Wednesday, October 4, 2017

Hot Wires and Cool Storage

We hope everyone will join us this Thursday, October 5, at Pathfinder Produce for all the great fresh tastes of autumn. Although some of our available items may change because of the hurricane's impact on growing areas in the south, our market staff is dedicated to bringing a rich variety of produce items to our customers. Plus, with our Pathfinder Hoop House Harvest in full swing, there are many locally grown tastes to try … and it doesn't get any fresher!

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Last weekend, the power went out at our house as a vehicle had hit an electrical pole. Our ever-vigilant local crews -- emergency and electrical – came to the scene to handle the downed wires, and power was restored quickly. But for the few hours we were out, it made us think about what life was like before electricity was available at every rural home.

In some areas of New York State, some areas are served by municipal power, and many villages had their own hydro-power stations in the early 1900s.  It took outlying areas longer to get power, and under FDR's 1930s rural electrification programs, these areas were served through the establishment of electrical cooperatives – membership-based organizations that are still active today.  In New York, there are four cooperatives – Otsego, Oneida-Madison, Delaware, and Steuben.  To learn more about municipal power and cooperatives, visit the New York Association of Public Power website

I remember my grandparents’ stories about living in days before electricity at their Sullivan County farm. They would use kerosene lamps at night, and would preserve food by canning or using a root cellar for storage. I think it was a high cause for celebration when my grandmother got her first chest freezer in the 1950s, as it meant an easier time of preserving the vegetables and meat they raised at their “Happy Angus Farm.”  (You can learn more about Clarence Birdseye and the advent of frozen food at the Living History Farm website).

Anyhow, I digress – back to root cellars.  Typically, it was at this time of year that root cellars would be thoroughly cleaned, white-washed, and then packed full of just-harvested root vegetables that were raised by rural families to last through the year.  Dusty Old Thing shares some great pictures and root cellar facts, and indicates how essential they were even up through WWII.

Most homes these days don't have root cellars, of course, but there are people who still store root crops using this traditional method.  This write-up from Morningchores.com shares a number of ways to develop cool, dry storage for your garden produce. Some are built into an existing cellar and use modern insulation; others are dug into hillsides or rely on tires and earth bags to create earth mounds.  Root cellars rely on the premise that below the frost line, ground temperatures remain relatively constant at 45 or 50-degrees F.  (Refrigerators are just slightly cooler than that, at about 35 F).

Until next time, enjoy the freshness of the harvest, and be well!


Lori