Fermenting

[flowerbug]

@Ridgerunner just saw your comment about it getting too warm and thought that you could bury it down a few feet and it would stay cooler that ways. put a few rocks over it for shade and keeping the critters out (or in )...

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Ridgerunner just saw your comment about it getting too warm and thought that you could bury it down a few feet and it would stay cooler that ways. put a few rocks over it for shade and keeping the critters out (or in )...

What I'd like to do is dig into a hillside and create a small room underground with a door to store potatoes and use for fermenting, but I don't have a place I could do that, at least not easily or inexpensively. I already have a tornado shelter but it's not designed so it stays cool in the hot afternoon sun. I've tried shading it, my 12' high trellis I now use for pole beans is a result of that, but it did not work well enough. If it were important enough to me I'd come up with something but the payout just isn't there.

With the pickling crock I have I need to check it every few days to make sure the water has not evaporated and I lose the airlock. Just burying it isn't very conducive to that. This shows the type that I have. If you can keep the water from evaporating it works really well in a cool spot.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/GERM...VW7bACh3wJQq5EAQYAiABEgLQevD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I've buried dandelion wine before so it would stay cool as it aged, that worked pretty well. I'll have to think about those pickle pipes, I could see doing something similar with them. They are not constant maintenance, at least I don't think so. Maybe bury a waterproof box big enough to hold a couple of gallon jugs and dig it up five weeks later to see if it is ready. Wet weather springs coming off the mountain is another issue.

 

[flowerbug]

too bad those springs weren't more constant and cool water enough to keep a box cold...

evaporative cooling is also another angle.

i'm in a similar spot with respect to not having a cellar and no real easy place to put one. high water table too in the wet parts of the season. so i can't go far in the ground.

the tornado shelter here is the core utility room next to the central fire place. so far we've had one small tornado within 100yds of the house, but i didn't even notice it until after it was past. not every day you look out your window and notice the neighbor's garage is gone.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I've only used mine once in ten years, that one passed well overhead. We had the dogs with us, it's amazing how their behavior changed right after it had passed overhead. That's how we knew it was safe to come out.