Mid-Winter Eating From The Root Cellar (Some GOOD, Some GROSS) 

Here's what mid-winter eating from the root cellar looks like. Oh the joys of homesteading! Thanks for being here, friends.

I appreciate you showing the rough bits of homesteading. Keeping it real is the way to go! If people don’t get there’s an ugly bit to this wonderful lifestyle, then they get discouraged if they have rough moments. What’s awesome is that there is no waste if you have chickens, pigs, or a compost pile. When things go bad, instead of being upset, I just toss it to one of the above and eventually it feeds the next crop.

You’re seriously doing gods work educating America on food, mold, and the reality of the beautiful things Mother Earth gave us!

‘This is worse than showing you my underwear drawer’ 🤣🤣 Spoken like a true gardener!!

I’m a new mom, I barely know what I’m doing, I don’t have a homestead, (yet) but here I am watching your videos at 5am between my baby sleeping cause they’re just so damn relaxing 😂

Hi Shaye! - I work for a local farm market and I am part of the skeleton crew for the winter. We do order in produce as part of the basic needs that we don't grow or provide for, but we do still have potatoes, squash, cabbage, onions & apples. It's a daily chore to go through all of that produce and we come across a lot of rotten stuff in amongst the good things. Lots of peeling of cabbage & onions, or tossing out the bruised apples which we actually sell for deer feed. For things less desirable, we put them in a "bargain bin" for deeply discounted prices or even for free, and many less than fortunate families are grateful for this. I know you said it's embarrassing to show this side of a homestead, but I think it's an educational and normal part of farming no matter how large or small the operation. It's something that the general public doesn't see, and with that the hard work. There is a desensitized convenience to grocery stores where SO much food goes to waste because it is "less than desirable". Don't be ashamed of this, embrace it. I love that you showed this imperfect and realistic side to farming. When I saw you peeling back that cabbage, I would be lying if I didn't fill with excitement and say to myself "Hey, I do that at work!" Keep these wonderful videos coming! I digest them quicker than you imagine, and it has been inspiring me to one day start my own homestead as well. xx Lots of love from PA

It made me smile to see you showing the "gross" stuff. In the 1970's my parents had a root cellar that we ate from. I remember my mom proudly pulling back the scum on her home made vinegar crock. I was a young teen and disgusted and embarrassed that we ate that way. Fast forward 40 years and I now have my own root cellar and fermented pickles and vinegar.

This made me feel a lot better about my storage mistakes or even just food that went to spoil after proper storage. I just started gardening 2 years ago and my expectations were extremely high, especially when it comes to storage and using stuff. I love growing everything, but I'm also learning how to use up all the food I grow. I'm still discovering variety in that way. Thank you for this, please don't be embarrassed. This was a great learning lesson.

That's the beauty of compost..nothing goes to waste. When the potatoes start to sprout, I too just pull off the growth, unless the potato is spongy. That soup at the end...mmmm. Love homemade soup. :)

We have been conditioned to expect perfect looking produce. I love that you showed peeling the cabbage, mold on the pickles, etc. Another thing we've been conditioned is to think that leaving food sitting out unrefrigerated will kill you. I figured out that's a lie too. You just have to condition your stomach slowly, and if you're healthy, it won't kill you to eat food that has sat out. It won't even make you sick as long as you use common sense.

I love this video! I made my husband watch it with me and I think he feels better about some of our losses. I think he thought after 20 years of growing and canning we should have this perfected. I try to explain to some years are a good tomato year and some years are a good potato year... you can’t have it all every year

This video is one of my most favorite ever! So much new info that people don't really talk about with storing your harvest and what it looks like in the months to come.

Thank you for showing the mold over the ferments! I thought I was doing something wrong. Now I can keep using them without fear! Your skills and old fashion wisdom is such a blessing to us! Thank you for sharing your beautiful life and family with us! God bless!

I'm so allergic to molds. I find I'm holding my breath while watching this video. I do the same cleaning out the fridge too. When I'm in the produce department of the grocery store, and there's moldy fruit or veg, I know the smell, and instantly hold my breath as I make my way through. Habit.

