Root Cellaring

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Some root-cellar owners simply pile their apples and root vegetables in crates or baskets. Others prefer to pack the produce in leaves, hay, sawdust, or moss to help prevent drying, especially if using a basement room, which might not be as damp as an outdoor cellar. When we kept turnips, rutabagas, carrots, and beets in a cold, dirt-floored cellar in the old house on our farm, we always packed them in dry leaves or sawdust. Sand can also be used for winter vegetable bedding, but it is not as easy to wash off as sawdust.

Certain vegetables must be cured in order to keep well. After clipping off their tops—leaving a one-inch stub—expose garlic and onions to the sun for a week after digging them, and then spread them loosely in shallow boxes or hang them in net bags or old panty hose. Cure pumpkins and squash (except acorn squash) in the sun for two weeks after picking them so they'll develop a hard rind. Always leave stems on. And keep freshly, harvested sweet potatoes in a warm, damp place—aim for 80° to 85°F and 90% humidity—to toughen their skins and encourage healing of small scratches. I cure my sweets in crates near the wood cookstove, with a damp newspaper spread over each crate. Then, after seven to ten days of curing, I wrap the potatoes individually in newspaper, sort them for size, pack them in cartons, and keep them in a cool room. Curing white potatoes isn't essential as it is with sweets, but it's a good idea to spread the spuds out in a sheltered spot—about 60° to 75°F—for a two-week skin-toughening program before piling them into crates in the root cellar. Keep them in the shade, though; sun will turn them green (and toxic).

Some leafy vegetables can be replanted in buckets of sand, soil, or moss in the root cellar. I've had good luck with Chinese cabbage, escarole, and leeks. Celery is a good candidate for this treatment too. Chinese cabbage has kept for us until February—the crunchy fresh inner leaves hidden behind an outer layer of wilted, paper-dry wrapper leaves.

The Year-Round Harvest

For us, root cellaring is more than a winter convenience. It's a way to keep carefully grown, unsprayed food on our menu all year long. It's a time-saver in summer because we have less need now to can and freeze so much of our garden's bounty. We don't need to buy so many jars and lids, either, or to run the stove so long in August. But best of all, it makes us feel good—prepared, provided for, and well nourished—when we can go "shopping" in the cellar and return with a basket of fresh food, the fruit of our efforts at gardening and putting-by.

Whether you use a stony-cold cave, a basement pantry, or a buried box, we wish you joy in the growing, satisfaction in the keeping, and health in the eating.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The Bubels' 297 page hardcover book, Root Cellaring: The Simple No- Processing Way to Store Fruits and Vegetables, is available for $12.95 postpaid from Rodale Press, 33 E. Minor St., Emmaus, PA 18049.

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