Root Cellar in a Cabinet

The cabinet I started last April and put off until cold weather just got finished. The idea is to create a space to "put up" vegetables for the winter. I've been looking at the cut-out in our very thick basement wall for quite a while wondering what to do, and after reading a book on root cellaring, it dawned on me that four of the six walls would be below ground, just like a root cellar. In the end, only a ceiling and a front with doors needed to be built and insulated.

The problem was how to introduce cold air into the cabinet, and the solution was to bore holes through the basement window which is just above it, plumb them down to the lower part of the cabinet, and then bore a couple of vent holes in the top to encourage a natural convection current. The division down the middle is not essential, but I want to store apples, potatoes and carrots for the winter. The book says that apples should not be stored near potatoes since the apples give off ethylene gases which promote sprouting in the potatoes. So, the solution was to build the partition wall so apples could be on one side, and the carrots and potatoes could be on the other.

Just in case you are wondering why there is only one pipe on the left side, and two on the right, it's because I broke my drill (and nearly my wrist) trying to bore the hole on the far left due to a loose piece of wood flopping around inside the window sill! I guess one pipe will have to do on the left side!

Garden Notes - October 1, 2009

The tomato crop was nearly a complete failure, with only about ten pounds of usable fruit from about fifteen plants. The ones that managed to turn red were usually half rotten, and the green ones would simply rot instead of ripening. I had to settle for one small pot of cooked tomatoes for fresh eating; nothing to can.

The beans kept producing into mid September, but with shrinking yields that were best eaten right away. I didn't have time for canning anyway since the whole month of September was absorbed by a project on the front porch. The summer squash continued into September as well, but I grilled them for eating instead of canning. The second planting of peas are about five feet tall and have a few young pods. The broccoli did finally form heads, with the largest one being about four inches across, but the others are 2-3 inches. As a matter of fact, I just came in from squishing some little green caterpillars that were hiding on the bottom side of the leaves. The carrots are looking great, so I pulled one of the bigger ones and it's about five inches long. The beets are doing well too.

The herbs are dried and stored in jars. The seeds from peas, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers are also dried and stored at this point. The few beets left from the first planting have yet to bolt, so I am wondering how I am supposed to get seed from them. Time will tell!