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Experiment: Mini "Root Cellar" from broken freezer (for storing potatoes)
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- čas přidán 14. 11. 2018
- UPDATE: Mini Root Cellar Experiment (after 3 months of potato storage)
• Update: Mini Root Cell...
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After successfully harvesting 337 lbs of potatoes, we only had one problem: Where to store them?!
Since we don't have a root cellar, I came up with another idea using an old broken chest freezer and some simple parts from the hardware store. Now to find out if it actually works...
For those wanting to skip the background information, here are some quick links to the content:
00:37 Curing freshly harvested potatoes
02:20 Root cellar basics
05:03 Constructing the mini root cellar
10:28 Limitations to this design
This reminded me of something our Dad did when we were kids back around the mid-50s in the Kentucky mountains. He did it not so much because we had no other choice, but to teach us. That fall we had a lot of apples from an old orchard on the land we rented. He gathered us around out in a garden area and dug a fairly deep hole in a bowl shape. He lined it with clean straw and we began to layer the best apples in the straw until we had about a bushel of apples worked in. He covered them with another thick layer of straw, and then covered the straw with the dirt taken from the hole. Several months latter at Christmas time we went out and opened the apple bed. I still remember the smell of apples as we took them out. They were fragrant and fresh and crunchy. Precious memories... and delicious too. Thank you. Love your ideas and experiments.
Loved this. Thank you for sharing your memory with all of us.
Awesome! I will try it.
It's called a "clamp" ... you can do it with potatoes, carrots and turnips too.
@Russell Gerdes This makes me so sad. My uncle Sam was in WWI and they experimented he found out later with mustard gas on him and a bunch of his fellow soldiers. He was sick the rest of his life and he was just like your dad. Worked and worked in a garden and sold potatoes. It was the easiest for him to just plant with a lot of help from his many nephews and nieces. Then come harvest they all came and helped him dig them up and put them on hay wagons, picnic tables they all brought and the porch to dry out. It was the easiest crop for him to grow since they don't take a lot of work in between. He then would plant his home garden for him and Aunt Adena. Although instead of people coming to him for potatoes; he piled them in his wagon and delivered to people. In our small farming area all the people knew him and most didn't plant potatoes so he could have some money to live on. Its amazing how kind people can be. He was my favorite great uncle. He was a man of faith and kindness. He could have been bitter but he wasn't. I don't know if this will reach you after 2 years but I wanted to talk about Uncle Sam. Loved him so much.
I also would like to thank your dad: he taught you this, you shared it, and now I've learned something new which could prove valuable to survival.
Be sure to put screens on the intake and outflow vents to prevent rodents and pest.
Exactly what WE forgot to do and now we have so many nice!@Mark OnTheBlueRidge
My beds are deep so no weeds will come from bottom, covered and smothered with cardboard first after hardware cloth. I’m in panhandle of Fl and through some potatoes in ground temperatures about 50-60 currently and I have many heading up, I may get potatoes this late in year.
Great idea.
Mark OnTheBlueRidge Another great idea.
@@judyhowell7075 Altha Fl here
To preserve some of your harvest, you may want to consider canning some of your potatoes. After peeling 10 pounds of them, cut into chunks about 1.5 to 2 inches square, roughly, then place in a large stock pot adding water to cover. Once the potatoes are heated through, but not cooked, ladle them into a warmed quart canning jar, add the hot liquid from the pot, seal with canning jar lids and rings and process in a pressure canner. See the Ball Blue Book for specific canning directions. The finished project nets you potatoes firm enough to slice and fry, yet soft enough that if they were reheated, they could be mashed and served. 10 pounds of potatoes fit into 7 quart jars which is exactly the number of quart jars that fit into most pressure canners. These poatoes will keep for a minimum of 5 years if kept in a cooler, dark place like your basement. There is more to know about the canning process than described here so read the directions in the named book above for more specific info, especially if you have never used a pressure canner before. The only great canner to own is the All American. It is the safest.
You don't need the fan! You simply need to rise the exhaust tube a off the ground couple of feet higher than the intake tube, and paint the exhaust tube black (it will turn into a solar chimney). Also, you can put a 3 inch layer of wet sand on the floor of the freezer, so it acts as an evaporative cooler (like a zeer pot). That will greatly boost the efficiency of your system.
