Hello,
This is embarrassing, but I have to ask! I never had a cold room in my houses and now I do.. Last september, I harvested tomatoes and stored some in the cold room. The temperature was OK, low.. at the end of the month we hit a week of high temperature. Since the soil was not yet frozen, the high outside temps also heated up my cold room to a point where my tomatoes molded and yucky juice ran on the wooden shelves.
I cleaned it up, put a fan, washed with bleach and later with vinegar to kill to odor and try to kill spores. I ran my wood oven that is close by - with the cold room's door opened. I dried everything to the best as I could - for weeks.
Now.. can I use this room to age cheese? We are still in our winter here and the soil is frozen, it now keeps at a steady temperature (and should remain) until june hits. I am scared that the mold from the tomatoes might still be in the air or the wood and could contaminate the cheese? I wouldn't age the cheese near where the tomatoes were, the cheese would be further away - like not on the same wood as the tomatoes.. but I wonder..
I know it was a mistake on my part but I had no idea it would heat up that way! So I wonder if I should strip it completely and rebuild the shelving?
Thanks
