James Atkinson
Making Do Without a Cellar
Ask any old Cumbrian farmer where they kept their keep and they would point you at a stone-flagged dairy, a north-facing larder, or a clamp of swedes buried out in the field. Proper root cellars are thin on the ground in the fells, and most of us are working with a spare bedroom, an unheated porch, a garage, or the dry end of a shed. The good news is that onions, winter squash, and apples — the backbone of any smallholding store — do not actually need a cellar. They need four things: cool, dark, dry, and moving air. Get those roughly right and you will be eating your own produce well into March.
Getting the Conditions Right
Cumbria is damp and mercifully mild, which is a mixed blessing. Hard frosts are rare enough that an unheated building seldom drops below freezing, but the wet air is the real enemy. Mould, rot, and soft brown patches all thrive in still, humid corners, so ventilation matters more than insulation.
Aim for:
- Temperature: most stored crops prefer somewhere between 2°C and 10°C. Warmer than that and things sprout or shrivel; frozen and they turn to mush.
- Darkness: light makes potatoes green and onions sprout. A north-facing room with the curtain kept shut is ideal.
- Airflow: slatted shelves, wooden crates with gaps, and nothing pushed hard against a wall. Leave a hand's width between containers.
- Dryness: a damp shed floor will undo everything. Raise crates on bricks or pallets and never store directly on concrete.
An unheated spare room, an under-stairs cupboard with the door ajar, a brick outbuilding, or a well-ventilated loft all beat a sealed plastic box in a warm kitchen. If your only option is a shed, insulate nothing and ventilate everything.
Onions, Shallots, and Garlic
Onions need curing before they go anywhere near storage. Lift them on a dry day, leave the tops on, and lay them in a single layer somewhere airy and warm — a greenhouse bench, a covered porch, a shed shelf with the door open — for two to three weeks. They are ready when the necks are papery and tight and the outer skins rustle.
After that, three good options:
- Plaiting and hanging them from a beam or hook. Traditional, tidy, and easy to inspect.
- Net bags or old tights, knotted between each onion, hung clear of the wall.
- Slatted crates or shallow cardboard trays lined with newspaper, stacked no more than two or three deep.
Check fortnightly and pull out anything with a soft neck or a grey fuzz. One bad onion will travel through a whole crate. Store them cool but frost-free; below freezing they go glassy and useless.
Winter Squash and Pumpkins
Squash store far better than most people expect, provided they are cured properly. Leave them on the plant until the stalk has begun to cork over and your thumbnail will not dent the skin. Then bring them somewhere warm — 20°C to 25°C is ideal — for ten days to a fortnight, turning them occasionally so air reaches all sides.
Once cured, move them to a cool room at around 10°C to 15°C. Keep the stalk intact; that is the plug that keeps rot out. Sit them on slatted shelves or in open crates, spaced so they are not touching, in a single layer. Never stack them more than one deep, and never store them on a concrete floor, which draws moisture and starts a soft spot underneath. Checked weekly, a good Crown Prince or Uchiki Kuri will see you through to spring.
Apples and Pears
Only flawless fruit keeps. Eat the bruised ones, cook the small ones, and store the rest. Handle apples like eggs — every knock becomes a rot pocket in February.
Wrap each apple in newspaper or dry straw, or better still use the paper sleeves that come free with the fruit, and lay them stalk upwards in a single layer in a wooden or cardboard box. Pears are best picked slightly underripe and stored a touch cooler than apples. A cool garage, a frost-free porch, or a spare-room floor works well.
One important point: apples give off ethylene gas, which speeds up sprouting in potatoes and ripening in almost everything else. Keep them in their own corner, well away from your root crops and squash.
Roots, Clamps, and the Weekly Rota
Carrots, beetroot, and swedes keep beautifully in boxes of barely damp sand or spent compost, layered so the roots do not touch. Outdoors, a traditional clamp — roots in a cone, covered in straw, then soil, with a straw chimney for ventilation — works well on free-draining ground, but in wet Cumbrian soil put a layer of gravel underneath or the whole thing will rot.
Whatever your setup, build in a routine. Once a week, walk your store with a basket:
- Lift the paper on a few apples and smell for that sweet, fermenting tang of rot.
- Roll the squash over and check the underside for soft patches.
- Feel the onions for soft necks and squash gently for the give that means trouble.
- Set traps or bait stations — mice will find a box of apples long before you notice the droppings.
Remove anything suspect immediately, and if a whole crate is going, cook and freeze it that afternoon. A little vigilance each week is the whole secret. Do that, and a spare bedroom in Cumbria will outperform many a fancy cellar.
