Cold Storage
Nothing beats fresh garden produce in the dead of winter. It tastes good and it's not impossible — all you need is a cold storage room.This chilly room can be a relatively inexpensive addition to any house if you do the construction yourself. You can build one in a corner of the basement, under a porch, beneath the front steps, below a bay window or in part of a utility room. When insulated properly from the house and the outdoors, a root cellar or cold storage room maintains a temperature that varies only about 6°C with the seasons.
The room can replace a refrigerator for storing some foods but not for everything — it's simply not cold enough all year round. A refrigerator usually runs at about 1 °C, while a cold storage room keeps an average temperature of 4 to 6°C.
If you want to construct a cold storage room yourself, first determine the needs of your family and the space you have to work with in your home. Walk-in sizes can range anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 square metres. You'll need about $150 for framing, plywood, insulation, some vents and a door.
Ideally, the room should be built in the north corner of a basement, out of direct sunlight. This way only two additional walls are needed — the floor and ceiling are already built in. It's also handy to use the outside wall for venting purposes (you control temperature and humidity by circulating the air).
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December 4, 2008