Storing Canned Goods in a Root Cellar

[Joel_BC]

Bale building has become fairly popular in my region. I know people who have used the method. For above-ground structures, it can even turn out looking quite good - like the famous Santa Fe adobe house and commercial-building style of the American Southwest. But more important, it provides a very high insulation factor for the cost of investment - much higher insulation quality than a 2x6 stud-frame wall filled with standard fibreglass or rock-wool insulation. I know one person who has a bale guest cabin on her property, as well as a bale winter food-storage building. She's happy with both of them.

One way is to build a very basic post & beam structure and then in-fill it with straw bales.

From what I've heard, there are often different plastering mixtures used for the interior and exterior of the (bale) walls. You want the walls to breathe to a certain extent, but you plaster the bales to prevent gross moisture tranfer, and to keep varmints out. I'm sure the formulas for the plaster, as well as instructions for other aspects and details, can be found on the internet.

You'd need to build a highly insulated door to go with the bale structure.

Having said this, of course you have to remember that, despite the high insulation value of the bale walls, there has to be some heat source inside to keep stored food from eventually freezing. In a location with cold winters, there has be warmth inside the structure, because slow heat loss will still occur.

 

[Hinotori]

Sorry, not meaning to hijack, but I just have to say something about this.

Leta,
I'm a great fan of Gamma Lids and store all my dry goods in Vittle Vaults.

I looked up them on the Petsmart site. OOO. I had to show hubby and we're going to have to order a few. I like the ones with the angled mouth. Can stack them and still access. That is a really cool thing. I we have at moment is the 10 gallon buckets and Gamma lids. I'd given mom some of the lids and she fell in love. She doesn't have much grip left and she loves that they are airtight and she can still open them.

 

[Joel_BC]

Not sure if the straw-bale building approach actually suits the query in the opening post on this thread, but if it does...
These might be interesting:

Good informational links on the upper left of the page:
http://foodforest.com.au/BuildingWithStrawBales.htm

Good general explanation:
http://buildipedia.com/go-green/sustainable-materials-methods/straw-bale-construction

This list of books is a good start. (The covers of the books show some beautiful straw-bale buildings.)
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_s...-keywords=straw+bale+homes&sprefix=straw+bale

 

[hqueen13]

Vittle Vaults are great, and can hold almost 50 lbs of horse feed in some of the larger models, and the stacking feature is really handy.

Cob buildings are awesome, I first saw Mike Rowe doing it on Dirty Jobs (<3 Mike Rowe!!!), and fell in love with the concept. Its pretty labor intensive, but maybe building with straw bales them simply plastering them would be sufficient.

So much to explore and learn!

 

[~gd]

Is he talking about a straw bale structure covered with cob? Straw bale and cob houses are becoming approved in more and more states as being up to code, so this could be what he is referring to. I don't see any difficulty with what you describe,"exterior door on the outside and a foam plug after that". The cellar I have been using for the past 5 years had just such a design.

Well I don't know what "cob" is but I also don't know exactly what the stuff is that waterproofs the outside, could that be cob? Cellars are rare in his area because top soil is thin over a red clay that makes good bricks. He thought about a ground level building covered by an earthen berm for insulation but the effort was just too much with all that earth to move.

 

[Beekissed]

Cob is a mixture of clay, sand and straw. It has been used for centuries in England to construct homes and some of those homes are still in use today, thatched roofs and all. Placing cob mix over top a straw bale construction is a way of sealing out moisture and protecting the core of the walls. These homes usually have a large overhang on the roofs as well.

Straw is used as opposed to hay for a couple of reasons. The hollow straw shaft has more insulating action than does hay and "critters" are not as prone to living in straw as they are in hay due to the lack of seeds/greens to consume. If straw bale is constructed properly, there is no room for any rodent habitation, nor would they prefer it. The dense construction is also a fire deterrent, as the bales are tightly packed and allow no airflow into the fire. The cob is also a flame retardant.

Usually those constructing cob homes will also paint a sealant/paint on the cob to control moisture/particle loss. Some use the old style milk paints to remain true to the construction style.

On the other hand, some confuse cob with adobe. Slightly different mixture and adobe is used more in arid climates. From what I've read, adobe just uses sand and clay, not so much the grass/straw fibers. In humid climates such as England the soil construction of the adobe would likely crumble and erode.

 

[k15n1]

Go to a public library and check out a book on root cellars.

The humidity and temperature of a root cellar is important. The humidity is generally too high for metal cans and jar lids.

Air cirrculation is also important.

A root cellar needs regular checks to see that the humidity and temperature are OK. Temperature is adjusted with a vent to the outside and moisture is adjusted by dumping water on the floor (gravel over dirt is the best floor), setting out pans, or by directly watering transplanted cabbages or sand-packed vegtables.

There's a lot to learn about using a root cellar properly. I've been reading about it because I would like to dig one on my 1/4 acre city lot. I'm lobbying for an appropriation bill... It's still in committee, though.

 

[Joel_BC]

My friend's straw-bale cold storage room is completely above ground. But our winter temps only get down to about 0 Farenheit (-12 C), most winters. The climate in question (post #1 in this thread) is considerably colder in winter.

One thought: A household could go with an essentially below-ground food cellar - and use a small bale structure in an above-ground portion, as the entranceway to the cellar. The above-ground portion could have a peaked roof that would shed snow.

Cellars with doors essentially flat to the ground, by contrast, require shovelling-off... every time it snows.

 

[~gd]

It was not cob that he used, frankly I cant picture clay, sand and straw as being able to seal out moisture unless they were fired and then would be called brick. Clay can absorb lots of moisture usually not very rapidly; sand and straw pretty much let it pass. The stuff he was using had a form of lime in it I remember warning him to use a mask to keep away from the powder.
One question, which binding material is used for the bales? The old wire machines are not used much anymore. He used jute twine because the polyester tended to stretch when handling the bales.

 

[Beekissed]

Just the usual, from what I can see. My sister is currently doing straw bale construction.

The cob mix has been used for centuries in one of the most moist environments I can imagine...most were lime washed afterwards, I'm sure. Whitewashing was done to soddies back in the day, on tree trunks, etc.

Here's an excellent link to a site with good info on cob and great pics:

http://www.cobprojects.info/