Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["art corbit" <art_c@cox.net>]

PS:

There is one vegetable that I know of that will keep pretty well in a root
cellar if they are handled very carefully and that is tomatoes. You can pick
tomatoes while they are still green just before they start to ripen. Then
rap each one in either news paper or paper towel and lay them gently in a
bushel basket or card board box. Put only about 3 layers or the weight of
the top ones will damage the bottom one. They must be handled very gently to
keep from bruising them or tearing the skin. If this happens they will rot
real quick. They will go ahead and ripen over time and you should have no
problem having home grown sliced tomatoes for Christmas dinner. If water
melons are handled easy and not all skinned up they will keep all winter in
a cellar.

Art in Arkansas


----- Original Message -----
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 4:08 PM
Subject: [Livingontheland] root cellars / Looking for advice on a few topics



"Root cellars are nature's way of storing fruits and vegetables. And they
can be excellent storage areas for other things as well. A hundred years
ago root cellars were one of the few ways they had of keeping things cool.
People not only put potatoes and carrots in their root cellars, but their
preserved meat, milk and cream, fruits and vegetables - literally anything
they needed to keep cool. Even though root cellars didn't get nearly as
cold as a refrigerator during summer months, root cellars generally were
and are 30 to 40 degrees F cooler than daytime summer temperatures."

complete article at http://waltonfeed.com/old/cellars.html

Root Cellar Basics complete page at
http://waltonfeed.com/old/cellar4.html
# Temperature is your most important interest
# Your second most important consideration is humidity
# Air circulation
# How big of a cellar should you build?
# Shelves
# What kind of root cellar is right for you?
# Construction methods
# Using your root cellar
# Vegetables and their optimum storage conditions


paul tradingpost@lobo.net

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
--Henry David Thoreau
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 7/21/2006 at 2:04 PM Dianne Palmer-Quay wrote:

>Finally, does anyone know anything about root cellar type storage in the
>South?  My crawl space is about 74 degrees now (outside highs are the
upper
>90's) which is where I am storing the surplus potatoes and winter squash
>from this year's garden.  But that temperature is too warm (according to
>the books).  Any ideas how I could create a cooler space without a
>refrigeration device?






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