Hi from the UK.

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UKhomesteader

Friend
Neighbor
Joined
Aug 20, 2023
Messages
14
Location
New Forest, UK
Hi.

As it seems introductions are in order:

My wife and I live in the UK with 3 teenagers, on the outskits of the New Forest (includes some of western europes most ancient woodland.. the one thing it isn't is new).

We have about half an acre and garden organically, we are slowly converting parts of the garden to growing veg.. currently at about 300sq ft, aiming for 1500+. Aiming to live as independantly as we can reasonably, trying to move a little more in that direction every year.

The soil here is extremely fertile so even with just the little bit of ground we've turned over to veg we're looking at a lot of produce (comparing with usual farming yields we seem to be at the top of the ranges). So, we have a "nice problem to have".. how to store?, here is where it gets tricky.

Last winter we had a 3 day power cut and lost food in the freezer, in many ways it feels like the UK is falling apart, so I'm looking at root stores (no or minimal power requirement).. the problem is all the designs online are for the US.. with its continental climate, not our maritime climate (our ground looks too warm, despite our latitude). Worth noting, I'm a Research & Development Engineer.. so I can run the maths.. but usually anyone who's done it before is way ahead.. hence I'm here to learn.
 
Magus said:
Welcome! pull up to the campfire and have some beans and a beer!
Click to expand...
We can have our own rendition of Blazing saddles aye?



Welcome from Michigan USA
 
Welcome neighbour :)
I've found some interesting articles on Pinterest about storing produce, such as using an old freezer underground. I find the issue here in Ireland is dampness. I also once lost a lot of jam to mould, so I'm inclined to not store everything the same way or place. I probably do rely on my freezer too much, as I freeze about half of my veg / fruit: but I've never been without power for days on end either. We have a small generator on standby, so maybe that's something you could invest in.
 
Welcome from Florida.
I looked at Bing Maps to see your location.
As someone who has studied WW2 for over 65 years now, I immediately noticed that you live near the Channel ports where many, many of the ships involved in D-Day embarked from.

As an aside, my ancestors were "asked" to leave Scotland by the English around 1700. My Great Great Great Great Grandfather repaid this act by joining the Continental Army in 1775 and fighting for the independence of the Colonies.
But that's all way in the past. the US and UK are the greatest allies today.

We are glad to have you join. Of all the on line forums I belong to, this is by far the most civil.
 
Magpie said:
Welcome neighbour :)
I've found some interesting articles on Pinterest about storing produce, such as using an old freezer underground. I find the issue here in Ireland is dampness. I also once lost a lot of jam to mould, so I'm inclined to not store everything the same way or place. I probably do rely on my freezer too much, as I freeze about half of my veg / fruit: but I've never been without power for days on end either. We have a small generator on standby, so maybe that's something you could invest in.
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We live in an area that is highly susceptible to tropical storms and the resulting power outages.
We also keep three freezers full of food, so one of our most important pieces of equipment is a 5,000 watt generator.
They aren't very expensive, but with today's poor excuse for gasoline one must make sure to drain the carburetor and clean the float bowl after each use.
 
Welcome from the West Coast. I don't know much about storing food underground. As far as a generator we use propane, so now carburetor issues. I know you didn't ask about power but the new solar generators are promising. The plug into the house and or charge from solar. They can run a freezer for days. Pinball preparedness on YouTube has done several reviews.
 
Welcome from Bama! When it comes to food preserving/storing methods I try not to ‘re-invent the wheel’. Meaning, here, it’s all been done before. I saw some of it as a child (live on the farm where I was born). Now I have the ‘Fox Fire’ book series. They detail life before electricity in the Appalachia, multiple ways of storing and preserving foods.

How were foods stored at your location before electricity? 1000’s of people did it… their methods were tried and true. Someone left a record I’m sure… and they did it without fancy gadgets made from special materials. I’d suggest starting there.
 
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Welcome from Colorado, USA!

I think generators are essential. We could all lose power at any time, and there have been predictions of that happening long term in the states. Stockpiling food is one thing, being able to keep it safe is another. We could all run out of gasoline or whatever fuel we have sooner or later. Solar generators are a good backup. Nothing is foolproof though.
 
Welcome from Alaska!
 
rice paddy daddy said:
Welcome from Florida.
I looked at Bing Maps to see your location.
As someone who has studied WW2 for over 65 years now, I immediately noticed that you live near the Channel ports where many, many of the ships involved in D-Day embarked from.

