A Root Cellar Is Essential At Peaceful Forest Homestead

Our Food Supply Begins here

As anyone who knows me, knows, I LOVE to can. I love the whole process, from starting a seed in April, to taking my jars out of the canner. It gives me a good feeling, I am proud of doing it. I know many people are afraid of doing it, not enough experience. Or like my friend, Dawna, they take the bull by the horn and take off. She cans a lot and everything she can get her hands on. She is a true homesteader in every sense of the word.

The last step before cooking and eating it!

That said, I recently read some old newsletters that Richard Fahey (of the Christian Homesteading Movement) wrote a few years ago. He didn't like his family canning their foods (Not that HE had to do it). Of course, they didn't have a stove. They use a hearth, and I imagine that would not be easy to do. But they did can pickles and tomatoes. Both are foods that can be done in a water bath canner, so easier on a hearth than a pressure canner.

Buying Potatoes In Bulk to Store

They left much of their root crops in the garden in ditches and covered them with straw or hay. I can't imagine that stuff did not freeze, but he says not. When my husband and I lived in Bainbridge and was in our early stages of homesteading, we lived on an old farm and had the use of one of the barns there. It was metal though, and and had no insulation. We bought a 50 lb. bag of potatoes and a new metal garbage can. We thought we'd store the potatoes out there in the barn, but they froze. We were heartbroken to say the least.

  Root Cellar now

Now a root cellar, that is underground is completely different. You can bury a garbage can underground, but make sure it is at least below the frost line, which is 18 inches here. In the cellar of most old houses, you will find an old root cellar that is still usable. Our root cellar never got cold enough in the coldest winters to freeze a canning jar. I kept jars of canned food down there when we first moved here. The root cellar has windows and one of them will be able to opened a crack, to let the night air into the cellar in the warmer weather. In the morning, I close that window and open the pantry door to let that cool air into the pantry. At night I close the pantry door. That is how these house were built to use the natural sources to store your food.

Stairs to pantry have been replaced

Now we are working on it again. My husband rebuilt the stairs so they are safer now. He built a stone bench along the back wall, since the stone was already down there. I am planning on making some wooden boxes with metal screen covers on them so that the critters can't get into them. We are going to put up some kind of shelving but will have to keep the food inside a container of some sort due to mice. No matter how much I try, I cannot eliminate them for good. So to combat them, I am keeping the jars in Rubbermaid containers. The fresh produce that I want so badly to store, will have to be protected. No hanging my cabbage from the rafters. No open baskets of potatoes and other vegetables. Everything has to be protected. Don't tell me to get a cat, I have 4 very good hunters and they get mice almost daily, as do our garter snakes who are in abundant amounts this year.

Callie Cat

Making plans is part of homesteading. Planning for the future and your food supply is a major part. Do you have a plan? If not, why not? In any emergency, food is essential, whether you are a homesteader or not. Gardening is the most important thing you can do for your family. Don't let them down!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole

Preparing Is Not A Bad Thing To Do!

Nikita checks out the paddock after a tornado hit us!

"Preppers" is now a word that makes others think of someone holding a gun to their head as they try to steal your food. I believe that word has become a tag due to the television show, "Doomsday Preppers."  I will say that I have never seen the show so I am not reviewing it here. For one thing, serious preparing for natural disasters is highly recommended. Do I believe God will take care of me? Yes, I do.God is the one that gave me the brains to prepare.

Over 300 trees came down on our property in less than 5 minutes!

Being a person who stores food for the future does not mean you are a bad Christian. It does not mean you are planning on killing people or have a mine field on your front yard. What it means is that if your husband was in an accident and you had no money coming in, there would be food to eat. If your spouse and you broke up, you would have food to eat and hold you over until you could figure out what to do. If you lost your job and had no money coming in, your family would not starve.If there was  a bad storm and you could not drive down your road for a period of time, you would have food to serve your family. If the trucking companies went on strike over gas prices or their job contracts or whatever, you would be able to eat.

