Homesteading In The Pacific Northwest

Monday, September 5, 2011

Harvest Monday ... and "Don't You Hate It When They Do That? "

I'm joining other bloggers over at Daphne's Dandelions as we share our weekly harvests...it's fun to see what others are harvesting and what they are cooking up with it...check it out!


My harvests have been tomatoes ... lots of them (probably 15 pounds this week : )



...and cucumbers ... lots of them ...this is the second fermentation crock ....


I spent a lot of the week canning and getting some storage items ready for the root cellar ... yes, the root cellar!     If you follow my blog you know that I have been in a 2 YEAR LONG discussion with FitzGyver over the merits of having a root cellar.  I bought a book, did Internet searches, etc. all to no avail; there was always a reason why not (usually having to do with the amount of liquid that comes down out of the sky and saturates the ground here in Washington).  So a week or so ago we were at the local feed store (which carries all the really good brands of dog food ... not because I was buying chicken feed "Which is a discussion that is still not over, FitzGyver!")   As we were parking I pointed to all of the Rubbermaid stock ponds and commented that we could sink one of them into the ground and build the root cellar in and over it, thus eliminating the H2O problem.  He thought for a minute and agreed that that this might work.  And then he said "Why don't you just use the Hobbit Hole? "  The Hobbit Hole!!  I could have strangled him ... because it was BRILLIANT!  "For 2 years I've wanted a root cellar and NOW you decide to be brilliant, FitzGyver??!!"


This is the Hobbit Hole ...



... a storage area built into the area under the stairs when the second floor was added to the house, accessible from the outside only and used to store miscellaneous junk ... ( you can see from the yard stick why we call it the Hobbit Hole)  ...


...and here it is today with an area for my root cellared vegetables ...


... and room to store my canning jars ...


 ... OK, I'm a Happy Camper ... "But REALLY, FitzGyver, couldn't you have been brilliant 2 YEARS AGO??!!"


Enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. That's really incredible. Belle and I began talking just this week about a root cellar. She checked "The Joy of Keeping a Root Celler" out from the library and we're very hopeful. We actually have a hillside in our back yard that would be perfect. We're so glad you've gotten yours. I look forward to hearing more about how it works.

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