I watched a great show the other day with Kevin McLeod an Englishman from Grand Designs. He met up with an expat named Richard Rees and his wife from England who had gone to live in sub-arctic Sweden. They had all their meat, vegetables etc. in a hole in the floor of their home. (which was frozen) They bought a whole deer and it lasts them a year. They use everything from the animal, skin, sinews, bones etc. They have a sled dogging business and at the moment have 54 dogs and the dogs get the leftovers from the deer. They have no electricity, no running water, no shops as they are miles away from anyone. What an existence, they would love your well packed pantry Carolyn. I'm in awe of people who do bottling, canning etc. but it is obviously a necessity in places away from the suburban shops. I hope all your cooking for winter goes really well. Love Chris

Great looking space. Now to pack it out! Do you have to dig out snow to get to this space? I complain about having to go down to the basement for the auxiliary food supplies, but it is only 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the upstairs and I don't have to go outside to get there! (Okay, I'm spoiled.) We're all blessed to have a supply of food "in".

Thanks for sharing pics from your part of the world. Pickled beets sound delicious.

Looks good! I do not have a cold storage like this. Harvest is just around the bend and then the cold winter. When those 'Aussies' start talking spring, I start to shudder! Lol!

i would love to see you cellar all packed ready for winter ,its a lot of work , but much healthier when you make your own supplies

Beautiful.

Thanks for sharing Carolyn.. I remember when all the ladies in my family canned and preserved and dried all summer long. Nothing was wasted. A well stocked pantry was a sight to behold but a lot of work. /Lillian

I love your cold room. I wish we had one but it is too warm here. My dehydrator has been busy this summer drying lots of fruit and I just made grape jelly. But my efforts don't hold a candle to yours. Enjoy all you goodies and stay warm.

Wow, this is quite impressive...In So. California the only cold room we need is one for ourselves to keep cool! It has been 105 degrees (f) here for the past several days...and we are in a four year drought as well...I am ready for our cooler days...but rarely do we get any snow where I live...last time I remember it snowing at my home was in 1988...and your pickled beets sound yummy!

I am feeling very thankful. I live 4 minutes from a major grocery well stocked and there may be a few days that I wouldn't want to try to get there. I guess we all do the things we must to survive.

What a great cold storage room. I am freezing pumpkin for pies in the winter and also roma tomatoes for sauce. Have done beets, pickles and corn relish, other years but not now. Hugs.

Hi Carolyn, I'm doing the same thing in BC! I have a "cool room" (no outside windows and extra thick walls) in a corner of the workshop. I don't get much sewing done in the summer as the garden, which has been bountiful this year, keeps me busy with all the canning, freezing and dehydrating. When the shelves are full I call it my Fall "work of art". We are truly blessed. Thanks for sharing your pictures!!

Love your cool room. Would look great when all those bottles were full. Brings back memories of my mothers pantry. Was always stacked with bottled fruits, jams, biscuits etc. Having a large family she needed to do all this. Butter was home made as well. We as children had to sit on the lid of the butter churner while my elder sister turned the handle. My mother was lucky to have girls in the family to help her do these jobs. Thanks for the memories. Hugs Shirley

Food storage is something I strongly believe in, whether we live close to a store or out in the remotest habitats, people should try to build up items to sustain themselves. The need could be from an emergency situation, or that the grown kids are coming back home again due to struggles they may be having. Having the shelves stocked, brings a huge sense of peace that you have enough to provide for your family, no matter what the economy or crops may be doing in your area of the world. With the crop destruction that recently happened in Russia and even some in Texas, I am continually grateful for the supplies that we have built up over the years. After the North Ridge earthquake in California, years ago, people who did not have any water supply stored up were forced to pay up to $80 for a single 2 liter bottle of water- craziness is rampant during emergency situations and even the Red Cross takes several days to get everything set up to be able to help. Hopefully I won't need all I have stored up over the years, but I know I have enough for not only our family but to also help any of our neighbors if needed. It will be far easier to help feed people then fight everyone who would be desperate to find something for their families to eat- a person's food storage will be more valuable than gold when there is not food available. It won't be fancy but it will fill their stomachs. If storing for longer time than just a winter it is important to store items to preserve their freshness. Store what your family eats and eat what you have stored. Protect the food storage you have, as you do not want to feed rodents and you do not want the food to go bad before you are able to use it either. Not everyone realizes that Brown rice may be more nutritious than white rice, but brown rice goes rancid in 6-9 months due to the oils in the brown rice. Wheat will store for centuries, that is until you grind it up into flour, and then it also will go rancid if not used within 6- 9 months, so it is better to have the whole wheat and a wheat grinder to grind the wheat as it is needed. Storing in a cold cellar helps to preserve foods but it is also important to have the plastic or metal buckets up off the concrete floors as the concrete will cause temperature fluctuations- by just putting the buckets up on a wooden pallet or even putting a couple 2x4's under them and pulling them away from the back wall a couple inches will prevent those issues. People do not need to go into debt to build up some reserve. Often simple changes and being willing to can or package up what you can get is a great way to start. Most areas the people who have fruit trees may not need or want all that their trees produce and you may be able to glean their trees etc. I hope everyone reading this will take a moment to really think about what would they have to survive on if something happened in the next 24 hours. Early in 2002 in an Emergency preparedness class I was in, they told us that the average American family has only enough food in their cabinets and refrigerator for only 3 days.- That is scary for so many people to be so unprepared. If something were to happen all those unprepared people are going to have stripped the stores within the first hour and I hope that all of you reading this are not going to risk taking a chance on trying to get something during any of those kinds of mad house conditions. Just start buying extra, watching for sales and build up as you are able. Start first with foods like rice, wheat, oats, beans and the foods that will sustain you, but that are less expensive. Purchasing in bulk is often a great savings and if you do not need the industrial sized packages then maybe you could split the cost and package with others wanting to build up their storage. After getting at least some basics then work at expanding your selection of stored foods. Hoping that we never go through any major disaster where we will need our storage to survive but I know over the last 25+ years we have not only needed it ourselves, but we have also been able to help many other people both family and friends when they found themselves in a time of need. Having food storage and also other needs like medications, will bring a huge sense of peace and calm. I appreciate that the Lord has blessed us to be able to have this storage. It has been a blessing to all who have made use of it over the years. Pam

I enjoyed your article about food storage, I too have a year supply of food for my family, and my oldest son has a year supply for his little family, You never know when there comes a hard time in the family to where you need the extra food so you can save money to pay bills.I use a lot of freeze dried food and it is very good.

Nice !! I have been canning for 40 years. We always have a garden and a storage of things. I make a lot of what we have NO preservatives!! I make jams Jellies, Catsup, tomato sauce , tomatoes veggies of all kinds etc... Suzanne