The Year-Round Harvest

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Bringing us to the second way of keeping humidity high: Add some water either by sprinkling the floor, spreading damp J (but not dripping wet) burlap bags over the produce, or placing pans of water on the root cellar floor. Such measures are often Q necessary in the fall, when you're first storing produce. Basement root cellars are

I much more likely than dug-in root cellars to need added humidity. In very moist areas root vegetables can be kept uncovered in bins and they'll stay smooth and firm. But if your humidity reading falls short of the ideal, you may get better results with a third option: Pack the vegetables-especially carrots, beets, and parsnips-in damp sawdust, sand, or moss; this cuts down surface evaporation.

What can a root cellar do for you? It can give you fresh endive in December; savory Chinese cabbage in January, Juicy apples in February;
crisp carrots in March; and sturdy potatoes in April.

It's important to remember that cool air absorbs less moisture than warm air. You get a pretty unstable situation in a place that's both cold and very damp. A slight drop in temperature can cause air that, at 34°F, say, has room for a bit more moisture, to suddenly become fully saturated at 32°. When this happens, you've reached the dew point, and the excess water that the air can no longer hold begins to condense on wall, ceiling, even vegetable surfaces. When produce becomes wet, it's more likely to spoil-even at low temperatures. To be safe, buy a hygrometer (a humidity measuring device) at the hardware store.

Ventilation: Basically, air must be admitted then monitored and circulated through a root cellar. Admit ting air to the cellar (as described below) helps keep the area at the desired low temperature. Equally important, adjusting air intake helps to reduce excessive humidity, thus preventing undesirable condensation. Air-set in motion effectively removes both vegetable odors and ethylene gas given off by stored fruits, which might otherwise produce off-flavors in other foods.

To understand how air can circulate through a root cellar, remember that warm air rises and cool air falls. In a large or tightly enclosed cellar, you'll need both an air intake and an outlet. The intake should be low, and the outlet should be high; ideally, the two should be on opposite sides of the room to best circulate the air. Cool air will enter through the low intake and warm air will be re leased through the outlet (see illustration page 80). In a small storage area, or in one with many cracks where air can enter (such as an old stone foundation) a single outlet placed high to exhaust warm air may be sufficient. Always elevate crates a few inches so that air can circulate underneath them.

Temperature: Your most important consideration. A good root cellar can both borrow cold and keep cold. You borrow cold by digging into the ground, where the temperature well below frost level remains a fairly constant 52°F or so. This works because the deep-down earth temperature is slow to be affected by ultra-cold surface temperature, so your underground vegetables will have an extra margin of protection. You can borrow cold by letting the night air into the cellar either with a win dow or a closable exhaust pipe.

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