I was thinking that too, for the "chimney effect".
I also was going to suggest that, but you beat me to it. The higher the exhaust tube, the greater the flow.
I hate when videos waste my time BUT having just discovered your channel and watching a half dozen of your videos, I am very impressed!. No endless chatter and brevity to boot. You are a great teacher.... Very helpful. Thank you!
My grandparents stored Apple's and potatoes buried in straw in a smallish, unheated shed. I have an unused bedroom where I set up shelves(that I already had), closed the vent and drapes and store pumpkins and squash. Potatoes and tomatoes in paper bags, plus all the canning. There is a window ac incase the winter sun heats up the room. This is the first time using this system and so far it's working great! It's all about being creative within your skill set!
exactly
ZZZzzzzz ..............
@@susiearviso3032 that was mean, but it made me laugh. lol
thank you for sharing
Probably one of the better ideas for those have no basement or storage shed.
I really Like your experimental approach to learn :)
Your name is so original haha
Wish I had you as a teacher when I was a kid, I would have got better marks! 😉Excellent video! 👍
Tell you from Hungary. After one real farming season as a rooky, I used my rootcellar for potato, zucchini, pumpkin, betroot, melons. It is an old house and I try to keep it simple. Potatoes lay on the earthy floor. After weeks I came for a look and on top of the potatoes sat a toad. She did not move at all. She watched her food (isopods, woodlice) eating my food (potatoes). I like your title "back to reality", thats what I feel again and again.
What part of Hungary, I was born in Budapest but raised in Rakoskereszten.
so thorough and useful and without drama or distracting music. Thank you.
Wow. I spent my entire life not understanding how root cellar ventilation worked. I had it wrong in my head all along. This was the simplest and best-explained example ever. I feel so dumb and much smarter now at the same time. Thanks!
My family stored hundreds of pounds of potatoes in a ventilated, open bin in the basement. Never had a problem.
@Russell Gerdes That was very intreasting!!
Depends on the house/basement/humidity/geography.
I think the freezer idea is genius!
You could skip the freezer and just make it any size, just using that stiff pink insulation.
Watched your video on planting potatoes then this on storing them and absolutely enjoyed both. No nonsense and just down to facts.
I'm 66 yrs old with a bit of commonsense and you woke up my rusty old brain and l learned something. Thanks a lot.
Hope there will be more practical tips like this in future.
God bless from South Africa.
Thank you. I live in Alaska and curently have the exact same conundrum and freezer idea as a solution. I am so very glad i watched your video first. Excellent execution on your part
Try to run the fan on a potato battery, that's another experiment for you
Now that's creative thinking
plenty of potatoes for it, thats for sure
Amazing little gem of a recommendation. Thank you CZcams. Not sure how I ended up getting this recommended from watching an UK documentary on homelessness; I'm glad I did. I've been wondering about storing my potatoes in an unused crawl space within my basement (used to be the spot where a fuel tank was housed). It may be too cold as there is no insulation just bare block walls similar to what you'd find getting into a basement through an outside bulk head. In any event this has given me an idea that may resolve my storage issue. Thank you!!!!
This is the most satisfying video I've watched in a long time. Great job!
This is the best explanation on root cellars I have seen. Thanks!
@Back To Reality Thanks for taking us along on your experiment! Love the thought prosses involved and the repurposing too! Also you are damn good at video editing!!
Just gotta say i found your channel recently and i subbed i wonder why i havent found it early i mean i love your content !!! Keep it up, i cant wait to see if the potatos will stay safe for a long time !! Keep us updated !
You guys are awesome at bringing people along with you! Thankyou
This is the second video I've seen so far and I must say I love everything about your channel. The logo, the name, the presentation of the videos and the empirical nature of the experiments. Wishing you millions of subs!
I love the side by side experimentation. This kind of content is great. It helps everyone learn.
Well produced video, too.
You guys are awesome! I love how you're experimenting like this! It helps other so much!
