When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, I could leave bread on the counter for days and it would stay fresh. Since moving to the frozen wastelands of northern Alberta, I’ve had to take steps to preserve my homemade loaves if I don’t want to wake up to dried-out bricks for breakfast. Continue reading
The plastic bucket look may not be the aesthetic you want for in your kitchen – but if you’ve got as many buckets lying around as I do, it shouldn’t look out of place at all.
I use these pails for any fruits or vegetables that can be stored at room temperature – such as apples, potatoes, onions, garlic, peaches and bananas. I actually use similar buckets with lids in the fridge as makeshift tupperware for produce needing refrigeration.
Like in the CSA box, a bit of water at the bottom can extend the life of such fruits as apples, oranges and lemons.
I’ve commited a bit of five gallon bucket treason by using such small buckets, but this is just more proof that there’s no limit of uses for plastic pails!
If you haven’t heard of rocket stove technology yet, I encourage you to look into it and take it seriously.
Unlike traditional wood stoves, rocket stoves operate on a double burning principal, where first the wood is burned, then the smoke is burned in a secondary chamber. This has the effect of eliminating smoke almost completely, and requiring far less fuel than a conventional woodstove. Also, rocket stoves are designed to be so simple than anyone can make one with a few standard tools in an afternoon.
This particular rocket stove design (there are many) uses a metal five gallon bucket. I will be building one of these for myself as soon as I can find a source for metal five gallon buckets, which are harder to find than the plastic variety.
See more pictures and plans to build your own on RootSimple.com