Root Cellar Diary 9: Fetid Water and Rotting Vegetables

I didn't know squash could become rotten so fast

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 12:00 PM

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Fetid water, courtesy David Hammond

Rotten squash, courtesy David Hammond

By David Hammond

I’ve got a bunch of stuff rotting in my root cellar, like squash.

Honestly, I didn’t know squash could become rotten so fast. I swear, we’ve had squash sitting in our kitchen window that seemed to last all winter.

The squash in our root cellar, on the other hand, has been rotting away for a while.

Not sure what I’m doing wrong, but the good thing about squash is, you can cut off the bad part and still have a fair amount of decent squash that’s still edible.

I’m not sure if this is a related problem, but I notice that the pot of water I put in the sink in my root cellar has turned fetid. Perhaps there’s evil bacteria floating in the air that results in accelerated rotting of produce.

Any way, if for no other reason than aesthetic, I cleaned out the water pot and refilled it, though I’m not entirely sure that will solve the mystery of the rotting root cellar food.