He Buries A Garbage Can In The Backyard For This Brilliant Reason. I'm Totally Trying This!

Here is a wonderful, inexpensive, and quick way to set up a winter storage space for your food. If you're focused on living an off grid life, chances are you're looking into ways of growing your own food so you can be fully self-sustainable. It's a very smart thing to do, and will help you create a healthier lifestyle for yourself. Growing your own food means that you know exactly what has been done to the food before it's put on your plate. You have control over what is put on it as it grows and you can avoid any chemicals and GMOs that make our food toxic. But once you've grown your food, where do you store it all? Your fridge is only so big, and you may not have a lot of space in your home for food storage. You may be interested in creating a cold food storage room or a cellar to store root vegetables and canned goods in so you can eat them year round instead of just when they're in season. Root cellars are the perfect way to keep food cool instead of using a fridge that uses electricity.

If you're on a tight budget and you don't have much time, you can create a miniature food storage space. This is the trash can root cellar from the Earthineer, and it's one of the great diy projects to do when you're living an off grid life. All you need is a metal trash can with a tight-fitting lid. You're probably going to want to buy a new trash can instead of using an old used one though. You can find one of these trash cans at any home hardware store or building centre, and they don't cost too much either. Once you have your trash can back at home, you're going to dig a hole in the ground where you want your mini root cellar. Dig the hole to be the diameter of the trash can and as deep as the height of the can. Put some loose rocks at the bottom of the hole in the ground, to allow for drainage, so that the trash can top is sticking out of the ground about an inch. Then, you'll put some holes in the bottom of the can to allow any built up moisture to drain out. Just use your drill, or a hammer and a nail and make about 20 or so holes all over the bottom of the can.

Next, place some straw in the bottom of the trash can and then some potatoes. Keep layering the straw and the potatoes, or other root vegetables like beets or sweet potatoes, but just make sure that the vegetables will be okay to be in there together. For example, apples and potatoes won't store well together, so you may have to make two separate mini root cellars for them. Then, put the lid on the trash can really tight and put some hay over the lid. Then lay a sheet of plywood over the hay and put some large rocks or bricks on it to keep it weighted down, so racoons don't get into the cellar. The steel will also help keep any burrowing animals out of your storage container. So there you have it, a diy root cellar you can make for practically nothing. People have been using root cellars for ages as a way to store their fall harvest for the upcoming winter. That way food will always be in supply. Enjoy trying out this diy project and find some other off grid living projects to do on the Earthineer website.***