This seems like a nice practical method for storing smaller items. We live in Ontario as well, and totally relate to the problem of things getting to cold in winter. For me the idea of a thermally controlled cold room makes sense. We have a heated basement, part of which has had the normal warm air duct closed off. This area is our food pantry where we also store canned and or packaged food, some of which is prepared for long-term storage. Our plan is to actually build a full cold room in a corner of the pantry area, vented with outside air. A solar powered fan, with automated valves will be used to maintain a constant temperature of +10C. during those parts of the year when it is cold enough outdoors.
Thanks for taking the time to document this experiment. I look forward to the update videos.
Love how your initial idea was thoroughly explored and challenges addressed.
Caution on the burlap, however. My extensive research shows majority of available burlap contains chemicals you might not want food to touch. A safe alternative is hemp matting…the kind sometimes used as a substrate for growing microgreens. It comes in sheets and rolls. I prefer the roll and cut as I need. Thicker than burlap, and, yes, a little pricey, but hemp matting has many uses, including outdoor gardens. And it’s reusable in many non-microgreen applications. Right now, hemp matting is laid out around my tomato and pepper plants… (I have a small garden)…doing a great job protecting the soil from drying out during our current scorching temperatures. I think the roughness of the hemp is also discouraging crawly creatures from getting near the plants. Win-win! Something to consider. Happy growing…and preserving!
Just found this channel today and in love already. These are really well produced videos! Reminds me of a professional DIY channel tv show but more genuine!
Great graphics and great commentary
I just love your videos!!! You give tons and tons of pertinent useful information in a well articulated manner, very easy to understand with instructions, and you cover many questions that might be asked and show the processes of what you are doing and why and then the outcomes!!! And I love that you went with multiple possible storage methods and then to follow up with this outcome as well!!! Just super content, super camera work, super editing!!!! You guys are just awesome!!
I always wondered how to keep potatoes long term in the city . This is a great idea. Very well explained. Thank you
Your animations are so pleasant and enjoyable to watch, really great timing, never a lack of visual interest for my short squirrel attention span. And on top of that your hair is looking awesome in this video! Great job all around! (-:
Great vid! Thanks for the detailed explanations. Can't wait to see/hear the results of your most worthy experiment!
I cannot wait to see the results from this experiment. Please keep us updated. Thanks
seems like a really smart approach. Many different simultaneous experiments. i like it. 👍
Thanks for your videos. They are so well done, informative, and you guys look like really nice people.
Excited to hear the results!
Thank you for this incredible amount of detail. I almost feel like I could actually do this myself with your instructions. Love to Paula.
LOVE the idea AND that you are also checking out other types of storage to find out which is best in YOUR situation.
Planted 40 cloves of garlic and 30 seed potatoes into mulch I've been moving into the yard all fall. Thank you both for the inspiration. Its going to be a long winter with just some hydo lettuce and red wigglers to hold me over.
Very clever design. Thanks for sharing it.
Smarty pants. Glad I found yours and Paula's channel. Thanks for the information!
I love all the graphics, and you narrate like so many TV shows on HGTV! I'm really enjoying your videos!
I think this is one of the all-time best CZcams videos I've seen!!!
Florida here, I am using your idea about rolled over sod as planting beds, I just took it step further since I have moles. In layers, plastic ground cover, 1/4” hardware cloth, 3’x6’x2’ box, filled with compostables and turned the grass onto that, planted my garlic and covered with more grass/leaves clippings.
Thanks so much for the great, in-depth details that you put into your videos. I’m a visual learner so it helps me a lot. Thanks again.
Brandy Gallegos I’m in Florida too, raised beds with hardware cloth for the bottoms when we plant our next potatoes, moles, voles get ours
Judy Howell reason we (I) use the plastic ground cover is it’s good for weed barrier, plus I want to be able to pick up my soil (turn) without loosing it to the ground. The here burrow threw the roots and have destroyed so many flowers before I ever planted anything else.
Good info. Looking forward to updates.
Really excited to see how this works for you, great video!
Just subbed. You all will soon hit the popularity curve and will have at least 200k-300k subscribers. I'm calling it now. Your videos are the best in this niche.
Wisconsin and Ontario have very close to the same climate. You gave me some really good ideas for use on the other side of Lake Michigan.
SOOO cool! Thanks for breaking this process down.
