Root Cellaring

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Another time-tested on-the-spot food-keeper is the clamp, which is an earth-covered mound of vegetables. For centuries, people who had no choice but to be self-reliant have fed their families on apples and root vegetables kept in carefully constructed clamps. When Mike was a boy, his family relied on clamps full of potatoes to sustain them through the harsh flatland winters in Poland. Select a dry, well-drained spot for your clamp, and prepare the ground by first raking off leaves and spent plants and then digging a shallow, circular pit 8" to 12" deep. Next, shovel out a narrow drainage channel around the perimeter of the hole, line the pit with a 3" layer of hay, straw, or leaves, and build a cone-shaped pile of' produce up to 2' or 3' high. Because a clamp must be emptied once it's opened in midwinter, you might want to make several small clamps and put a mixture of several kinds of vegetables-carrots, turnips, rutabagas, potatoes, beets—in each. Apples should be kept in a separate clamp—not mixed with the vegetables. To ventilate the mound, stack the vegetables around a central air shaft-either a perforated pipe or a bundle of straw—and let the end of this air conductor stick up several inches above the pile. Now tuck the vegetables in under a 6" to 12" layer of hay or straw, covered by a 4" coat of dirt firmed down well as you apply it. Don't cover the vent pipe. Finally, dig a second drainage trench around the now-covered pile. The clamp may riot come with a warranty, but you won't need a loan to get as many of the mounds as you need, and they won't add any numbers to your electric meter, either.

The earth's insulating mass can help you to preserve garden food in other small-scale ways. You can bury barrels, 18"- to 24"-wide clay drain tiles, or clean trash cans in the ground, and fill them with food. Dig a hole wide enough to accept the can (tile, barrel, or whatever) and about 10" deeper than the height of the container. Toss 3" of gravel into the hole, settle the food-safe in the space, and then pack alternating layers of root vegetables and straw into the cavity. Stuff more straw into the top 5" of the buried pantry, add a board held down with a stone, and then another 12"-thick wad of straw or hay topped by a second, larger, board.

Some folks even bury dead refrigerators or freezers as instant mini-root cellars. The already-insulated, mouseproof boxes make fine food-keepers, but just be sure to remove the lock for safety, and—while you have your tools out, drill a hole for a screened 1" to 2" vent pipe to help circulate air. When we used a defunct fridge to store apples, we parked it above ground next to a concrete-block wall, covered it with a large rubber mat so rain wouldn't seep in, and surrounded it on all exposed sides with hay bales. The apples stayed in good shape until January.

Sometimes it takes a few seasons of experimenting with different vegetable varieties, various storage methods, and several packing materials before you come up with an arrangement that suits your situation. Keep records so you'll be able to track down what you did that worked best. One of the reasons we're so fond of root cellars is that, as we see it, they represent a true folk craft-an often-ingenious response to a particular set of local conditions.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print