root cellar update

Unfortunately i was pretty sick during the holidays, my root cellar was a victim in catching-up.
This past weekend i made the most of the good daylight and worked on my scary root cellar.

This place has obviously been deserted for YEARS and there were a number of dust bunnies, webs and other dirty clean-me-ups....also found a few beer cans, so at least someone had used it for good times
Most cellars are probably a lot bigger than what we have, and that is totally understandable...So Cal doesnt need to save that much for the winter-as many know our winters are more like cool sunny days...yes a little rain and frost, but that is more for the nightly news if it is even close to what COLD means in the rest of the country.
But i have plans for this here cellar-i have the tiniest apartment and i really want to use whatever storage i have for for things needing rest, or for food items that i wont use that often.

(LOTS of cleaning to do!)

(The main storage room, not too big but enough to work with)

The photo above is of the small storage room-this is the main area i want to work with. It has a few hooks on the ceiling and a cement shelf that will be the main holding shelf. My plan is to clean the cement and walls (they are actually old doors!), vacuum the floors and ceiling and install a few more hooks in the ceiling in addition to a few smaller shelves around the space. i am also going to try to figure out how to get some lighting in there, b/c it is pretty dark!

Some of the things i want to store:

• flavored booze: just made loquat n' honey, lemoncello and pepper vodka...wont be needing them for a few weeks at the most!
• New Mexico pepper mixes: Gustavo, got me some amazing dried peppers from all over NM....at least 6 in various sizes...too much for a kitchen pantry
• vinegar: my "creations" have been sitting under my sink for WAY to long and are getting in the way of laundry detergent and trash bags!
• dried herbs and salt mixtures: i have been drying extra herbs that we have been getting in our CSA-usually dill is traded in and we end up with several bunches a week. I end up drying these in the closet and now have a large jar full of it. i also have 3 large jars of spicy salt that i need to store.

I am going to make this my Monday morning work and i will post my progress in a few weeks.