President Declares National Emergency Over the Power Grid

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The Ready Brief #182

Practical preparedness for uncertain times

My grandfather kept potatoes, carrots, and apples in a dirt-floor cellar under his farmhouse. No electricity. No refrigeration. The cellar stayed 45 to 55 degrees year-round because it was below the frost line. Those vegetables lasted all winter. When I started thinking about long-term food storage, I realized the oldest solution, natural cold storage, is still one of the best.

Here's what I've got this Sunday:

Cold Storage Without Electricity

We've covered food storage extensively through dehydration, canning, freeze-drying, and pantry rotation. This week addresses the oldest preservation method: using the earth's natural temperature stability to store fresh produce for months without any power input.

A root cellar works because soil temperature below the frost line stays roughly 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, regardless of surface conditions. This natural refrigeration preserves root vegetables, apples, cabbage, and other hardy produce for 3 to 6 months with no energy cost.

What stores well in a root cellar: potatoes (4 to 6 months), carrots (4 to 6 months), beets (3 to 5 months), turnips (4 to 6 months), winter squash (3 to 6 months), apples (2 to 4 months), cabbage (3 to 4 months), and onions (4 to 8 months). These are calorie-dense, nutritious foods that extend your fresh food supply deep into winter.

A full root cellar is expensive to build ($5,000 to $15,000 for a proper underground structure). But improvised cold storage is accessible to most homeowners. An unheated basement corner, insulated from the house's heating system, can maintain 45 to 55 degrees through winter. An insulated window well, a buried trash can, or a crawl space can serve the same function on a smaller scale.

The buried trash can method: dig a hole slightly larger than a clean metal trash can. Set the can in the hole so the lid sits at ground level. Pack straw around the vegetables inside. Cover the lid with straw and a tarp. The earth maintains temperature while the straw provides insulation from surface cold. Cost: about $30.

Temperature and humidity are the two variables. Most root vegetables want 32 to 40 degrees with 90 to 95% humidity. Apples and potatoes want 32 to 40 degrees with 80 to 90% humidity. Onions and garlic want 32 to 50 degrees with 60 to 70% humidity. A thermometer and hygrometer ($10 to $15) let you monitor conditions.

The preparedness value: root cellaring extends your food independence beyond canned and dried goods into fresh vegetables. During an extended disruption, a root cellar full of potatoes, carrots, and squash provides nutritional variety that stored food alone cannot.

Identify the coldest spot in your home that stays above freezing.

An unheated garage, a basement corner, a crawl space. Measure the temperature over a week. If it stays between 35 and 55 degrees during winter, you have a viable cold storage location without any construction.

Honeybee Colony Losses Hit 39.9%: Still a "Crisis in Slow Motion"

The 2025-26 U.S. Beekeeping Survey found commercial and backyard beekeepers lost 39.9% of managed colonies over the past year, down from record losses of 55.6% and 55.1% the two years prior, but still roughly double what beekeepers consider sustainable (15 to 20%). Parasitic mites and poor forage remain the leading causes. More than 2,300 beekeepers managing 219,000 colonies, about 13% of the nation's managed hives, took part in the survey.

Roughly a third of the food we eat depends on pollinators. A loss rate this high, even one trending down, keeps pressure on the fruits and vegetables your root cellar or pantry rotation depends on come harvest season.

Source: Auburn University, American Bee Journal

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Les Stroud has used natural cold storage during extended wilderness stays on Survivorman, caching food in snow, streams, and ground caches to preserve it. In Survive!, he writes about the principle that temperature is the universal food preservation variable. Cold slows bacterial growth. Heat kills bacteria. Dehydration removes the moisture bacteria need. Every preservation method manipulates one of these three variables.

Root cellaring manipulates temperature using the earth's natural thermal mass, the same mass that keeps cave temperatures stable year-round. Stroud considers understanding natural temperature management a foundational survival skill that applies to food, shelter, and personal thermoregulation.

Survive!: Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere - Alive runs about $15.75 in paperback and belongs on the same shelf as your canning and dehydration references.

President Declares National Emergency Over Foreign-Made Power Grid Equipment

On August 26, the president signed an executive order declaring foreign-made bulk-power system equipment a national security threat, citing "digital backdoors" that could let a foreign government remotely access or disable grid hardware already installed on U.S. soil. The order blocks new purchases of flagged foreign equipment and authorizes the Department of Energy to order the removal of equipment already in the field. A nearly identical emergency order from 2020 was reversed the following year, leaving the same vulnerability unaddressed for five years. Replacement won't be fast this time either: large power transformers now take 128 to 144 weeks to build, with prices up 77% since 2019.

The preparedness angle here isn't the politics. It's the reminder that the grid itself has a supply chain, and that supply chain now runs on a two-and-a-half-year lead time. This is one of the biggest trends that we've been keeping track of since the very beginning of this newsletter. If the grid ever goes, so goes modern society.

Source: The White House, Off Grid Survival

Basement Corner Cold Storage (Improvised)

I insulated a corner of my unheated basement with rigid foam board ($25), creating a small enclosed space about 4 feet by 4 feet. I added wire shelving ($20) and a thermometer/hygrometer ($12). The space maintains 42 to 48 degrees through winter and 55 to 60 degrees in summer.

I've stored potatoes, carrots, onions, and apples through two winters. The potatoes lasted until March. The carrots lasted until February. The apples lasted about 6 weeks (they emit ethylene gas that accelerates ripening in other produce, so they're stored separately). Total investment: about $60 for a functional cold storage space. No electricity required.

Budget alternative: A cardboard box of potatoes in the coldest corner of your garage. No construction. No cost. Potatoes keep for 2 to 3 months in any cool, dark space above freezing.

Overrated: Building a full underground root cellar for suburban preparedness. The cost ($5,000+) and construction effort are prohibitive for most households. An insulated basement corner provides 80% of the benefit for 1% of the cost.

Underrated: Winter squash as a storage vegetable. Butternut and acorn squash store for 3 to 6 months at room temperature (50 to 60 degrees) with no special treatment. Just set them on a shelf in a cool room. They're essentially shelf-stable fresh food.

Box breathing and stress inoculation. The 4-count breathing technique Navy SEALs use to control fear and perform under pressure.

PS: My grandfather never called it "natural cold storage" or "root cellaring." He called it "the cellar." He just walked downstairs and got potatoes. No electricity bill. No generator required. No expiration date. The simplest solutions are often the oldest ones.