As an aside, my ancestors were "asked" to leave Scotland by the English around 1700. My Great Great Great Great Grandfather repaid this act by joining the Continental Army in 1775 and fighting for the independence of the Colonies.
But that's all way in the past. the US and UK are the greatest allies today.

We are glad to have you join. Of all the on line forums I belong to, this is by far the most civil.
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yup you found me.. lovely part of the world!

Re others comments on backup generators etc. I design electronics and have become increasingly aware of the failing supply chains, gone are the days where you could design something into a board and pretty much know you could rely on it being available without problem, we now need extensive procedures in place to ensure continuity of supply.. so.. I'm thinking that way about most things now.. if I can make "passive" solutions work, so much the better, there's nothing much to break down and maintenance is limited to sweeping out occasionally. So I'm looking to maximise what passive cooling I can achieve, if I need to "top up" with some form of refridgeration, that should be less of a problem.. if it fails the temperature rise would be that much smaller.. The trouble seems to be late summer to early autumn where the ground is still warm but we have a ton of food that needs storing.
 
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Welcome from S.W. Oregon in a freer area of the Left Coast. Generators are great, if you have a very large propane tank or are able to store diesel, diesel is a very good long term storage fuel, I have a gasoline powered generator but seldom use it because I built a solar system that has 1,260 amp hours of battery storage, six banks of four 210 AH batteries that feed a pure sine wave 4,000 watt 120/240 VAC inverter/charger. Presently the solar system is just for backup, grid power in our area is still very affordable, but we do have fairly frequent grid interruptions, especially during snowy days or heavy rains that cause trees to uproot and knock out the power, if that happens the backup system kicks in, in about 16 milliseconds, just a blink of the eye, we've ran the backup for seven days without grid with minimum solar recharge, the last day I had to start up the generator to keep the two refrigerators and two freezers cold, then the grid came back on. One thing to consider, if you have spare cash, is a freeze dryer and a quality dehydrator, it's a good way to down size your storage area, because they will have to be dehydrated, you'll need lots of stored water. We have 3,000 gallons of available water storage, one hand cast concrete 1,100 gallon cistern and one 1,100 gallon black poly tank with another one to be connected when the ground gets soaked with rain enough to dig a platform for it. Anyway, you've come to a good place, great people with tons of helpful info because they are practicing what they preach.
 
@UKhomesteader
First welcome aboard.
Second, a couple of resources: The Victorian Kitchen Garden was a sort of documentary, experiment you can watch free online. They talk about how things were stored and used.
Also, I have a book (well, more than one) from over yonder I can look in and see if it has any good info. What sorts of things are you wanting to store?
 
LadyLocust said:
@UKhomesteader
First welcome aboard.
Second, a couple of resources: The Victorian Kitchen Garden was a sort of documentary, experiment you can watch free online. They talk about how things were stored and used.
Also, I have a book (well, more than one) from over yonder I can look in and see if it has any good info. What sorts of things are you wanting to store?
Click to expand...
I have the Victorian Kitchen Garden amongst others, (also the New Organic Grower.. I'm basing our rotation on the 8 season one from that with some tweeks). This year we're awash with potatoes, apples and runner-beans, that situation is only going to become more pronouced as we turn more land over to produce, so I'm looking beyond just the next few months. The runner beans we have sorted, it's mostly just trying to chill the potatoes and apples. We are converting a store room (on the north east corner of the house) into a pantry, insulated from the house, but it's not cool enough at the moment for long term storage.
 
Welcome from New York State!
 
Welcome from Eastern Missouri. Smack dab in the middle of the USA. I don't know exactly where you are, but England is way North of the USA. Even the people in Maine probably couldn't offer much help, although you might check to see what they do. Have you looked on line for people in Canada who use root cellars; maybe in Newfoundland? They would be more in your latitude. Sorry I can't offer more help.

Great people here with a wealth of information, all willing to offer help and assistance. You came to the right place. Good to have you with us. :welcome:
 
UKhomesteader said:
I have the Victorian Kitchen Garden amongst others, (also the New Organic Grower.. I'm basing our rotation on the 8 season one from that with some tweeks). This year we're awash with potatoes, apples and runner-beans, that situation is only going to become more pronouced as we turn more land over to produce, so I'm looking beyond just the next few months. The runner beans we have sorted, it's mostly just trying to chill the potatoes and apples. We are converting a store room (on the north east corner of the house) into a pantry, insulated from the house, but it's not cool enough at the moment for long term storage.
Click to expand...
I didn't see this before I left the house. I will look this evening, but it does seem like stone walls were involved. I will look though!
 
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