Help me understand root cellars

[bbird]

We have this area under part of the barn/house that is pretty big. Its built on a hill and I would say under the house at the spot I am talking about is 10 ft by 10 ft, when I stand down there it is at least 8 ft high.

We were looking at this spot and thinking it would be neat to outline the area with cinderblocks, then make a door in the floor of the house with steps leading down into this area.

I hesitate to call it a root cellar, because I am not sure exactly what a root cellar entails. I'm thinking typically a root cellar is as cold as a refridgerator? What exactly does one put in a root cellar, and why?

Our ideas are it would be a great place to stock canned goods. Also because it wouldn't be seen from outside the house, and if you could manage to hide the door in the floor it would be a great place to hide weapons, valuables if you went on vacation for a few days.

We are thinking though that during the winter it could get below freezing and canned jars wouldn't survive. Moisture might be a problem too because of it having a dirt floor, also rodents.

We don't want to go through the expense if its just going to turn into a place for the kids to call their "hideout."

[Kathy]

Deb, when I was a kid living on the farm, my parents had a root cellar. I don't remember a lot except going down there to get out beets, carrots and apples.
Theirs had a dirt floor but they'd put (what I now know is hardware cloth) down on the floor and up the walls about 1' -probably to discourage rodents.

There was a small window up high that my father would sometimes open, when things started to 'sweat' in the cellar.

I don't remember much else but here's websites that have root cellar info.

waltonfeed.com/old/cellar4.html

www.ehow.com/how_2085550_make-basement-root-cellar.html

[Deleted]

If it's down below your frostline (what is it there - 24"? 36"? I can't remember), it won't freeze. It doesn't have to be as cold as a fridge, just cooler than the house. We want to put one in here, too, but there's no hill by our house, so we'll have to just dig a bloody great hole in the ground with steps down and a door at the bottom of the stairs and one up at the top (think storm cellar type doors). We're going to line ours with concrete, I think, with a concrete floor, and a vent up through the top. It's still all on paper yet, but I'd really like one so that I can keep stuff over winter, or at least into the winter, without it rotting. Then maybe I'd grow onions and potatoes and such. Right now I don't bother because we can't eat it before it rots. Oh, and I also want to put my canned stuff in there, too. It's a great place to store canned food.

~Lannie

[bbird]

Thanks for the links Kathy, I'll check them out. I haven't even had time really to google yet. This is just one of those ideas we get that sound really neat, but I really do need to learn more, lol.

Lannie- The area we would like to put as a root cellar is all above ground and we wouldn't have to dig down because of the way the house slopes. I'm not sure if being protected by the cement blocks, and house is enough for things not to freeze because its above ground.

Then there is this...I'm almost embarrassed to mention it, since I am suppose to be this "homesteading, survival" type of girl. Putting my bags of potatos and onions down in a root cellar where mice and rats could run all over them grosses me out to the point I would not eat the potatos and onions. Yet, I would love to be able to stock up on those items too. I guess if we poured concrete for a floor that would be better, but I'd love this to be an el' cheapo idea.

[Kathy]

Deb, you can store the potatoes and onions in metal trash cans with air holes drilled in them. That way the little nibblers can't pee and poop on your food.

Although it wasn't in a root cellar but in my unheated garage; I tried using plastic trash cans with holes drilled in them to store winter vegetables.. That didn't work since mice will chew out the holes until they can get in.

[Deleted]

You can also store that kind of stuff in mesh or burlap (something that breathes) bags hung from the beams. One caveat - I have seen mice running across the beams in the roof of the chicken coop, down the chain that hangs the chicken feeder and right into the feed. Then they duck under the edge to the lip and hop out. So if you hang stuff you should try to figure out a way to mouseproof it from the top. Maybe a collar of some sort around the top just above the bag that they'll slide off of or something. Dunno. That's just an idea.

If it's above ground, and if you insulate it, you shouldn't have too much trouble in the winter, but I'd worry about it getting too warm in the summer. Maybe you could put a window air conditioner in there to run when the days start getting hot, if you still have things in there then, that is. We're thinking about putting an air conditioner in our butchering room, so we can hang meat in there for a while without it getting too hot. Maybe you could do something similar with your root "cellar."

Another idea would be to pile dirt up as high as you can around the outside. I don't exactly know what this room is going to look like, so I don't know if that's feasible, but if you can, it would help insulate it both summer and winter, and moderate the temps inside. It really only needs to be about 50 or 60 degrees I think, to function properly as a root cellar. I might be wrong, but that's what I've heard.

~Lannie

[bbird]

Metal trash cans!! Never thought of that, lol. That makes sense, and would solve the problem. You can tell I am use to storing everything in my kitchen pantry, lol.

You mentioning mice chewing through plastic garbage cans....we have squirrels chewing through our plastic cans we use for recycling. I knew squirrels would do that, but its the first time for us. They work fast!

[bbird]

Lannie- That is a good idea about the a/c in there because I bet it would get above 50 in the summer. Ugh, this would be work, lol. At least it gives us more to think about and it doesn't have to be done this moment while we are trying to finish the house.

We lost our butcher room because it was in the barn, lol. But we did the same thing and set up a a/c to keep the hanging meat cold. So now we just have to butcher in the fall and winter.

My granny had a "fruit room" but basically it was used as a root cellar would be. It was off her back enclosed porch and basically it was a cinderblock room in her house. No windows, just shelves of canned goods, and she would have big burlap sacks of potatos and onions just sitting on the floor. It wouldn't get as hot as the house in the summer, because of the blocks and in the winter because she heated the enclosed back porch it didn't go below freezing. I could kick myself for not paying attention more when she was alive to learn how all this is done...but I guess that is life's lessons.

[Deleted]

I've kicked myself repeatedly for the same reasons, Deb. Back when she was alive, I thought I knew everything and my Nana was just "old fashioned." Now what I wouldn't give to be able to pick her brain just for one afternoon!

~Lannie

[kitaye]

The area you describe sounds like it would make a good cellar. There is a book you should probably try to find as it gives all the ins and outs of creating a good cellar: "Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage for Fruits anf Vegetables" by Mike and Nancy Bubel