I love and appreciate the brutal honesty. It is refreshing to see real life homestead.

I don’t know what it is specifically about your videos, but they always transport the mundane into acts of love. I’m at that point of filtering through our kitchen. I tend to drag my feet. But then I watch your video, and there is a lightness to my step. So thank you!

I would love to see the process of making your harder type cheeses like the gouda you mentioned! Thanks for sharing! I always love getting to peek inside your cold room.😀

I really like seeing when things aren't so beautiful and perfect. Messes and mold happens to everyone!

Juju is so precious!! Those sweet little pigtails!!

So funny, i just went through my stuff today and tossed some butternut and spaghetti squash that were starting to mold and popped sprouts off of potatoes and tossed the soft ones, as well. Great to know i'm not the only one who has food storage loss, to a degree. Gotta keep on top of things as well as learning and excelling in every season! God bless you!

The sheer production value of your videos is outstanding! What great lighting, focus and thought in your shots. Even the cellar ones. Thank you for raising the bar. Has to be one of my new favourite channels.

Someday I will have a root cellar, and I am so excited for that day! I hope mine will be as nice and full of home grown goodness as yours! You are blessed and you are a blessing! Love from the UP of Michigan!💗🥕🥔🍎

Shaye, I appreciate it when you show the more raw and even ugly parts of homesteading. I LOVE your focus on beauty, but it's refreshing to see the ugly from time to time b/c that is just real.

That’s amazing that you still have a lot left when it’s almost spring!

I don't know how this channel showed up in my list. This is my first video I watched on this channel. LOL ... "this is worse than showing you my underwear drawer". OMG a real young old fashion girl ... didn't think they still existed. I'm 64 years old and you took me back to my childhood days with with grandma. Thank you and TU!!!

Hi Shaye, I love your homestead, especially the root cellar. A friend told me to cut sprouted potatoes into quarters and cover them in wood ash before planting in the ground. The wood ash serves to keep pests and rot in check. Have you heard this before?

Love this! This is what real food storage looks like.

WHEN YOUR POTATOES START EYEING OUT LIKE THAT YOU CAN CUT THEM UP AND BOIL THEM A LITTLE THEN PUT THEM IN FREEZER BAGS FOR LATER USE THAT WAY THEY DON'T GO TO WASTE AND OR PLANT THEM IN BUCKETS TO LET GROW AND THEN HARVEST THEM.

As long as my onions garlic and potatoes are still firm, I use them 🤷🏼‍♀️

What an amazing thing to still be able to eat from your garden! I love that you are not afraid of some mold. 😊

Thank you for sharing this. We all learn from our mistakes in homesteading. We lost some onions and some garlic due to too much moisture in our storage area. We just caught it in time to save the potatoes! we just finished our whole apples the other day and still have lots of garlic (thank heavens) It is good to get these lessons under our belt.

Thank you! This just makes me feel so much better about my self, the condition of my stored food, and my ferments. It is not as bad as I feared.

This is so refreshing.I was raised this way an have soany friend's that would lose there minds to see me use what I eat an this video 🤣 great public service video

There's a lot of gourmet meals for a pig there. Or chicken feed.

Thank you so much for sharing the reality of food storage.

I'm late in commenting but wanted to quickly note that when my grandparents put potatoes, carrots, onions, and other root vegetables into cold storage over the winter in their root cellar, they would keep the veggies on the ground in wet sand. They basically had a mound of sand filled with the vegetables. The sand prevented sprouting or any kind of soiling.

Love the REAL and less pretty details, they are so helpful!

I really appreciate this real life video! I'm getting ready to start my first garden, so this info will come in handy.

Don’t be so hard on yourself. Compost happens.

Thank you for showing what real food looks like. You're eating like our ancestors ate. They weren't bothered by a little mold (also side note; most molds are nonpathogenic unless you're immunocompromised).

Thank you thank you thank you for showing us this! Your life is always so put together. This shows that your just like us☺️. I would love to see more about the cheese and how you take care of it! I love this channel!! Oh and your little girl is so sweet💕

I can our potatoes and it makes it so convenient to use them. I will keep some fresh for making baked potatoes but the majority of them are canned. Great video!

