Anyone can learn to store fruits and vegetables safely and naturally with a cool, dark space (even a closet!) and the step-by-step advice in this book.
Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“…the most complete book on the subject you are likely to find.”
Backwoods Home Magazine
“…a book that has become a durable classic – a manual that delivers detailed guidelines for storing fruits and vegetables in the most simple way possible.”
The Province (Vancouver, British Columbia)
“The name Bubel is synonymous with practical, hands-on experience…I highly recommend Root Cellaring. It’s the only book you need on the subject.”
Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener
"The most complete book on the subject you are likely to find."
(Backwoods Home Magazine)
From the Back Cover
Root cellaring, as many people remember but only a few people still practice, is a way of using the earth's naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables. Root cellaring, as Mike and Nancy Bubel explain here, is a no-cost, simple, low-technology, energy-saving way to keep the harvest fresh all year long.
In Root Cellaring, the Bubels tell how to successfully use this natural storage approach. It's the first book devoted entirely to the subject, and it covers the subject with a thoroughness that makes it the only book you'll ever need on root cellaring.
Root Cellaring will tell you:
* How to choose vegetable and fruit varieties that will store best
* Specific individual storage requirements for nearly 100 home garden crops
* How to use root cellars in the country, in the city, and in any environment
* How to build root cellars, indoors and out, big and small, plain and fancy
* Case histories -- reports on the root cellaring techniques and experiences of many households all over North America
Root cellaring need not be strictly a country concept. Though it's often thought of as an adjunct to a large garden, a root cellar can in fact considerably stretch the resources of a small garden, making it easy to grow late succession crops for storage instead of many rows for canning and freezing. Best of all, root cellars can easily fit anywhere. Not everyone can live in the country, but everyone can benefit from natural cold storage.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
249 of 250 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a vast resource of information about root cellars, how to build them, and how to use them. The Bubels contend that even city apartments dwellers can arrange some sort of cold food storage area with a little imagination and a few suggestions from those who have done it before. The book has 6 parts: choosing good storage vegetable varieties, harvesting for keeping quality, storing crops in the root cellar, root cellar ideas for those who don't currently have a root cellar, root cellaring experiences, and recipes. At the end of the book is a bibliography for further reading, a list of plant sources, and an index. The book is amply illustrated with diagrams and black-and-white photographs.
I didn't expect to find much in this book that I haven't read elsewhere. Since my house didn't come with a root cellar, I wasn't very optimistic about finding anything in the book that I could use. Fortunately, I was way off-base in these assumptions. I was amazed at the variety and detail of information that the Bubels provide. The sections on choosing seed varieties and determining when to harvest are extremely useful, even if you're only going to put your harvest in the refrigerator. They also explain the different types of storage conditions required for different crops- -some like it cool and moist, and others warmer and dry. But what gave me real hope was all the ideas about un-root cellars that people have constructed and made good use of for storing vegetables. Their examples include everything from insolated window baskets for apartment dwellers to buried package trucks. One idea that might work well for my situation at least for the time being is a buried refrigerator.... Read more ›
I didn't expect to find much in this book that I haven't read elsewhere. Since my house didn't come with a root cellar, I wasn't very optimistic about finding anything in the book that I could use. Fortunately, I was way off-base in these assumptions. I was amazed at the variety and detail of information that the Bubels provide. The sections on choosing seed varieties and determining when to harvest are extremely useful, even if you're only going to put your harvest in the refrigerator. They also explain the different types of storage conditions required for different crops- -some like it cool and moist, and others warmer and dry. But what gave me real hope was all the ideas about un-root cellars that people have constructed and made good use of for storing vegetables. Their examples include everything from insolated window baskets for apartment dwellers to buried package trucks. One idea that might work well for my situation at least for the time being is a buried refrigerator.... Read more ›
304 of 311 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great book for (food) gardeners and for people who have some land available to them. Although there are suggestions for "nooks and crannies" in your house, most of those ideas sound like ideas for older (draftier) homes.
The suggestions for building your own working root cellar are clear, with illustrations to help you plan. There are lists of things that keep well and under what conditions to keep them. The authors even list certain varieties of (for instance) apples that keep better than others. There's a month-by-month plan of what could be coming out of your garden, going into the root cellar, and what could be canned or frozen. If you have a large garden, this is an incredibly useful book.
However, those of us with smaller modern homes, smaller yards, and smaller, less heavily-producing gardens will be a little disappointed. As I read this, I came to the conclusion that it would be pretty darned difficult to have a root cellar on our property, because we don't have a useable cool north corner to put one in. Not impossible, mind you, it would just take a lot more effort, planning, and money to build it.
