Root cellar
**Function and Importance of Root Cellars:**
– Root cellars maintain controlled temperatures and humidity for optimal crop storage.
– They prevent spoilage and rotting, allowing various crops to be stored for weeks to months.
– Root cellars are crucial for winter food supply, self-sufficiency, and emergency preparedness.
– Popular among gardeners, organic farmers, and enthusiasts of local food.
– Used for storing root vegetables, fruits, preserves, and alcoholic beverages.
**Construction of Root Cellars:**
– Methods include digging into the ground, erecting sheds over the cellar, or digging into the side of a hill.
– Building structures at ground level and piling rocks, earth, and sod around them.
– Most root cellars were traditionally made of stone, wood, mortar, and sod.
– Newer versions may use concrete with sod on top for construction.
**Regional Variations and Historical Significance:**
– Root cellars in Newfoundland and Labrador are dark, damp, subterranean structures.
– Designs include heavy-timbered, gable-roof structures with shingles and sod.
– Various cellar foundations like double door entrances and hatched entrances.
– Historical significance includes architectural history, conservation efforts, and heritage inventory in Newfoundland.
**Types of Crops Stored and Specific Practices:**
– Vegetables like potatoes, turnips, carrots, beets, onions, and winter squash are commonly stored.
– Some squash varieties can be stored for months.
– Apples are stored separately due to ethylene gas production.
– Other items like water, bread, butter, milk, and cream are also stored.
– Specific practices like using potato holes for sweet potatoes and historical use by slaves.
**References, Bibliography, and Additional Resources:**
– References related to root cellars and potato holes from various authors and publications.
– Bibliography on root cellaring including books by Bubel & Bubel and Eliot Coleman.
– Additional resources such as articles on food storage, architectural history, heritage foundation publications, and educational resources on related topics.
A root cellar (American and Canadian English), fruit cellar (Mid-Western American English) or earth cellar (British English) is a structure, usually underground or partially underground, used for storage of vegetables, fruits, nuts, or other foods. Its name reflects the traditional focus on root crops stored in an underground cellar, which is still often true; but the scope is wider, as a wide variety of foods can be stored for weeks to months, depending on the crop and conditions, and the structure may not always be underground.
Root cellaring has been vitally important in various eras and places for winter food supply. Although present-day food distribution systems and refrigeration have rendered root cellars unnecessary for many people, they remain important for those who value self-sufficiency, whether by economic necessity or by choice and for personal satisfaction. Thus, they are popular among diverse audiences, including gardeners, organic farmers, DIY fans, homesteaders, anyone seeking some emergency preparedness (most extensively, preppers), subsistence farmers, and enthusiasts of local food, slow food, heirloom plants, and traditional culture.