...and now, the REST of the story.

Three of the kids and I made an impromtu visit to see a friend.

She announced that we happened to stop by on the day that she was uncovering her potato pit. "Your what?" we wondered.

She took us to what looked like a large pile of mulch.

She explained that last fall, she purchased a few hundred pounds of potatoes at her local pharmacy (I know!) for a really great price and that her dad had helped her dig an eight foot hole in the ground, where they fashioned an amazing state of the art storage facility for the spuds. In the bottom of the hole there was a five-gallon bucket filled with water (apparently a great temperature moderation device). On top of the bucket, a very large trash can with a hole in the bottom (to allow access to the bucket). The bucket was covered with a lid big enough to keep the potatoes from falling through the hole. Under the mulch, there was a tarp covering a plywood lid, insulated with layers of foam board. We spent about 30 minutes pulling a few hundred pounds of spuds out of the bucket, and I was amazed at the preservation of the potatoes. When we opened the pit, it was like an air-conditioned chamber. Of the hundreds of potatoes, there were only three snotty ones.

After we pulled out buckets of potatoes, she sent us home with one.
In honor of the day's discovery, we had a potato bar for dinner.
Some of those pups were HUGE~!

I thought about all of the things you might be able to store in a pit like that.

winter sqash?

...apples?

...kids?

And there is your provident living tip for the day.