Storing carrots in sand

As you may well know, I've been living without a refrigerator for almost 3 weeks. It hasn't been that hard, but I don't like shopping so going each day is a pain. I'm looking for food that will keep in the Florida heat well. But so far it's been a lot of apples and canned stuff, along with beans and rice.

One thing I like is crisp veggies. lettuce is out unless I can eat it all in the same day. Cabbage keeps well, but it's not the same on a sandwich, but does give it a nice crunch. I'm looking around for a dehydrator to dry my own veggies and I've ordered a pump n' seal non electric vacuum sealer. Once it comes in I'll post how well it works.

Looking for ways to keep food, I remember that back home in KY we had a root cellar. It was under the house and was always about 55 degrees. We keep all kinds of food there. Now that I rent the landlord frowns on the idea of me digging a root cellar, even though the apartments are up off the ground.

One thing I remembered was storing carrots in a wooden box with sand in it. I did a little goggling and came up with these websites on the subject

Supernaturale

Backwoods Home Magazine

HGTV

I used a 5 gallon plastic bucket with clean white sand. Found the freshest carrots that I could, trimmed the tops and bad spots off of them, trimming and saving what I could for soup of course. Waste not. I didn't wash them, if fact I made sure they were nice and try before then went in. Covered them completely and sealed the lid. Click on an image to see a larger view of it.














UPDATE. It's a been a week now. I took one of the carrot each, washed it good and clean and took a bite. Crisp and firm as the day I got them. But it's only been a week. I'll keep you posted. Looking at the other websites, if I keep doing this I'll line the bucket with paper to fight the moisture.