The joy of keeping a root cellar

The joy of keeping a root cellar by Jennifer Megyesi is a beautiful book on a rather boring topic. Food preservation is one of those lost domestic arts that is seeing a small resurgence. I imagine few people know what it takes to preserve the harvest for those lean winter months. I wanted to learn more.

The book is written by a woman who runs a family farm and actively preserves the harvest for her family. The book is beautifully laid with beautiful photography. That aspect alone motivated me to the romantic notion of preserving the harvest. The book lists various foods and gives recommendations on a certain preservation method. I managed to pick up a few suggestions that did help me with this years harvest.

There are sections on various preservation methods but these sections are pretty weak. They lack a lot of pictures of the methods in actual application. The text does not go into depth. To be fair, the book would be three times the size and cost if the author did more hand holding. If you really wanted to pursue food preservation, you would need to refer to other, more in depth books or videos.

Book Rating: 3 stars.