Tom Faber doesn’t have to travel far for a great meal. He can pick fresh produce in his garden during the summer and fall and, when winter blows in, he can take a short walk to his “hobbit hole” root cellar, where carrots, beets, parsnips and potatoes await.
“The passion is in eating local,” said Faber, of Hancock, who started growing and storing his own food in the late 1990s.
By growing much of his own food, Faber reduces his impact on the environment. “I don’t have to worry about fossil fuels because I’m not buying produce trucked in from California,” he said.
As he has honed his skills growing, canning, drying, freezing, fermenting and storing items in his root cellar, he figures he could survive the winter eating only food he has grown if necessary, although he might have to ration it. “While I don’t grow everything I eat, I don’t have to go to the store often,” he added.
Throughout the spring and summer, he is busy growing food and, come fall, he goes to work preparing food for winter storage.
“When growing your own food, it’s important to know and understand where you can store it,” Faber said. For example, some produce does well in a root cellar while others need a warmer environment. “You don’t want to put summer squash in a root cellar.”
He said he just received packaged seeds to plant in the spring. “Some seed varieties say on their packages if they’re good for storage, so choosing the right variety is important.”
The root cellar is his primary storage area and simulates a subsurface environment. “Roots like cool and moist places that are similar to being in the ground,” he said.
The root cellar was built in 2010. “I was having a garage built at the time, and figured since they were already here, I might as well ask them to pour the root cellar. I was planning on building one anyways,” he said. “Some people call it a hobbit hole,” Faber noted, in reference to the cellar’s exterior.
Good air flow is important for outside food storage. “The root cellar is vented. If it gets too cold, I plug the vents with cloth to prevent too much cold air from entering,” he said. The cold air can ruin the produce.
“Come April, I still have plenty of food. Potatoes store particularly well in the root cellar,” he said. “I’ll eat them all summer.”
He also relies on his basement, where he stores onions and garlic, which prefer a cool, dry area. He also stocks a basement freezer full of blueberries, raspberries, apple cider and tomato sauce. “I put my canned apple sauce and canned jelly in the freezer as well,” he said.
Faber enjoys using a dehydrator. “I dehydrate peppers, raspberries, apples, flint corn, mint and clover for tea, as well as onions and garlic,” he said. “I’ve actually been able to crush the dehydrated onions and garlic into powder.” He said he makes cornmeal with the flint corn.
Some produce can be stored in the house at room temperature or in the refrigerator. “I keep horseradish in the fridge and summer squash in the house,” Faber said.
For Faber, one dish he and his son look forward to in winter and get completely sick of by spring is cole slaw. “We look forward to it every year. Coleslaw serves as our salad throughout the winter. We’ll eat it four to seven days a week,” he said. “By March, we’re burned out and ready for something new.”
Although he strives for self-sufficiency, Faber said people can still eat local and eat healthy without putting in as much effort.
“While I grow all of the food I store, others don’t necessarily need to do that. People can go to farm stands and stock up and store locally grown food,” he said.