By Rowan O'Malley

As someone who lives in USDA climate zone 4, where temperatures dip down to -30F, I take winter seriously. Each fall, when winter looms, yes, I am thinking about the usual homestead tasks of preparing firewood and making sure the woodstove is ready for burning. However, I am also getting ready to survive the winter without grocery stores. Now, so far, the grocery stores have continued to operate, but you never know.

Although, in the long term, I would love to dig and build a proper root cellar, I don't have one now. I know that OP readers are in different circumstances in terms of where they live and whether they have a root cellar or not, so I thought I would share a few of my tips on the different creative "layers" of fresh vegetables that I have ready to eat over the winter. 

All of this can be done without a root cellar. I am in a very small space of just under 500 square feet. Rather than add solutions like a big chest freezer to the mix, I prefer finding solutions that blend with what I'm already doing and don't add any dependency to the electrical grid. 

Layer 1: Packing Available Fridge Space

My first layer is one that is available to most folks: the refrigerator. In fact, my fridge capacity is pretty small, but I still find space to pack in some extra root vegetables in there when the sales are on in the fall. This particular year, I had a smaller garden myself and participated in a community garden that gave a lot of food away. So, when the harvest season came, I picked up bulk carrots, beets, and sweet potatoes for an amazing price. I mixed in a few of my own late beets, too. 

That was at least a couple of months ago now, and I was able to reach into the fridge to get some carrots and beets in perfect condition to make a soup last night. I used two methods: storing some in the original plastic ventilated bag that the bulk carrots came in. Some other beets, I wrapped in a damp tea towel and stored in another area of my small fridge.