Storing Vegetables

[2005] 

[Attendee] 

Concerned that we're gonna be there year-round and they have a long winter, so we're not sure what we're gonna do for vegetables. We're gonna try and put a green house in, but growing our own celery is gonna look like a field of celery.  

[Aajonus] 

Well, you can make a lot of cucumbers. You just need a cold cellar. 

At my grandparents farm we kept everything fresh in a cold celler and I mean it was a basement that was rock and concrete and it was wet and cold down there. And they kept cucumbers in gallon jars, and they were hardly shriveled at all as long as you didn't open them. 

Of course, they made pickles and all kinds of things for the winter.  

[Attendee] 

So, whatever the temperature is at that point will keep year-round basically. 

[Aajonus] 

Basically, yeah. When you're 10 feet below the earth, it pretty much stays the same temperature, which is about 60° and lower. 58° to 60°.  

Even if it freezes above, it won't freeze in the cold cellar, unless you have a vent that allows even colder air to come in because you want it to get colder. If it isn't cold enough, then you just run a vent down there, a concrete vent that has a cover on it, doesn't get wet.  

It also has to be above the ground, so if it floods the water, won't go down into your basement.