Building An Underground Root Cellar

Pros and cons to using a root cellar.

Building an underground root cellar.

We decided that our little farm needed a root cellar to store our produce in. Dig a deep enough hole and you ll find that the ground is cool and often moist. 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. Building material options include native stone concrete cinder blocks earth packed tires or cedar logs for walk in root cellars.

Wiki says a root cellar is a structure usually underground or partially underground used for storage of vegetables fruits nuts or other foods. Historically root underground cellars date as far back as 40000 years when people discovered that if they bury their food underground it would remain fresh and edible for a long period of time. Root cellars tap into those cool moist soil conditions and use them to store fruits and vegetables like your refrigerator produce bin. Keep these three details in mind and the cellar can be built using just about any method.

Depending on your time energy and funds there are two main types of root cellars to choose from. Understand that the key elements of a root cellar have to do with temperature humidity and ventilation. What is a root cellar. Small underground food storage systems primarily consist of buried containers while larger setups typically include a separate building.

Ideally the door should face north to keep out the sun s. Diaporama how to build an underground root cellar diy build country cellar. 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. And yet to be able to build your own underground root cellar you need to know some basic and very important details.

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. 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. 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.