Just found your channel and subbed. Found your approach interesting and your delivery of subject matter quite pleasant and humorous 💕💕💕
Thanks so much Marilyn! What a wonderful comment! :)
This is an amazing idea, thanks so much for posting this!
Very creative! Good job and thanks for sharing!
Thanks for posting this video I have found it very helpful. This was our first year of growing potatoes and did it almost the same as you! Love the storage area you built. Definitely will be looking for a deep freezer to try this method.
This was super interesting Thanks! I also live in Ontario have have often contemplated rigging up some kind of fridge/unit to take advantage of our cold winter air. This was really intriguing!!!
I love this! I have also seen one of those old steel soda fridges with the sliding doors on top transformed into a powerless freezer
well done informative video, clean simple approach, can't wait to see the results in spring
One of the best things I've learned to 'keep' potatoes is to dehydrate them. 3 years ago I dehydrated sliced for scalloped, shredded for hashbrowns, cuts for fries, and mashed. 3 years later and the slicded and shredded are great, am going to try the fries and mashed over the next few weeks. I waited a while to see how they'd hold up for storage and flavor. So far so good. And if you're concerned about electrical costs, there are several videos on different solar dehydrators out there. ;)
Funny enough, we've been thinking about dehydrating some too! We have dehydrated many other veggies in the past, so we're already somewhat set up for it. I'd be really curious how the fries work out for you, so please let us know, once you try them :)
Thank you for sharing your system design and research! I know where to begin now!
Wish my husband was as handy as you. Love your videos.
Great video and I so enjoy learning from you. I will never be one to utilize what you are sharing about root cellars but I do to refer others to your site. Have you and Paula thought about dehydrating some potatoes? I have a vacuum sealer that I can use with quart canning jars to remove air and seal jars for dehydrated veggies. I'm sure that this is probably "preaching to the choir", but you never know....someone may find this useful. Again, thanks for sharing with the rest of us!
Great explanation of root cellars. Thank you
looking forward to seeing the results.
keep us all posted
:)
Great experiment and great video as always. Thank you 🙏
Very well thought out! Thank you for the time, the video and the advice. I’ve been wanting a cold room for years, (I’m in Alberta,) but now I see I won’t have to go through all the trouble and expense. (I’m widowed and have a bad back, but love my garden!). I can try something similar to this! So many thanks to you brilliant individuals for such wonderful ideas! Bless you!
Absolutely brilliant! You are a very intentional dude. I appreciate that.
Looking forward to see how this works out . Thanks
Well done. Looking forward to results. Good or not so good. Something to learn from all.
I love your approach to farming. I wish I knew all this thirty years ago, I would still be living on my farm now. I am loving watching your videos and they are so informative. Hopefully my grandchildren can use all this knowledge to be successful on their land and help supply me with fresh vegetables. Things are a little different here in Queensland Australia because our temperature is much higher all year round. I have four raised beds where I grow two crops a year of vegetables which are doing the job for now but I don’t grow potatoes or pumpkin which I would love to have.
Great video, I will show my husband and see if he can make one of these next year. We don't have a basement, probably can use our barn though, Thanks.
Absolutely love your video's!
Very informative and well researched. Thanks heaps for all your efforts :)
Brilliant great work can't wait for the update
Thank you for all the information. You explained everything so well. I think I can do this.
2 years ago I saw your 337lb potato 🥔 haul.
I just saw this video. I think it’s cool and functional. I think it was your channel and that video that gave me the confidence to start growing in my small backyard. And Derek, I greatly enjoy how you explain everything, I can follow it all the way through and the graphics are perfect. Keep up the great work. 👍🏼
I watched your carrot onion and radish experiment results and thought planting your carrots and onions together was very clever! I did think you might have gotten better results if you had worked the soil with a broadfork beforehand because they loosen the soil at greater depth without tilling.
This was very educational - thank you so much for teaching me
That information! Very grateful 🙏🙌🏼❤️
I love your well thought out videos, and am impressed with your research! ✌🐧
Brilliant; love it! I've been trying to figure out how to store food in a condo in the southwest...no basement, no cold space anywhere but I do have a very efficient heat pump/air conditioner. However, it gets so hot here for at least 6 months a year, it probably wouldn't work to do this freezer conversion. But, I've archived it for future reference, should my living situation change.
