Cellar is derived from the Latin Cellarium: basement. Most things have a longer shelf life when they are stored cool, dry and dark.

To store food you should be careful not to hurt or bruise it. It keeps longer in a dark, dry and cold environment (e.g. a basement), and if possible, sealed from air.
There will be many other candidates to consume your food supply: so try as much as possible to keep insects, mice, birds... outside.


‘If the enemy in the war sets rations, we call it war crime. And now they do it voluntarily and call it diet.’(Jan Cremer)


noten2You cannot just keep all food. It spoils. This is a natural process. It means that a reduction in the quality of the food occurs. Delaying or preventing spoilage is called conservation.

With a stock we should not only cope the winter, but also the time until next harvest season. In spring crops begin to grow, but there is not exactly much to eat yet. Famines are usually the hardest to beat just in that period.

Many tuber and root crops, onions and Cucurbitaceae species can like hard fruit be preserve rather long as they are stored cool and dark.
The Golden berry, (or Cape gooseberry, Inca berry; Physalis peruviana) is the lantern casing with yellow fruit in it. As long as the shell is not cracked, you can store the fruit for months in a dry place.

I have the impression that species (fruit, fruits, plants) which mature later in the year, last even longer and keep better. But I do not know if that is really a general rule of thumb.

After experimenting in 2015 Vital Nduwimana (east Burundi) (re)discovered a preservation technique. (See also "Preserve meat – good old days "). He uses very finely sifted wood ash that is naturally very dry and sterile. Which he does in a cardboard box, and stores tomatoes in, for five up to six months.

Agronomist Jean Nivyabandi claims that they can be consumed safely without toxic effects.

Yesterday I burned 900 calories.

I left the pizza too long in the oven.



After experimenting in 2015 Vital Nduwimana (east Burundi) (re)discovered a preservation technique. (See also "Preserve meat – good old days "). He uses very finely sifted wood ash that is naturally very dry and sterile. Which he does in a cardboard box, and stores tomatoes in, for five up to six months.

Agronomist Jean Nivyabandi claims that they can be consumed safely without toxic effects.