Building An In-The-Ground Food Storage

[Tallman]

Since I don't have a basement or cellar, I am thinking about building some type of in-the-ground storage for food.

A root cellar would be best if I could afford it; however, there are probably some ideas out there that are on a much smaller scale than a cellar. Got any ideas? I'm open for all input.

 

[sylvie]

I love this concept and want to know, too!

When we put in our pond we had the soil mounded to block the road view. It was cheaper than paying to have it hauled away. I have been entertaining the thought of a root cellar in the side of the mound, which has been compacting for 12 years now and is as stable as it will
get.

 

[2dream]

Use the search function here for root cellars and you will find several threads.

The best book for me was Root Cellaring by the Bubels. You will also find that book referenced on several of the other threads.

 

[patandchickens]

One traditional tactic is just keeping the veggies in the ground til you want to use them (with very heavy mulch and/or straw or hay bales on top of them to keep the ground thawed). Not all crops will store this way, nor I gather are all varieties equally suited in crops that *do*, but some will work fine for that. Carrots, parsnips, kale, some beets, leeks in some climates, probably other things I'm forgetting.

I haven't tried it myself.

Pat

 

[me&thegals]

Another vote for Root Cellaring, which gives many different models of root cellars, some requiring not that much work or material. So far, we leave in garden as long as possible, then move to garage, then cellar once it has cooled down for winter.

 

[Beekissed]

My folks have been cellaring their potatoes in a hole in the ground for several years now. They dug a hole, lined it with straw and put a straw bale over the potatoes and cover it all with a piece of tin with a cement block on top! This has worked successfully for them for some time....but then, they have a very clay soil base. Their potatoes seem to stay pretty dry and keep very well.

 

[nightshade]

Hi I am going with the concrete block type root cellar at the new farm. I used a contractors block estimator program to figure out how many block I would need for the 10x10 root cellar that I want. Then called a local block plant ( which is litterly less then 3 miles from our current home stead) Their blocks are 90 cents each. Which make it's it actually quite affordable to us. And we are going to have the excavator there anyway at the time so he mid as well dig an extra hole.

If you search around you may be able to find local options for things like block that would make it more affordable then say buy your supplies at a home depot type place.

 

[freemotion]

We also have a big mound of dirt out back from some work we had done....I was thinking of having it dug out to make a root cellar in it. The pile is full of large stumps, though and is only 5-6 years old. So I wonder how stable it is, how long I need to wait......any opinions?

I have a small section of my cellar that I am planning to turn into a root cellar. I bought a thermometer that also measures humidity, and that corner has ideal conditions. Just needs a door and a little insulation to keep the temps constant, and I think I might be good to go. It is not big enough to hold everything I would need to be totally ss, but hey, I'm so far from that, anyways!

But I am thinking ahead to that mound out back....

 

[Homesteadmom]

I am hoping for a concrete root cellar because of the heat we have here.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I wonder if earthquake prone areas would be good for that. I would worry about collapse right when I need the stuff the most.
But I have several twenty foot diameter old redwood stumps that are hollow- maybe I could do something with that- I think this summer I will take the temperature inside some of those and see if it would keep cool- I have never seen it freeze inside on.
Around here all the old houses have what they call coolers- a small closet on the north side of the house that has louvers and screening- it was a place to keep things cool in the summer in the cool marine climate on the coast.