It took me forever to get through this video, but it is was only because every minute you were sparking a new creative idea, and I was jumping to the internet to research. This was much appreciated. 💗

I truly love your videos. With the visible intent you put into making them, I find myself more present and filled with gratitude after watching them. Reminds me of the joy and blessing in cooking, cleaning, and the difference simply an attitude can make. Thank you, Elliott family!

I love that you are, "So Real"! honesty and being direct are lost conversation skills, in these days! Thank you!

When we were on lockdown I started going through pantry & cupboards making a.list of what I needed & I was amazed at what I had stashed away..I wish I had your storeroom!!..be safe&blessed✝️🙏

Such a wonderful sight seeing you work your food storage, shop from it and prepare meals. What a blessing to grow so much of your own food!

You're doing an excellent job! I love that you are delicately fearless.... by any measure you are in-style in the year 2021 seamlessly blending technology with old-world preservation practices of food you grew and raised, and all the while teaching, nurturing and being present in your family's lives. Women are amazing multitaskers, I realize it more and more the older I get.... of course that doesn't take anything away from our wonderful spouses who are working right along with us to reach our shared goals. I kind of beat myself up a little when I don't eat something I grew but it never really goes to waste when you can compost.

I have followed your channel for ages and always love your content - sometimes I feel a bit insecure that my life isn’t as picture perfect as yours, it’s really honestly comforting to see we all struggle with the same things

You’re fearless, Shaye! 😆 Your Gouda is beautiful.😍 What a great testimony of love and life for your children. Rock on, woman!💗

I’m feeling so much better now. I was feeling like I completely failed because a few things went bad. Thank you for this encouragement ❤️

You inspire me so much on storing for next year...I have my old block dairy barn I might be able to build a storage area in...I love your root cellar!

What a great little helper! Reminds me of my daughter when she was young - always helping! My daughter is in her mid 30s now and has her own home and garden and uses the skills she learned as a child! Our root cellar has some growing potatoes and sprouting onions too! Winter Squash turned quickly this year but compost piles will turn them into soil for us!

This was VERY helpful!! I don’t even have a root cellar (yet) but found this super informative on what to look for/what’s okay to keep/toss. Thank you for doing this!! Mold definitely freaks me out, but watching you be so comfortable with it...and knowing you’re still alive LOL... gives me courage! Keep up the great work 👏🏼

What a beautiful offering of your hard work! Good goin’ you! Loved the music at the end.

your daughter is so adorable :) she reminds me of my toddler who just loves to help in everything that I do. love watching your videos :)

This was very helpful to know that cabbage will mold but just peel away outer leaves and it still fine. Also good to know that the pickles are just fine as well.

Thanks for showing all of it! Not just the beautiful parts. Really helpful for those of us learning

That was such beautiful food prep after the pantry tour! Was not expecting it to be that cinematic but WOW

Thank you for sharing this with all the humanness of it all. This actually makes it feel more doable😊. And, your helper did a Great job!

Loved this video, feeling more confident with our food storage. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you for Not ! Showing perfection. This is so informative and so helpful for those of us who want o learn all facets of root clearing food

Thank you so much for this video! It is so good to be told that I can just rip the leaves off a cabbage or pry the sprouts off a still-firm potato. I had a hunch it was fine, but needed to be validated!

It's great to show the reality - thank you. I am new to gardening, storing, composting everything. It helps to see. Thanks.

Thanks for this! I've been so distressed that my squashes were going bad in my basement storage, and couldn't figure out what I was doing "wrong". It's so helpful to know that it's normal for that to start around this time of year!

This was great! Real life. So glad you talked about the not so good looking but fine to eat. There is so much waste today.

I'm so thankful you're showing this! Educational, but also real life and real food!

Wow so nice to see reality to homestead living. Love your honesty about your mistakes like the cheese and beeswax. Awesome family ❤️

Save your onion skins for dying. Wonderful red eggs for Easter or dyes for fabric/wool. A fun project. Directions all over online. My daughter and I did fabric in the left over dye for red eggs. We did get a fun variety.