Growing Your Own Food Is The First Step!

Now the other thing everyone talks about is the fact that a "prepper" is looking forward to the end of the world. Well, if that was so, why would they bother to prepare? Are you looking forward to having an accident because you have insurance? Of course not! If you are not growing a garden and preserving food and something did happen where you could not get food at a store would you be going to someone's house for food? Or would be you waiting for someone to come to your door with a bag of food? FEMA's site tells that it is your responsibility as a citizen to provide for yourself and your own family. They cannot get to everyone in times of natural disasters.

No Neighbors!

Now if someone came to your house today, trying to steal your vehicle or break in, would you hold them off with your loaded shotgun or other gun? Or would you just stand by and let them do what they want with  your property and possibly your family? No, you would assert ownership by protecting all with your gun. Just because a television show plays up this fact tying it with people who prepare for emergencies is no reason to look down on them.

In all actuality, the people in the cities will be one who will have hardest time in any situation where the stores are not an option. Or where they cannot access their water or utilities. Out in the country you can make things work. Most people in the country grow a garden, have a well, and may have stocked up their pantries due to being prepared in case of emergencies. In the case where something big happens, most people who prepare will be providing not only for themselves, but for a neighbor (if they have any), and possibly for their family members. Now if everyone would prepare for their own families, there wouldn't be such a disagreement over such a term. Nobody said you have to do it, but you should!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Our Root Cellar - Perfect Way To Store A Harvest!

Original stairs from our root cellar

I guess  when I moved here in 1999 I didn't quite understand what a treasure I had in our house having an old fashioned real root cellar. Since our house was built in 1850, the root cellar was put in with all intentions of storing and preserving food. There was a science to it. It cannot be too humid, too hot, too cold..........has to be just right.

Stairs leading to the pantry upstairs

Our root cellar was built originally with field stone.........or should I say rock? Big rocks! In fact, since this hadn't been used as a root cellar at all since 1923, when the owners sold it to a family in Oxford for a hunting camp, we had some work to do. Previous owners had some kind of problem with the cellar walls and had replaced them with cinder blocks. That would have been fine but they took all the big rocks out of the wall and just piled them up in no orderly manner on the floor of the cellar. So you had them in the way and they were too big for me to move. Then when they put the wall in, they did not put it directly under the house wall. Now why they did that.......who knows? The only thing I know about hunting camps is that they are a place where people go to party and that may explain it. 

Rocks that were in a big pile are now our rock bench

My husband moved all those rocks and built a stone bench on the far side of the cellar. On the other side of the stairs going to the pantry. So now I will be able to store containers of things down there. He plans on rebuilding the stairs to the pantry as they are not real safe at this point.

The long pipe is from the kitchen drain.

A former post I wrote on root cellars,  Root Cellars - A Homesteaders' Must Have! tells about a book I read on the subject. This is how I plan to use mine. I will have a secure screen on the cellar windows so nothing can get in so I can open then a bit for the night. Then in the morning I will close them and open the pantry door. That way the night air will cool the root cellar, and then in the morning that cool air will cool the pantry. My husband has some plans for the pantry as to putting in a vent to the cellar, so I will know more about that set up when it is done. 

Built in bin - notice no legs!

Our root cellar also has this built in bin to store produce. It may have been built for storing apples since our property and the property around us (State Forest now) is covered with apple trees. So I am guessing it was for apples but could have been for other things. I plan on making wooden boxes and covering them with screen (not plastic and not coated) to put fresh produce in to store. I have a terrible problem with mice and worry about them ruining my crops. 

Another view of the bin 

You can easily build a root cellar outside of your house. Here are some plans I found on building a root cellar with earthbags which is on the Mother Earth News website. I know many people can just build a hole in the ground and work with that. I like mine being a part of my house, but it depends on what you have to begin with. 

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole