Do any of you use a root cellar?

[Gehl Family]

Hi folks,

My wife got me a book on root cellaring for Christmas and it has me really interested.

I am just wondering if any of you use a root cellar and what your experience is like.

Right now we are heating our 100+ year old home exclusively with a Avalon Olympic. The only source of heat in the basement is a hot water tank. I have had a thermometer with a hydro-stat down there and have found there my temps average around 45 with a humidity around 85%. And that is with a dehumidifier running almost constantly.

But we are getting a back up furnace put in this month that might change these numbers.

Anyhow i just wanted to see if anyone has some experience with a this and how it is working.

 

[Highbeam]

I worked for an outfitter in the Cascade mountains for a few summers. We used a root cellar that was made from an excavated hole, then stacked logs, and then backfilled so a bit like a buried log cabin with log roof. It was a dark and damp place that wasn't cold by itself. We had to constantly feed blocks of ice to the cellar to keep it cold enough to be worthwhile. Lots of things last longer in cool environments than in warm ones such as bread and vegetables.

 

[Gehl Family]

Yeah the idea behind the root cellar is that you use the natural cold and humidity of the ground to keep vegetable and fruits fresh without using any energy. Having to add blocks of ice seems to defeat the purpose. In a well designed system you can keep eating fresh food from your garden all winter long, or so i have read. it seems that heating primarily with a wood stove that is located outside the basement is a good fit.

 

[colsmith]

We have a small root cellar. My Mum noticed when our house was being built that the area under the front porch (which is just outside the basement foundation) was being filled in. She said whoa, can you make this be a root cellar instead of filling it all in? Could have been bigger if she had realized sooner how the construction worked. We have a wooden opening in our basement wall about 40" off the ground into the space under the front porch. The walls of it are concrete block, like the basement walls. It is wider and deeper than we can conveniently reach, so we only use the front of it.

I know in my youth we stored apples and things there in the fall/winter. I believe that sometimes it does freeze, anyway hubby and I mostly use it to put stuff that we don't care about in. The basement itself stays pretty cool all year around, so we store apples, potatoes, onions, garlic, that sort of thing in the regular basement (although not next to each other of course.) Could use the root cellar more but we get such a frequent supply of fresh produce (arrangement with a local weekend produce stand) that long term storage is no longer as essential. Also we can and freeze a lot as opposed to just letting things hang around and being forgotten. Sorry I can't be more helpful although I do have a root cellar.

 

[begreen]

We have a large lidded box on the porch that we use for root storage. With our mild but damp winters it works very well.

 

[canyon]

Root cellars are great! I've had two different ones and am familiar with a dozen in my area. They make sense depending on your locality and soil conditions. You don't want to build one in a swamp or shallow water table area! I have the northern advantage of 38 degree F earth temp! I had a 5'x5'x6' one under my old cabin that I hand excavated and put poles in the corners and full 2 in planks up the sides to hold back the earth. A wood floor made it nicer and when I'd spill beer or whatever it would just disapear! With 2" blueboard for the two feet above ground it didn't freeze until after a couple years of frost heavage created gaps in my blueboarding and even then it was minor. Now I have a full cellar and it is unheated and I love it being a brewer/vintner. We have 300 lbs of spuds down there now as well as 100 gallons of beer 50 of wine and 2000 gallons of water and it never freezes (8' in the ground). The key is good drainage soil, good waterproofing, and good ventilation!

 

[Highbeam]

100 gallons of beer. I am just trying to picture that. Is it all the same type? That's 15 kegs worth. Ought to take up some space I'd think.

 

[canyon]

No it's not all the same type. Right now I have 4 different beers. A standard 1/2 barrel U.S. beer keg is 15.5 gallons so its not as much as it sounds. I also have five gallon kegs.Overall cellar is 16'x24'. Basically my beer storage area of the cellar is 8'x10'. My water tank (cistern) is 10'x10' That still leaves me too much room to store stuff that gets in my way!