Today,  Vegetable Money Saving Tip

With today’s prices of vegetables rising faster than we can grow them, here is a neat way of preserving them longer.

The Pot-in-pot Cooler, based on by ancient techniques, was designed by Mohammed Bah Abba who won the Rolex prize and who has been promoting this process though-out Nigeria. The concept takes advantage of evaporative cooling.

The Pot-in-Pot system consists of two pots, a smaller earthenware pot nestled within another pot, with the space in between filled with sand and water. When that water evaporates, it pulls heat from the interior of the smaller pot, in which vegetables and fruits can be kept. In rural Nigeria, many farmers lack transportation, water, and electricity, but one of their biggest problems is the inability to preserve their crops. With the Pot-in-Pot, tomatoes last for twenty-one days, rather than two or three days without this technology. Eggplants stay fresh for 27 days, instead of the usual 3.

How To Build One

Be sure to use non-glazed pots such as terra cotta. When sealing in the bottom, you can use wax, water proof tape, or piece of plastic from a milk jug to cover the drain hole.

Imagine being able to have fresh vegetables last longer without using power. I believe that this could be used anywhere. Apartments, RVs, homes, farms, etc. The next best thing to keeping vegetables after a bountiful harvest would be a root cellar. But that is another subject.

This would be a good project for school teachers to get kids aware of how to store food. The sooner they educate, the longer it stays with them.

So what do you think? Are you willing to try this out? The cost, if caught on sale, could be less than $25 dollars but a bunch of savings on the other side. Let me know if you have done this and what your results were.

Pot in Pot …. as the green future unfolds.