Could you leave an open mason jar full of water in there, and let the water evaporate as needed? You could then look in and quickly top it off as needed.
That's a great idea. I'll give it a shot! Thanks!
I liked learning about this experiment, because:
-- It uses something that would otherwise be thrown away. Chest freezers of all sizes can be found for free. Instead of them becoming landfill material, you have developed a way to have a well-made insulated box at your service.
-- It does not cost much money or work to convert the chest freezer into a mini-root cellar that will probably last for the rest of your life!
-- Light will not shine on root vegetables every time you enter and use the basement. That matters a lot.
-- It isolates stored root vegetables away from rodents, insects, and other pests
-- It is likely to lengthen storage times before sprouting or rotting. This increases the number of both food potatoes and seed potatoes that you can use. That can be critically important if you only have a small amount of a great, but uncommon heirloom strain of potatoes that you want to increase by growing them for multiple years.
-- It makes it easy to check the crates of potatoes for rot/sprouting
-- There is no need to carry lots of bushels full of straw, sawdust, or dirt into a residential basement. They can be heavy (especially if they are filled with dirt or sand), they tend to make messes over time, and they encourage life forms to move in when they are left out in the open in crates of root vegetables.
--This solution is easy to clean and disinfect, and that is SOOOO important when it comes to storing root vegetables.
-- Humidity is more regulated than it would be in an open air storage system in a basement or shed.
-- You can build them one at a time, try them out, and make improvements as you learn more about what works best for you.
Well done!
I've been a homesteader and gardener for many years. I like seeing your videos.
Stellar presentation!
This is really creative and inspiring!
Looking forward to seeing how things work out
That was a great DIY man. Great video
Thanks 👍 Glad you liked it!
Love your idea I'll definitely use it!
Do nicely done! The thoroughness, the computer aided graphics, methodology and overall production, better than some network professionals. Watch out, you may be approached by HGTV!
Great video. FWIW, I've driven a fan like the one you showed with a small solar panel, so you should be able to keep it off grid.
Wow as a child of the 1950s I remember my grandparents having a root cellar. A few potatoes I retrieved for cooking had some potatoes a green spots. My grandma would just cut the green spot off before cooking them. Thank you now I know why there’ were green spots. Awesome thank you for sharing this video, very informative and educational ,
Fantastic vid. I look forward to the update(s)
This is genius, I'd never have thought on this. Again, great video
very thorough...with research. TY!
Awesome presentation! The Children's tv network should hire you to teach the small children, life at the homestead by showing your videos. There's lot's to learn that they can apply in life. This will help our future generations get more healthy. I enjoyed watching, thank you. (P.S. Contact the children's tv people and tell them about this idea who knows how many kids you'd be able to help maybe millions...)
Very Informative. Spot on. Thank you.
Nice video. I would pick away at digging a root cellar by hand or get a machine to do it. Looks like you have the land. Yes, it is super satisfying to grow and store 100's of pounds of potatoes on your own land. I store my potatoes and apples in the cool, damp and insulated basement on shallow plywood shelves lined with newspaper. I put my apples in large but shallow cardboard boxes on the insulated bench. I also store up to 500 units from 7 varieties of jam along with jars of peaches and tomatoes stacked on my heavy duty wall shelves. Works well. Thank you, I am going to try this method of potatoes production. Good work.
This was very helpfull and inspiring. Thank you.
I think your idea is Great.
I stored my last crop in an old seller which I turned into an indoor workshop. The problem was it was heated. I was not aware about moisture and air flow.
So my taters sprouted and dried up.
With your video I have learned A LOT. THANKS YOU FOR THAT.
Around here (Spokane, WA.) I can find many non - working standup as well as chest freezers for free. I too don't have a dirt root cellar. So like you I'm going to barrow your idea,
This was a very well put together video.
Bonjour. C'est une vidéo très intéressante et très utile (comme toutes les autres). Merci beaucoup. J'ai hâte de voir le résultat après plusieurs mois. 👍👍👍👍
Love it. I've often thought a freezer could be adapted.
I can't wait for updates!