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Red Bucket Farm is an urban farm on a quarter acre property in an average residential neighborhood. We are located in Wisconsin, USDA Zone 5. We focus on chickens, bees, orchard fruit, and raised garden beds for fruits and veggies. We hope to reduce our footprint on the planet by growing some of our food, reducing our use of fossil fuels, and gardening with sustainable practices. Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Root Cellar Substitute

When I was a kid, we had an unheated room in the basement that we called the fruit cellar. I didn't realize how unusual it was to have a root cellar in a mid-century ranch home. For the most part, root cellars slowly disappeared from modern American homes after the arrival of electric refrigerators and freezers.

I haven't thought about the long-term storage of vegetables before this year. It's not a big deal at Red Bucket Farm since most of my crops have been canned or frozen. But I can anticipate that a cellar would be useful for storage of squash, potatoes, onions and apples.

A friend simply tosses her crops into a wheelbarrow in the garage, so I've followed her example and set up an old desk and some wooden storage bins in our attached garage. This year it's an experiment to see if the squash and potatoes will survive the coldest part of winter. I'll monitor the temperatures and see if it will be possible to store veggies for several months. This isn't ideal, but it's a simple way to start.

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