We have used and old freezer to make a cellar for our carrots, beets and other root vegetables that we grow in our garden. We have also made cellar buckets out of 5 gallon buckets. We use these for apples most of the time but have used them for carrots also.
So I get started with the how. To make Cellar Buckets you need:
- a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.
- a saw to cut the bucket with. My husband used his table saw and rolled the bucket.
- a bale of straw
To start with you cut the bottom out of the bucket. We just cut about an inch from the bottom. Next you want to dig a hole in the ground where there is good drainage. You don’t want standing water in the hole. the hole should be a couple of inches deeper than the height of the bucket and three to four inches wider than the bucket is. Line the sides and the bottom of the hole with sand. Place the bucket in and fill in around it with sand. Make sure that only the lid of the bucket extends out above the level of the sand. Fill the bucket with the food you wish to store. Place the lid on the bucket. Cover with a bale of straw. These make great cellars. Alternately to the straw you can buy foam insulation and sandwich it between 2 sheets of plywood. This is what we did the second year since mice seemed to love the straw and the straw got really wet in the snow. The foam insulation works as long as there is snow to hold it down and to stop the cold air from flowing under to the top of the buckets. Without snow some of the produce froze at the top of the bucket.
After making buckets cellars we decided we could use something much bigger. We had a freezer that quit working so we cut the back out of the upright freezer and placed it in a hole just like we did with the buckets, with sand under it and filled in around the sides with sand. Then we filled the freezer cellar with our carrots and it worked great.
I much prefer the freezer to the 5 gal buckets but they both work. The freezer does not need any straw on top of it since it had in insulated door.
We prepare our vegetables for storage by cutting the green about 1 inch above the vegetable. This works for carrots, beets, parsnips, and turnips. DO NOT wash the vegetables before storing. Wait until you are ready to use them to wash.
For storing apples we sort out any wormy or bruised ones and place them inside without washing.
You will not believe how crisp this method will keep your vegetables. We have great firm carrots even as late as April.