Keeping Your Harvest All Year Round

Winter Storage Dos and Don’ts

For most of history, people were experts on food preservation because their lives depended on it. Around the turn of the twentieth century, electric refrigeration enabled people to transport food longer distances, sell it in modern supermarkets, and keep it cool at home. As a result, most of us never learned the low-tech food preservation skills once passed down in every culture.

For gardeners or those looking to eat more local foods, it is worth relearning some of those skills – especially winter food storage, the oldest and easiest method. Many fall crops can be safely stored and eaten over the winter months without the use of fancy canning equipment.

Our ancestors built root cellars, underground structures that kept food at a consistently cold temperature year round. Depending on individual needs, it may be worth building a root cellar or another type of food storage system if you don’t have ideal conditions to store winter crops. But before you start digging or building, it’s important to assess whether the chosen dwelling – probably a garage, shed, basement, cellar, or unheated room – already provides the ideal conditions for storing some food.

Read more here from FIX.com