The Complete Guide to Your New Root Cellar

Fruits and vegetables are some of the most expensive ingredients of any regular menu in your home. However, with the right resources and planning, you can take advantage of an age-old method of storage that will allow you to buy fruits and vegetables when they are least expensive or to grow your own and store them for future use. This book will walk anyone through the process of building and using a root cellar to store their fruits and vegetables for later use, through the cold winter months when even the most basic items can cost an arm and a leg. Before even starting your root cellar, you will learn the basics of choosing the right crops and planting them at the right time or buying them in advance for your root cellar. You will learn how to know which crops and which specific vegetables and fruits are good to keep and which ones should be left alone. This book will cover how and when to bring in the harvest and how to prepare for storage effectively. You will learn the basics of spoilage and what to expect from your foods, and you will discover what you should expect each winter for multiple- month storage. You will also benefit from interviews with the top experts in the field of storage and root-cellaring and farmers who have been storing vegetables for years. You will learn how to start your own underground garden and what various types of cellars exist — trenches, closets, and hideaways. Discover how to start planning your root cellar, how to use your basement if you so desire, and how to start excavating and preparing an outside, isolated root cellar for the first harvest. No matter your situation or your crops, you can benefit from this book and its take on the world of root-cellaring and long-term fruit and vegetable storage.