Root Cellaring for Beginners

Preserving Food without Electricity

Root cellaring is the practice of preserving food without electricity, usually by taking advantage of cooler, more stable temperatures below ground. The ground insulates and acts like a refrigerator in the summer, but it also prevents food from freezing even in the coldest climates in winter.

You can “root cellar without a root cellar” by using a basement, or even an unheated back pantry that stays cooler than the rest of your house. We don’t have anything fancy, but we’re still able to keep fresh apples for over a year.

Still, I do dream of a propper root cellar someday, and a while back I put together a list of resources for building a homestead root cellar for y’all.

I now have one more thing to add to that list, courtesy of Sharon Stronger, the author of The Doable Off Grid Homestead. She lives off the grid on a shoe string budget, and her family does just about EVERYTHING without spending more than a few pennies. Her book covers techniques for building a life off the grid that uses practical ingenuity (rather than money) to solve problems.

I’m so honored to be able to share an excerpt from her book on the blog, where she shares detailed plans for building an earth bag root cellar. It’s a lot of work, but almost no money to get it done.

~ DIY Root Cellar Plans (Low Cost & Simple Design ~

Things You Might Need This Week

• 50+ Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes ~ Having a healthy, homemade, ready to heat and eat meal on your pantry shelf can be a lifesaver during this busy time of year.

• Cold Hardy Vegetables for Fall and Winter Gardening ~ There’s still plenty you can harvest, even once the weather turns cold. We’re pulling from the garden well into January…

• 50+ Green Tomato Recipes ~ Our tomatoes are long gone, but I know some of you in warmer climates are just getting your first frosts…and pulling in buckets of green tomatoes right now.

• Seasonal Preserving…Late season fruits just keep on coming! It’s time to put up:

  • Persimmon Jam

  • Cranberry Sauce

  • Apple Jam

Things I’m Loving

• Are You LARPing? ~ This is a really thoughtful discussion concerning the practicality of modern homesteading and preparedness. It’s really well written, and I do think you’ll find it helpful if you have family or friends that just don’t understand your lifestyle choices.

What are you harvesting, preserving, building or exploring on your homestead this week? I’d love to hear about it!

Leave me a note in the comments…

(Comments only, please. Emails tend to get lost in my inbox, and as much as I’d love to get back to each and everyone, my screen time is very limited…and things fall through the cracks, and emails get buried in my inbox. If you comment here, they’re all in one place, and it’s much easier to get back to every single one.)

Until Next Time,

Ashley at Practical Self Reliance