How to Build a Root Cellar for Food Storage

(Page 2 of 2)

July/August 1980
By Greg Roberts 
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A root cellar will eventually pay for itself by allowing its owner to store up food that is either homegrown or practically free for the picking at harvest time. For just one example of economical food hoarding, let's consider apples. If you gather five or ten bushels of unblemished red fruits late in the growing season (when they'd otherwise only fall and rot on the ground), the inexpensive edibles will keep for months in the cellar and provide you with a winter's worth of fresh fruit for juices, eating, and cooking.

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A root cellar is also a good place for storing your game, smoked meats, and cheeses. Such food shelters offer complete protection from basement mice, ;marauding raccoons, and other pests. (I know of Alaskan homesteaders who find root cellars to be their only sure protection against foodstealing brown bears!) My mother even uses her cellar to store the huge potted ivies which decorate her patio in warmer months but cannot live through Wisconsin winters. The plants survive the cold season in the root cellar . . . in a naturally dormant state. The crop holders are useful in summer, too . . . for storing wine, live fish bait, and other products that profit from a cool, protected environment.

All in all, it's plain to see that folks who want the independence of being able to eat their own fresh, home-stored food will find that the notion of building a root cellar is an idea whose time has come ...back.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Additional information about root cellaring can be found in these sources:

[1] "How to Preserve Products Without Refrigeration" by Frank Garrett. Frank discusses the uses and construction (he recommends concrete block) of a cellar in one part of a lengthy article on food preservation.

[2]"The Parthenon of Root Cellars" (MOTHER NO. 29). Mike Wells explains how he built a food house out of used railroad ties.

[3] Grace V. Schillinger's "Build This `Nothing To It' Outdoor Cold Cellar" (MOTHER NO. 53). This hall-page piece shows how to "cellar" food in a large, buried box!

[4] Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Bubel. This comprehensive, 297-page hardbound book covers all aspects of storing unprocessed foods..

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  • Audrey 4/6/2009 12:07:53 PM

    I have a space 12x8 by 8 feet high that is under our concrete front step. there is a doorway to it from the basement. It's all concrete with a 6 inch vent on the south and north side to the outside. I would like to use this as a root cellar. I will be putting a door on it to keep the heat from the basement from going in there. I would like suggestions on what else to do to make it work the best. I plan on storing squash, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, apples, cucumbers, peppers.

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