Burying food as a method of preservation

Cabbage

One of the questions that’s been bothering me was how did our ancestors preserve their food? Our nice stainless steel refrigerators were not an option so what was the secret? I’m finding there are many secrets to food preservation, but the one that surprised me the most was just simply burying food to preserve it.

Burying food helps to protect it from light and oxygen. The soil should be dry and salty and you should dig deep enough to be below the frostline. The hole should preferably be in a dry, sheltered area. Fruits and root vegetables were the most common food products to be stored using this method. Cabbage (Rio Verde or Danish Ballhead buried upside down with roots intact) was also traditionally preserved this way during the Fall in northern climates and it can be dug up at anytime until the Spring.

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