STORAGE Wards

YOU DON'T NEED AN OLD-FASHIONED ROOT CELLAR TO CONTINUE EATING YOUR HARVEST WELL PAST PICKING SEASON.

- BY ERICA STRAUSS

Once, years ago, before I started homesteading, I saw a few adorable, pocket-sized pears for sale at the grocery store. They were packaged up in a plastic, snap-together box, six baby pears in a clamshell. I bought a box and brought them home, excited to try this fun, petite pear.

They were the most grainy, insipid, pointless pears I'd ever eaten. I choked down the first bite and did not go back for a second. I live in Washington, the largest pear-producing state in the United States, and I'd never experienced pears like that before. Turning over the plastic box, I saw it: "Product of Argentina."

Before a global food distribution system made it possible to ship rock-hard peaches and unripe plums from South America to South Dakota in January, people stocked their pantries and root cellars with enough locally grown storage crops to see them through the harshest of winters.

Imagine your own private larder stocked with storage fruits and vegetables apples, pears, squashes, brassicas and roots. Imagine knowing where and how your cold-weather crops were grown and stored between the farm and the table.

There are many reasons you should want to revive the root cellar. I grow and store my own produce to save money, increase my family's food security and decrease food miles, and because the flavors of locally grown, fresh-picked crops are simply just superior to those out-ofseason imports.