized metal,
you will need to line it with a food friendly plastic liner).
2. With a 1/4″ drill, make 10
– 12 holes in the bottom of the can (so condensation can escape).
3. Dig a deep hole into
the ground about the height of your trash can.
4. In the bottom of the hole
put down some gravel.
5. Next place your can into
the hole and back fill around the can for a snug fit. If you are ready to
store your winter crops, make sure you let all of your fruits and veggies cool
overnight before putting them into your new mock root cellar.
6. Place a layer of veggies
down and separate them from the next variety of veggies by a 2″ layer of
straw. Continuing layering until the can is full.
7. Now you have two insulation
options – one, you can put the lid on and cover with a dome of 16 – 18″ of
straw around the lid (you can also use sand, dry leaves, peat moss, or odorless
saw dust). Or two, you can buy a domed lid for your can and put
spray-on insulation on the inside of the domed lid.
Viola! You are done!
FRUITS! It is
important that you don’t store your fruits and veggies TOGETHER! You must
keep a seperate can for fruits. The ethylene gas that fruits emit cause
ripening and if this gas comes in contact with your veggies, kiss them
goodbye.
