Root Cellar-Anybody Have One, Want One or Ever Build One?

[digitS']

For several years I lived at the edge of a university town. The fields that comprised my view grew wheat but this was good bottom land along a creek.

I had the idea that the ground was once used for potatoes because of the very large root cellar. It had garage type doors and was this big cone-shaped pile of dirt. On top was what looked like a privey!

I figured out that it wasn't really but served as a vent for the cellar. It was like a cupola on a barn.

I've gotta say I got real sick of looking at that big bump in the landscape ...

Steve

 

[so lucky]

I don't have one, but I want one! When I was a girl, (a few years back) , we had an unfinished (read dirt) area under the front half of the house and porch. That's where we stored potatoes. Canned goods were put under the stairs in the basement.

I wonder why areas of the basement in old houses were left with a dirt floor. One of my sons lives in a 100+ year old house, and his basement has a large area with a dirt floor. He has thought about putting up florescent lights and growing some plants down there. Wouldn't that be fun?

 

[thistlebloom]

I want a root cellar too! And I also have the Bubels book, and get excited ideas when I read it. Then life gets in the way of my pipe dreams... but someday, maybe.

My experience with root cellars was my great grandmas, and grandmas. Both were dirt floored and under the house. I never went down into great grandmas, but her house always smelled faintly of apples and fresh soil.

At grandmas house, I would go down with her to retrieve her home canned produce for a meal. It was spooky, like So Lucky mentioned. Sometimes she'd send me down by myself to fetch something up and I'd go down bravely enough, turn into the doorway on the right at the bottom of the stairs and pull the string to the bare bulb in the ceiling. I'd collect a jar of whatever grandma needed, pull the string to turn the light off, then race like heck back up the stairs to keep in front of the boogey man that my imagination conjured up reaching for my heels.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Every "old" house that I remember where i grew up in PA had a root cellar. Meaning 100, 125+ years old. I didnt find ours creepy, but i did have to be careful not to hit my head on the low ceilings down there! Another storage technique there was the "spring house." cold ground water was run into a little building that has a "trough" type thing in the floor, and milk, watermelons, etc were kept cold partly submerged in the water. My great grandparents farm (which still has a working spring house and root cellar) will be coming up for auction in a couple months if anybody's in the market for 80+ acres, farmhouse, monster old barn, numerous outbuildings and a pond...

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

well, my house was inherited from my FIL a few years ago but the house was built sometime in the very late 1800's. dh says he remembers seeing a cornerstone with a date of 1898 but the city has the record of 1902. my house has a root cellar but i'm sure it wasn't original to the house since it's outer wall is made of cinder blocks and not brick or stone like the rest of the foundation.

we have yet to use the root cellar for what it is intended for. i'm still trying to clean the junk that had been hoarded from my FIL. tons of old tools and even found a Kellogg crank phone that must have belonged to the original owners. i think it had #6 on the bottom of the faceplate. i should have kept it but needed the money to pay bills and those go for some decent money even with the poor economy. well, the root cellar has a dirt basement so it seems to retain moisture, so that is something we need to combat too. once everything is cleaned out we can level the floor and put in shelves to store stuff. i have a dehumidifier but that can be expensive to keep running it to keep moisture levels down so something better will need to be done and i'm researching that.

 

[so lucky]

I don't have a snake phobia, but wouldn't a cool cellar attract snakes in the summertime? A person would need to make sure the entrance door fits tightly, and the venting is screened.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

I'd LOVE to have a root cellar! When we build our new house, Monty J said he is going to make room for one. It will save a lot of space for us!!!! Not sure how it would be organized, but have a lot of ideas how I want it to look!

 

[digitS']

This is not likely to help Bay' but I've posted this picture before and stored carrots like this a number of times. I know a gardener who does this with beets.

Here is a similar idea for potatoes:

Honestly, I don't think that this would work for many months with potatoes. Yes, I understand that the Irish know there potatoes but, they can grow at 45°f! You'd better know your potatoes & your soil if you are gonna keep them above 32°f and below 45°. Either that or plan on using them in just a month or two.

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Potato storage is a problem. I thought I had it covered last year with my glut of harvest that wouldn't fit in my usual reliable storage spot.
But I didn't, and wasted about 200 pounds of them.

When I think of some of the alternate outdoor storage options, I run into the reality of me trudging through knee deep snow to remove more frozen snow and dirt off of wherever I had them. Hmmm....possible surely, but not so pleasant in my real world. I must be getting lazier with every passing day.

A really-real root cellar is my favorite dream. One right under my house where I don't have to gear up for a potato extraction, complete with my swat team of vigilant pooches.

That's an even more unlikely scenario. So my solution for now is to only plant what I can keep in my garage "spud box".

 

[digitS']

Dig deep, Thistle'.

There is an acre of dirt . .

. below the one you are standing on.

Steve