$10 Root Cellar: And Other Low-Cost Methods of Growing, Storing, and Using Root Vegetables

by Anna Hess

1/10 of an acre can feed you all year!The easiest way to grow more of your own calories is to focus on roots like potatoes and carrots. With yields of up to 200 calories per square foot, you can break your reliance on the grocery store with just a few seeds or starts and a shovel. Most root crops are easy to store through the winter and require no special harvesting or processing equipment.So why don't we all grow roots? To keep the tubers happy after harvest, these crops need a cool, damp storage spot like a root cellar. This book walks you through building a root cellar out of a junked fridge for $10, and also presents some slightly-higher-cost options for winter storage. Other highlights include tips for growing storage vegetables and feeding those roots to your family or your livestock.Self-sufficiency begins with the potato!

Genres: Gardening, Cooking, Nonfiction

101 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 25, 2013

About the author

Anna Hess dreamed about moving back to the land ever since her parents dragged her off their family farm at the age of eight. She worked as a field biologist and nonprofit organizer before acquiring fifty-eight acres and a husband, then quit her job to homestead full time. She admits that real farm life involves a lot more hard work than her childhood memories entailed, but the reality is much more fulfilling and she loves pigging out on sun-warmed strawberries and experimenting with no-till gardening, mushroom propagation, and chicken pasturing.

She also enjoys writing about the adventures, both on her blog at WaldenEffect.org, and in her books. Her first paperback, The Weekend Homesteader, helped thousands of homesteaders-to-be find ways to fit their dreams into the hours leftover from a full-time job. The Naturally Bug-Free garden, which suggests permaculture techniques of controlling pest invertebrates in the vegetable garden, is due out in spring 2015 from Skyhorse Publishing. In addition, a heaping handful of ebooks serve a similar purpose.

(As a side note, I use Goodreads more as a personal way of keeping track of the books I read than as a way to share the books I write. If you're here to learn about me as an author, check out my gardening-homesteading shelf and ignore all the fluff. You can also drop by www.wetknee.com for my authorial musings.)

Reviews

[Beverly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember stories my mom told about the root cellar her dad kept when she was a young girl, so root cellars kind of hold a fascination for me. This book was jam packed with information. She talked about several varieties of cellars to build and the proper way to store root vegetables and fruits in them. She also tossed in some historical trivia pertaining to the subjects being discussed. Anna Hess has a very easy to read writing style. I enjoyed reading this informative book as much as I enjoy reading a fiction genre. Well worth the time if you are at all interested in homesteading and root cellars.

[Donadee's Corner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most interesting book on setting up and maintaining a root cellar. Their method is the most unusual I've read but I think it would work better than the others I've read. They do their own work and they give you all of their experience that they have all ready done and either worked or flat failed at. Having that information before and knowing what not to do is worth hundreds of dollars. Very factual read.

[Kenyia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Book! Anna Hess offers a variety of options on how to construct a root cellar that works well for your lifestyle, finances, and environment. Hess also includes delicious recipes that can be prepared with the stored root vegetables, as well as other ways that one can use the root cellar.

[Anna]

My newest ebook follows in the footsteps of Trailersteading by detailing our own adventures and the experiences of a few select readers.

[Peni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource to have on hand.

[Patricia Tomlinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

very good tips. enjoyed it very much. helps you preserve foods and for little money. definitely informative and thorough. thanks!

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

highly informative