I love reading recommendations for curing or storing certain vegetables and fruits. “Store between 50 and 60°F”.
OK, where the heck am I going to find those conditions? The house is a lot warmer, the fridge is a lot colder…and it’s 92° outside!
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“Back in the day …” that’s what the root cellar was for, or the spring house, if you were so lucky.
But you’re right. I’ve got garlic I need to finish cleaning and get into the basement, and even that’s a little warm right now.
Here’s a snapshot of a reconstructed well-house in Kansas:
http://lacusveris.com/SFT/en/Santa%20Fe%20Trail%20Center.shtml#x192
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This is our biggest issue for most of our harvest. We don’t have central air conditioning so my kitchen stays warm. I have no basement. Right now I have most of the garlic, potatoes, peppers, dried currants and other stuff behind a couch under a window air conditioning unit. I have yet to come across a good plan.
A spare refrigerator at the warmest setting might do it or it could be modified with a different thermostat. I have an unheated storage room that stays at about 60 in the winter.
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We have a basement and a root cellar - both are prone to flooding and I’m not sure how to manage their humidity since they’re always so damp.
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I use the spare refrigerator. But this creates the problem of keeping potatoes away from apples, forex
Apparently, you can build a root cellar from a new but defective septic tank:
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Damp is good! Flooding isn’t, though. I set bushel baskets of apples on a wooden pallet. A plastic one would do, too. The closer you can get the humidity to 100%, the better.
Here’s an interesting British site:
That was helpful, thank you! Didn’t know the humidity had to be that high. That article sounds good for root crops, but what about apples, pears and quince in my conditions? What I would like is to have racks of those plastic crates in my root cellar off the ground in case it floods, but do apples and such require different humidity conditions and storage situations? We have a spare fridge but trying to find a non-electric option to store a large quantity of produce over the winter. Would be nice to have them in the same area as the other stored crops, if possible.
Not a good idea, generally. Apples and other pome fruit emit ethylene during ripening and should be kept away from vegetable crops in storage.
https://hortnews.extension.iastate.edu/2000/8-11-2000/storepotatoes.html
Best storage for apples is as close to freezing and 100% humidity as you can get.
I have an insulated closet in my basement. There’s a window in which I’ve set an electric damper that opens when connected to A/C power. I have an outdoor low-edge thermostat that lets the damper have power when the temperature is less than 50°F. I have an indoor high-edge thermostat that lets the damper have power when the temperature is greater than 32°F. The basement walls are brick painted with latex, and they can get damp, which is good. Also, I have an open tub of damp sand on the floor, but all efforts to keep the air moist fail in cold weather. In windy weather, I have to watch the sand to be sure it doesn’t freeze and open the closet door if it does. In the fall, the weather is too warm to cool the closet much below 50°F until mid November, but I’ve used most of the early season apples by then.