Building An Underground Root Cellar

We decided that our little farm needed a root cellar to store our produce in.

Building an underground root cellar.

The biggest positive aspect of using a root cellar is the simplicity. Perhaps it is time to build an underground root cellar. What is a root cellar. And yet to be able to build your own underground root cellar you need to know some basic and very important details.

Keep these three details in mind and the cellar can be built using just about any method. Understand that the key elements of a root cellar have to do with temperature humidity and ventilation. Building material options include native stone concrete cinder blocks earth packed tires or cedar logs for walk in root cellars. Once you have the right location and conditions set up you just store your produce in baskets or buckets and leave as is in the cellar until you are ready to use them.

For those unfamiliar with the term a root cellar is an underground room that acts like a natural refrigerator maintaining temperatures in the mid 30 s f in the winter and mid 50 s in the summer. Ideally the door should face north to keep out the sun s. Small underground food storage systems primarily consist of buried containers while larger setups typically include a separate building. Dig a deep enough hole and you ll find that the ground is cool and often moist.

Wiki says a root cellar is a structure usually underground or partially underground used for storage of vegetables fruits nuts or other foods. Pros and cons to using a root cellar. Depending on your time energy and funds there are two main types of root cellars to choose from. Building a root cellar is a satisfying project for the do it yourself homeowner as the cost of materials is low and the cellar will last for decades.

The perfect location for a root cellar is nestled into an existing soil bank in a well drained location 10 to 20 yards from your house. A root cellar will save money for many years to come yet if you construct the cellar yourself the cost of building materials is less than a family would spend in one winter buying produce at. Dig a hole in the ground.