Jackie Clay-Atkinson - Ask Jackie: Food storage

Table of Contents

Ask Jackie

Food Storage

Copyright 1999-2012

ISBN: 978-0-9860152-2-9

Backwoods Home Magazine

PO Box 712

Gold Beach, Oregon 97444

www.backwoodshome.com

Edited by Jessie Denning, Julia Denning, Haley Kessel, Connie Sayler, Lisa Nourse, Rhoda Denning, and Ilene Duffy

Cover art by Don Childers

Illustrations by Don Childers, Jessie Denning, and John Dean

Introduction

Food preservation is of utmost importance to self-reliant minded people. Not only do you have to harvest, hunt, and buy food, but you also need to ensure that it keeps for a lengthy time and is ready to use when you want it. This book covers all sorts of food preservation methods such as dehydrating food, home freezing, alternative methods of food preservation, and food storage.

While I can a lot of our own food, I also store a whole lot of apples, carrots, rutabagas, and potatoes in bins in our basement root cellar. I have sacks of onions, strings of garlic hanging from nails, squash on our heated back porch all winter, jars of dehydrated foods on the pantry shelves, a crock of sauerkraut under the shelves in the basement, smoked hams or sides of bacon hanging in cool spots, and meat from our homegrown pigs and steers in our small freezer in the basement. I also have jars of jerky in the refrigerator (or on pantry shelves if its been dehydrated hard enough) if my son, David, hasnt found it yet!

There are a whole lot of different storage methods, besides canning. Each and every one is an integral part of the whole homestead process. All are invaluable. And not a single one is difficult to learn how to master skillfully. Men, women, and even young children all get into the act of home food preservation with enthusiasm.

I hope Ive answered many of your own questions on food preservation in this book. Have fun reading!

Jackie Clay

Food storage

Above-ground root cellars

We have 5 acres of fairly flat rocky land, and Im interested in information about an above-ground root cellar made from tires; is it feasible and is it effective?

Marie

I had a friend who made an above-ground root cellar with tires, rocks, and earth. This cellar was built into the side of a hill and was about 10x12 feet inside. The walls were four feet thick at the bottom and about two feet thick at the ceiling height of five feet. John simply stacked tires three wide all around the outside walls, leaving a doorway just wide enough to get a wheelbarrow inside. The doorway was framed with 6x6 timbers spiked together. The base tires were then filled with rocks and soil, firmly packed down. At the doorway, he screwed the tires to the door frame, which was braced up until the walls were done. The next layer was smaller tires, still three wide. All were filled with rocks and dirt. This was repeated, using smaller or fewer tires, making a slight tapering to the top wall in which the tires overlapped each other, as do bricks or stones in a building. When the walls were up, he shoved a berm of soil on the outside with his tractor bucket, giving extra insulation and strength. The roof consisted of peeled six-inch poles laid across, touching each other. On top of them, he laid a heavy double poly pond liner. Then on top of that, he placed 2 inches of rigid foam insulation, followed by about a foot of soil. Depending on your soil and the type of poles (hardwood or soft) you may want to brace the center with an inside heavy beam and upright posts.

Finishing off, he ran a six-inch vent tunnel up through the roof, which could be shut off from below in extremely cold weather. An insulated double door completed the construction. Depending on your climate, this may or may not work for you for winter storage of fruits and vegetables. In extreme climates, it might not keep them from freezing during the coldest part of the winter. As you did not say where you live, I cant advise you about this; youll just have to give it a try. For John, it worked pretty good and he experienced little loss.

Root cellaring

I recently have been reading a book on root cellaring and it seems like an easy way to preserve a lot of crops. While canning is great, it is a fair amount of work and mess, and it would seem that root cellaring would be a lot easier. With your huge gardens, have you ever tried it?

Diane Unger, Virginia

Root cellaring is great. I finally have a cellar built in my basement, but it isnt a silver bullet. I still can a lot of my food, because Ive carried out buckets of soft and rotten produce, come spring, too. Once its in a jar, it wont spoil. So when I root cellar food, I keep right on canning and drying it, right through the winter. That way, we have the best of both worlds. Theres nice fresh potatoes, apples, squash, onions, carrots, etc. But, I slowly can what we wont use instead of carrying it all shriveled and rotten out to the pigs and chickens, come spring.

Root cellaring in Texas

I live in the prairie lands in one of the SW states, Texas. I plan to retire soon and will have plenty of time for gardening. I enjoy gardening and putting up the harvest. I was wondering if root cellaring in this part of the country is one practical method of storing my harvest. I am not sure if the right temperatures can be achieved in a hot and humid state most of the year. What do you think?

Kenneth Whitmire, Texas

If you have the room, a root cellar is a good thing, no matter where you live, provided that your water table is not too high. We lived on the high prairie, in northeast New Mexico. The old lady who had homesteaded on our place had a much-used root cellar. While a root cellar in the south wont be as cool as one in the north, it will definitely help you keep your fruits and vegetables longer than if they were just kept in the warm house. By leaving the floor dirt or gravel, and maintaining humidity, this helps keep most produce even longer. A root cellar is also a good thing when you are in tornado or hurricane prone areas too, for family preservation. And you have plenty of food available right at your fingertips!

Keep your cellar well insulated with closing vents to keep out the very hot summer temperatures. I dont think youll be disappointed with your cellar.

Root cellar in Texas

It looks like we will finally be able to move onto a decent amount of property ranging from 3-10 acres, though we are leaning towards the 10 acres. The property is located in Elgin, Texas, just a few miles east and slightly north of Austin. I really want to get a garden going as soon as possible and to start canning as well. Given the high temperatures, humidity, and high rainfall, do you think a root cellar is even possible or practical for that area? If you do, how would you recommend doing it? All I am imagining is a shed with an A/C window unit attached to it (giggle). Storing food in this way isnt something weve ever done in my family though we have done small amounts of canning from the small garden my grandmother had when I was a child.

Lauren Paul, Texas

Well, Lauren, a root cellar is definitely possible, but maybe not practical. In a hot, high-rain area, youll have to take extensive steps to make sure your root cellar does not get any ground water drainage into it. It will depend on how much work and money you want to sink into a root cellar. If you are moving onto bare land, you probably would be better off to wait a while and keep thinking about your cellar. See where any flooding occurs in the yard after drenching rains. Where are the high spots? If you want to build a root cellar away from the house, the high spot would be the place to build, adding extra soil over the cellar to make absolutely sure water doesnt flow into it. Youll also have to consider adding extra insulation either in the form of mounded-up soil over the cellar or fiberglass insulation between the rafters to keep the heat down. Of course, you only have to go down into the earth a short way before you reach much cooler soil, no matter how hot the surface soil is.