Country Living Skills

If you need storage that keeps your food cool without using electricity, a root cellar comes in very handy.

There are a tremendous amount of different designs for root cellars out there - check out this site, for example: Root Cellars

Their link to the garbage can root cellar is broken though, so here are some basic instructions to this particular type of root cellar:

Via:survivaljunction.com

“Consider burying a galvanized garbage can in the ground to create your own “root cellar.” The root cellar keeps potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, and apples through the winter. Bury the can upright with 4 in. or so of the top protruding above ground level.”

I got this information from snopes.com:

The potato, the ultimate comfort food in Western society, has a disturbing secret. potatoes This trustworthy old friend so often invited to our tables can, at times, slip us a little bit of poison.

The potato — or, rather, green versions of it — contains a natural toxin called solanine. The greenish hue that should warn you away from such spuds is actually chlorophyll, but its presence indicates concentration of solanine are present in the tuber.

A glycoalkaloid poison found in species of the nightshade, solanine is a nerve toxin produced in the green part of the potato (the leaves, the stem, and any green spots on the skin). This bitter poisonous
crystalline alkaloid is part of the plant’s defenses against insects, disease, and predators. Potato leaves and stems are naturally high in glycoalkaloids, so ingestion of these parts of the plant must be avoided at all costs.

Solanine develops in potatoes when spuds are subjected to light or either very cold or warm temperatures. It interferes with the body’s ability to use a particular chemical that facilitates the transmission of impulses between cells. Ingested in large enough amounts, it can cause vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, and even paralysis of the central nervous system.

However, unless you are deliberately seeking out green potatoes to eat, you are unlikely to ingest enough of the toxin to do harm. The potatoes we buy contain such a minute amount of the chemical that a healthy adult would have to eat about 4-1/2 pounds at one sitting to experience any neurological symptoms. Ergo, don’t worry about having the occasional green potato chip, but do discard any potatoes that have green eyes, sprouts, or greenish skins, rather than prepare and serve them, especially to children. (Children’s smaller body size makes them more susceptible to ill effects.)

This is worth reading…  Hopefully many people have learned from their family history, or will learn from these people’s memories…  Prepare, people !

Via: CNN.com

Memories of salvaging and stealing to avoid going hungry are part of the legacy of the Great Depression. Some iReporters say they can’t help but look at the current economy and feel the past holds lessons for the present.

“Even ladies didn’t shy away from hard work,” says Sheila Elrod. Her grandmother is shown at a cotton loom.

Pam Van Hylckama Vlieg says her grandfather tried to steal chickens after being laid off from coal mining.

Donna LeBlanc of Waxia, Louisiana, says she carries no credit to this day as a result of the frugality and self-reliance instilled in her by her family. Her husband keeps the couple’s credit card and maintains a zero balance.

The Great Depression meant scary times for many households as a period of economic downturn spread throughout the world. Historians trace its start to the “Black Tuesday” stock crash on October 29, 1929, and argue that the resulting global desperation set the stage for World War II.

LeBlanc said her grandparents were fortunate that they didn’t have investments and could grow — or catch — their own food during the Depression years.

Her grandfather Lester was a “Cajun cowboy” often seen wearing a cowboy hat, and her grandmother Ida was a resourceful woman who spent much of the 1930s working as a store clerk. LeBlanc, always told never to keep credit card debt, heard frightful stories from Ida. iReport.com: See a photo of the happy couple together after all these years

“She remembered vividly the barrels of flour, the bolts of cloth and the hunger in the faces of people as they begged for store credit,” LeBlanc said. “The store must have been at least marginally successful, because my grandmother was able to purchase, a piece at a time, a complete six-person setting of Gorham Chantilly silverware for her trousseau, linens and even a Lane cedar chest to house her treasures.”

The couple would catch wild hogs, feed them corn for a year and eat them once the wild taste was out of the scavenging animals. They also took advantage of available squirrel meat, a common food in the South at that time.

Full Story

Via: Cleveland.com

Q. What are the most important considerations?

A. Know the square-footage of your home, or the room to be heated, to get the right size unit for that space. Buy the highest quality that you can afford, and have the unit installed by a professional who knows the system and can make sure the clearances are correct, the chimney system is proper, and the installation is in accordance with the owner’s manual.

Q. Wood-burning stoves are commonly made from cast-iron, welded steel, soapstone or porcelain. Is there an efficiency and/or price difference among the materials?

A. Steel stoves are typically least expensive, and heat is released from steel quicker, so it cools down more quickly.

A cast-iron stove is the next step up in price. It releases heat more slowly, which means it stays warm longer.

Soapstone is usually the most expensive. The material releases heat slower than cast-iron.

Porcelain stoves are cast iron with a colored porcelain finish.

Q. What’s the price range of wood-burning stoves, and what do you get for the least and most expensive?

A. The least expensive start at about $800 and are small, heating less than 1,000 square feet.

Full Report