Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TamesonOB" <tamesonob@metrocast.net>]

Art,

I'm not trying to be a contrary snot nose whippersnapper but I have lived in 
old houses all my life (in NH 36 yrs) and every one of them had a root 
cellar, a pantry and a larder, all with differing climates for food storage. 
In fact my parent's house used to belong to the local ice man and he had an 
elaborate ice cellar which kept the ice frozen straight through 'til the 
fall - but I digress. We would keep our root crops and apples in sand in 
these big bins in the high humidy root cellars, as well as butter and  a few 
cabbages (Dad hates Cabbage, but Mom is 1/2 Irish and really needs a boiled 
dinner ever now and again) (incidently, blueberries do quite well in a root 
cellar and we would have some still around christmas time if we didn't eat 
them all first). Even my current house which has tide lines on the cellar 
walls has a root cellar section in the high corner (dirt floor + high water 
table + 320 yrs =  very sloped floor). We keep our roots (potatoes and 
carrots mostly) in giant pickle crocks that were left here by the previous 
owner becuse they are too darned heavy to lug up the stairs and even with 
water on the floor  we have no rot. I think this year I'm going to try the 
leaving the carrots in the ground method and see if that works out well.

Tameson the youngish old yank