Page 172 - The Lost Ways

If you are in the southern half of the country, you probably experience rather mild
winters, and it may be difficult to maintain the low temperatures required for long-term
storage of many things. Even though this is true, a well-built root cellar will probably keep
cooler temperatures than you would otherwise get, and keeping the right humidity can

bring the temperature down just low enough to suffice. If you are in a very dry and warm
area, just go with it. Use the cellar to store your sun-dried bounty, nuts, and grains.

If your problem is a very cold environment and you are more worried about freezing your
bounty, then you need to be sure to line your walls with extra insulation to keep the cold
at bay.

A bare bulb hanging from the ceiling may give enough heat, but you’ll need to cover root
vegetables to keep them from sprouting. Ingenuity in rural building includes covered pits
filled with composting manure.

The decomposition creates heat that in turn heats the root cellar by a few degrees.
Remember that cold temperatures dry the air, so be sure to keep tubs of water to keep
up the humidity.

Many things besides temperature can
46
affect the type of root cellar you use.
A big determining factor is the floor
plan of your house. Another one is the
lay of your land. If you have an older

home with an unheated basement,
then you’ve probably already got
everything you need. Just pick a
corner, set up shelves, and get started.

If you decide you want an outdoor root
cellar, there are a couple of things to keep in mind before you start digging. If you are in
the hard north, you may want to consider a root cellar that is easy to get to, like under

your porch as opposed to one you may lose under the snow in the winter. Remember that
you will have to make semi-regular visits there, so don’t put it any farther away than you
will feel like digging out to.

46 "Root Cellar" by: Jeff Wilson, (CC BY 2.0)

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