"Generally, the optimal conditions for storage of fruits and veggies are a temperature between 50 degrees and 55 degrees Fahrenheit
(pumpkins, winter squash, and sweet potatoes can tolerate up to 60 degrees) and low humidity.
Cabbages, celery, and root crops can handle cooler temperatures, down to 30 to 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and can tolerate more humidity."
" In other countries, such as Japan, meals are often left in a covered pot at room temperature.
The food is eaten as snacks throughout the day or is eaten at the next meal...,but requires portion control and advanced planning.
"Enter evaporative cooling methods.
Evaporative cooling isn’t necessarily a new thing, but it is something that has been used in the past that has been largely forgotten in this day and age that we live in.
(#1)"A Zeer Pot works through evaporative cooling. Instructions are at offgridnews.com website.
To make one, you will need two unglazed Terra Cotta pots that will nest together
and leave a space between the pots, wet sand to fill that space, and a wet cloth."
(#2) "Spring house" to keep food cool by storing it in water in a spring house* all the time (*a shed built over a spring, stream, or ditch with moving water).
It uses the underground aquifer stable temperature for cooling effect.
(#3) "Root Cellar" where the deeper in soil depth, the food/ product is insulated by soil from surface temperatures.
Have you ever gone into a tourist cavern and wondered why the air is so chilled ? Most caverns run cooler than 55 degrees, regardless of surface temps. (#4) A "Swamp cooler" as known in the military service as a 'room air conditioner' in arid climates, operates soley on evaporative technique. (#5) If you go to a camping world/ RV store, there are several models of refrigerators that run on propane (for portability sake)
and can be converted to natural gas.
Another system uses kerosene pilot light flame to heat, which produces a cooling effect, although wicks need to be kept clean, and there is residual soot.
I believe that Harbor Freight and other stores also have conversion systems from propane to natural gas.
I want to dig a dairy here. That’s what the locals call them. They are a cave dug into a hill, with a door attached. They look adorable, this door on the side of a hill. The older folks remember when their parents stored dairy products in those caves, hence the name. Almost every older house in the holler has one. Sadly, our property didn’t ;(
Good links.