All the work with food storage and canning is definitely paying dividends. Julie and I aren't keeping exact records, but I can say for sure we are not buying as much from the grocery store as we used to. I create meals from items on hand for the most part. The missing piece of the puzzle is meat and dairy. Had I bagged a deer, we would have had one type of meat available on hand. Maybe next year.
The root cabinet seems to be working, but the temperatures are not as cold as I had anticipated. The pictures above show the outside view with the vent openings through the basement window, and the inside view shows the cabinet with potatoes and carrots on the left and squash and apples on the right. The temps have been about 45 on the left (with one vent) and about 42-43 on the right (with two vents). Today is the coldest weather of the winter so far. With an outside temp of 4, the left is 42 and the right is 40. The stairway storage area is 44.
It's been about two full months since purchasing the produce shown from a local farm. The potatoes have 1/4" to 1/2" sprouts, the carrots in damp sawdust are like fresh picked, the squash had only two rotted, and the Northern Spy apples have had only two rotted (otherwise they are still crisp). The casualties mentioned above were discovered when re-organizing them for transport from the garage to the cabinet.
Just as a side note, I cooked a chicken dish in the dutch oven yesterday hanging in the fireplace. I had everything on hand except the chicken and red potatoes. I could have used my stored potatoes, but the little red ones had a certain appeal.