For fermenting food, using things like the probiotic jar are much closer to how our ancestors ate. The traditional way our ancestors fermented food was in an anaerobic environment which does not allow mold to grow. I must also add, many doctors etc that used to say mold was fine to eat have changed their position.

Great video, Shaye! I appreciate your balanced and down to earth approach. Sorry about the loss of your beautiful cheeses, that must really hurt after all the investment of your good milk and your time and effort!

While I love how you capture the beauty of farm living in your videos, I really appreciated the "ugly" and real aspects of the rotting produce that you presented here. We're all human and we can't always stay on top of things so they are picture perfect. Such a reality of life, and nothing to be afraid of ashamed of. Everything goes to good use in one way or another. Thanks for all you share. I learn a little bit every time I tune in to your channel.

Thank you for showing us this,it helps to develop the right homesteader mindset! Btw,love your laugh!😀 God bless you

how nice it is to see that things can also go "wrong" with yours (not because you want it) but because it is so normal that things are not always perfect .. such is life after all .. you have been brought up, that the slightest bit of mold, then it must be thrown out .. but that's not the case with everything, cabbage can stick and as long as it is firm, you can pull the ugly leaves off, and use it .. beets can be easily used even though they are not quite hard, etc, too much food is thrown out every day (I am not an angel at that point) but are constantly trying to get better at using what I have .. thanks for another great video ❤️ hugs from Denmark

Bless your sweet little helper!

This had me cracking up at parts Loved the music and ambiance at the end with the soup

So loved you sharing your amazing root cellar clean up! I learned so much! Blessing to you a!l!

Try using them for seed Shay! Just give it a try! We have done it for years with no trouble..... go for it!!

Omg!! I am laughing my head off at the garlic incident. About an hour before watching this, my toddler just dumped my home grown garlic that I was gonna ferment, into my room. 😂

Lots of wonderful information. Thank you. We are working on our root cellar. :)

There is a thing in germany it is made out of Wood. Where you can put potatoes in and they get ventilated which keeps them fresh and it is made to be spinable so when you move them they don’t know in which direction to grow and the don’t sprout then!

This videos are amazing. I can't wait to get my hands in the dirt daily 😋 that soup had my mouth watering!!

I actually dread harvesting and managing crops. All the cleaning, sorting, bagging and texting neighbors to deliver door to door..It is a joy and huge blessing to have surplus to share. But all that work!! Ok I'd rather be on this end of the game. Growing food is the magic of life!

I'm so happy that you let the odd veg mold. I always feel so bad. Thanks I feel much better now. It's hard to eat it all sometimes

What a sweet little helper! She is the star of the show

I loved your video! You have a beautiful knack in the way you make your stories 💕. Loved your sweet one helping you. Loved seeing about all your storage. The soup looks so delicious! I’ll have to go back again and see if you talked about what’s in it. Thank you💕-nancy

Thanks for the info! It’s good to see what this life looks like!

I love these types of videos! I always learn something new from you!

love your channel and the upbeat music at the end was fun. Nice root cellar my lady. thnx for sharing.

Just found your site today, and I’m hooked, great Video... so much great information... and a sweet helper you have...

Good information to have. The soup looks delicious!

Thank you for the warts and all root cellar video xx

I'm coming over for some of that yummy looking stew.. Thanks for this very informative video. I enjoyed it was sad when it was over.

My potato store has got such long shoots, even have a few tiny baby potatoes on a few ! Spent all day yesterday cooking up and freezing butternut squash and tromboncino squash that are just beginning to turn.

The ones from the store sprout too. Every two weeks, go through your potatoes and de-sprout them, not difficult. The only time I let them sprout is if it is two weeks from planting.

Spoilage is what you want since , " if mold won't grow on it , neither will you !! "

Haha, I have the same issues with squashes, onions & potatoes. Oh BTW @The Elliott Homestead, I just made more of the herb mixture you posted a while back. Mine has turned into an ever-evolving blend. When my mason jar starts running low I just wander around the yard & replenish with whatever herbs might be growing at the time. 😋

I've been really enjoying your channel since I found it! 💕

I love REAL videos. Love the kids! Love the mess! Love it!!! Thank you!

Root cellar and cooking vids are my favorite! 😍