Build an Outdoor Root Cellar

A root cellar is a place store fruits and vegetables during the winter. They are an environmentally friendly and fairy simple option that can save you trips to the grocery store or farmers market and throwing away spoiled produce. You can build a root cellar in your basement, garage, a closet or outside. Barrels, trashcans, Styrofoam coolers, barrels, or almost any other covered container can be used as a root cellar if it is buried in the ground. You can also build a true underground root cellar. Just remember that the main rule of real estate applies with root cellar placement: location, location, location. Make sure that the place you have your heart set on allows for convenient access. Is it close enough to your house for you to go and get stored produce in bad weather? Is it close to your garden so that you do not have to haul your harvest too far in order to store it?

If you do not want to dig at all, you can still have an outdoor root cellar of sorts. A Styrofoam cooler or similar container can serve as a root cellar with no digging involved. Simply surround your container with hay bales, fill the container with produce, some more hay or other items as cushion and insulation, replace and secure the lid and you have a small, simple root cellar. This might be the best option for people with soil that is hard to dig.

If you are willing to dig and still want to use a container here is your best option. You can use just about any container, including everything from garbage cans to refrigerators that no longer work. After you have chosen your container and location, it is time to get stop and think again. It is best to be certain that the location you plan on digging has no hidden dangers. Call your utility companies and make sure there are no wires, pipes, or anything else that would change a rewarding project into a dangerous or costly situation. Is the location you plan to dig near any trees? Be sure that you will not run across an established root system that you might damage or that might force you to change location after getting started with the digging process. After that is done, get out your shovel and get digging. You want to bury your container at a forty-five degree angle at least two feet deep. Three feet deep would be better in areas with a very cold climate. So dig the hole, test the size and depth until you get the container encased in soil the way you want it, with only the side with the lid exposed.

Now you are ready to fill up your outdoor root cellar. Pack some straw, hay, newspaper of leaves around the bottom and outside of your container to insulate and cushion your produce. Some more of this cushion between layers of produce is helpful as well. Here is a quick tip that will make it easier to get what you want for dinner or baking when you want it. I suggest not putting all of the same produce together. Alternating what you are storing instead, such as not putting all your apples or potatoes on the bottom, will make it much easier to get at those apples when you want to make a pie or the potatoes when you need them for dinner. Put one more layer of your cushion on top of your produce, put the lid on, and use a rock or other heavy object to secure the lid and keep out any unwanted visitors. When you need to access your stored produce, simply move the rock, take of the lid and top layer of insulation and get what you need. Then replace everything else back the way it was and you are set.

There is still another option for diggers that are more adventurous and those with more available space and resources. Underground root cellars make it much easier to access your produce, but are certainly not a quick and easy project. Most underground root cellars are six feet deep, because at that depth the temperature remains more consistent that it would closer to the surface. Since this kind of root cellar needs to go so deep, you will need steps leading down into it. You could form them out of the earth that you have dug out to create the cellar, or use wood or cement. The cement steps would last the longest and be the safest, since they would not get slippery like mud or wet wood, but creating cement stairs might require help from a professional. Underground root cellars need solid construction, including wood beams or cement blocks, to brace the walls of the underground root cellar because the soil can freeze from the humidity and possibly collapse without the proper support. I strongly suggest getting professional assistance with building an underground root cellar, unless you are already well experienced in this type of building. I know I would need to hire help to build an underground root cellar, if I even had the free yard space for one.

Sources:

Terra, not terror Root Cellars

Yankee Publishing Root Cellars: How to Keep It Cool