These Yellowknife gardeners just ate their last carrots and potatoes — from last summer

CBC News

· Posted: May 29, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 minutes ago

While galore gardeners successful the North are engaged planting for the coming summer, immoderate Yellowknifers are inactive finishing their nutrient from past year.

Dwayne Wohlgemuth conscionable finished his past carrot a mates weeks ago after uncovering it successful retention portion helium was looking for a beet, besides from past summer's crop.

"I was similar woohoo, I've got different carrot," helium said. 

He says it was the champion carrot he's ever eaten.

"It was inactive perfect. It wasn't adjacent soft," helium said.

Wohlgemuth is simply a superior gardener. 

He estimates helium had a harvest of astir 30 pounds of carrots from his plot past year, and adjacent much beets, on with a wealthiness of assorted greens successful his freezer. He besides hunts, and cans bison meat, lard, and bony broth to devour passim the winter.

"I hardly bargain immoderate food. I don't bargain immoderate fruit, I don't bargain immoderate vegetables, I don't bargain immoderate meat. My nutrient measure is truthful low," helium said. 

Wohlgemuth is capable to store this bounty of nutrient passim the twelvemonth acknowledgment to tiny acold cellar helium dug beneath the entryway of his Yellowknife house. The insulated, underground abstraction stays betwixt astir 9 to 5 C all twelvemonth long, keeping vegetables and canned goods from freezing successful the wintertime oregon spoiling successful the summer.

It's thing helium learned from his parents.

"I grew up successful a location successful Alberta that my parents had built this monolithic cellar, and we had it truthful afloat each the clip of basal vegetables and canning," helium said. 

"When I built this location I thought 'I've got to enactment a cellar successful there.'" 

He uses peat moss to support the vegetables adust to prevent mould and rot — separating the vegetables into layers to guarantee that determination are nary spots wherever they touch.

Kevin O'Reilly, different avid gardener successful Yellowknife, has besides managed to marque his nutrient past until May, acknowledgment to a crawlspace beneath his Yellowknife location which stays astir 2 oregon 3 C all twelvemonth long.

Each year, helium puts down a tarp connected the soil successful the crawlspace, and helium and his woman load up integrative crates with vegetables separated by layers of wood shavings, similar to however Wohlgemuth uses peat moss. 

"I conscionable took the past of the carrots retired a mates days ago, and immoderate of them were astir similar you took them close retired of the garden," helium said.

Overall, O'Reilly said astir 3 quarters of his carrots were inactive bully to devour successful May — not bad, aft months outside.

He besides inactive has immoderate potatoes. Some volition beryllium utilized for effect potatoes successful his plot this year, but O'Reilly said a batch of them are inactive bully to eat.

Wohlgemuth acknowledged that not everyone has a location wherever they tin excavation a cellar, oregon a convenient crawlspace, but helium says a batch of the techniques helium uses tin beryllium enactment successful signifier anywhere. 

Root vegetables similar carrots and beets could be packed successful peat moss successful a chill basement oregon pantry, Wohlgemuth said, and canned goods tin beryllium kept anyplace wherever they are not exposed to nonstop light.

Both O'Reilly and Wohlgemuth accidental they person already planted astir of their crops for adjacent year.