I recommend this book highly for people who raise substantial amounts of their own produce. This book will really extend your harvest. With imagination and a little time and effort, you can have a root cellar that keeps your family in fresh food you grew all year long.
87 of 88 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
We're fortunate to have bought a property with a well designed root cellar already in place. Until I read this book, I had no idea how a root cellar 'worked'. This book suggests what foods are best for root cellaring, how long to expect to store them, and what temperatures should be maintained. Had I not read this book I would have wasted time and enery, and lost the nutrients in some foods by canning them rather than root cellaring them. A city dweller friend of mine borrowed my book and has decided to buy it. There are variety of good root cellar plans complete with illustrations and drawings for nearly any situation.
41 of 41 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Outstanding book! The amount of information included makes this book well worth its price. The month-to-month calendar of what one can eat from their root cellar is especially helpful. The pictures, and descriptions, of several existing root cellars in various parts of the country was especially appreciated, and will definitely be utilized when I build my own root cellar. If you are interested in being self-sufficient, this book will be of great assistance.
39 of 40 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
A must buy for country-wise, self sufficient individuals. I initially borrowed it from the library, but it's worth the expense. Stretch your garden further than ever with this in-depth gem of a book.
50 of 53 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If like me you love growing a vegetable garden and then canning, freezing, or dehydrating your produce, then this is a book you should seriously consider adding to your library. Especially since energy costs for cooling in summer and heating in winter are going up.
Because root cellars are something as the one chapter in the book titled Food Cellars for Everyone says, are for everyone whether you live in rural American, suburbia or even a city with a small lot. Roots cellars are economical across the board and have a long history and can be placed under a home, off into a hillside, in a closet, basement or even two big wine barrels with tight lids planted slanted into the ground.
They are also a huge money saver. And being someone who believes that even a city dweller with a small plot of land should grow some of their own food I also believe that we all have a responsibility to learn how to grow food as well as save it, because with our recent history of hurricanes in the southern regions of the country I know that attic cellars have enabled friends I know, to at least have fresh vegetables to cook over the camp stove as they go about trying to get their lives back together.
Because root cellars are something as the one chapter in the book titled Food Cellars for Everyone says, are for everyone whether you live in rural American, suburbia or even a city with a small lot. Roots cellars are economical across the board and have a long history and can be placed under a home, off into a hillside, in a closet, basement or even two big wine barrels with tight lids planted slanted into the ground.
They are also a huge money saver. And being someone who believes that even a city dweller with a small plot of land should grow some of their own food I also believe that we all have a responsibility to learn how to grow food as well as save it, because with our recent history of hurricanes in the southern regions of the country I know that attic cellars have enabled friends I know, to at least have fresh vegetables to cook over the camp stove as they go about trying to get their lives back together.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Super resource!
This is the best book on root cellars that we have found! The pictures and diagrams are wonderful, and the information on what to grow, when to harvest, and how to store is... Read more
Published 17 hours ago by OakTea Int.
5.0 out of 5 stars
gave me a good idea
this book has some good and simple designs, one of which was a buried garbage can that worked out perfectly for my needs
Published 17 hours ago by steady freddy
5.0 out of 5 stars
This book explains it all!
This book tells you make to not only fill a root cellar, but how to make it too. For years my husband and I have wanted to make a root cellar. Now we know how to make it.
Published 26 days ago by plbquinn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Reads like a novel, educates like a science text
I learned more about gardening and storing food in the first 100 pages of this book than I have in the last 15 years. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Arvilla
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book
If you are needing a book to give you ideas this is good. If you want plans then go for a different book. All in all I recommend it.
Published 28 days ago by Evan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it
Grow your own food and eat healthy , good way to know more . Organic home grown is best you can eat.
Published 1 month ago by G. Therese S. Pedersen
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you live in an OLD house this is great
Great book great resource
Plant save store.....
This is a handy book to explain what was normal in the 1700's in new England...
Plant save store.....
This is a handy book to explain what was normal in the 1700's in new England...
Published 1 month ago by Ciao Nona!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Storing garden produce
Bought this book for my husband. Great ideas on how to store our garden produce. Plan to put it to use
Published 1 month ago by Wilda Akins
4.0 out of 5 stars
good book will advance your gardening and storage
HAVEN'T READ THE WHOLE THING, BUT IT WILL SUPPLEMENT INFORMATION ONCE GIVEN TO YOU AND PASSED DOWN FROM YOUR MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER. Read more
Published 2 months ago by DC Maxx
4.0 out of 5 stars
Root Cellaring
A great book for those who have no knowledge and a good book for those who have a little knowledge and can learn more.
Published 2 months ago by Allan J. Huston
