Everything about Root Cellar totally explained
A
root cellar is a structure that was used before the advent of
electricity to store vegetables.
Function
Root cellars are for keeping food supplies from freezing during the winter, and keeping food supplies cool during the summer months. Typically, families would place a variety of vegetables in the root cellar in the autumn of a given year, after the harvesting of the vegetable gardens had been completed. A secondary use for the root cellar seems to be as a place in which to store alcoholic beverages.
The main vegetables stored in the root cellar consisted of
potatoes,
turnip, and
carrot. Although some people did store
cabbage in the root cellar, it would appear that most didn't as cabbage had a tendency to rot if not pickled first. Other food supplies placed in the root cellar over the winter months included
beets, preserves/jams, salt meat, salt
turbot, and salt
herring. Food supplies were kept in the root cellar in the summer months to avoid spoilage. Water, bread, butter, milk, and cream were stored in the typical root cellar so that these items could be used more than once by the family. In addition, items such as salads, fresh meat, and jam pies were kept in the root cellar early in the day, so that they could keep cool until they were needed for supper.
Construction
Common construction methods are:
- Digging down into the ground and erecting a shed or house over the cellar (access is via a trap door in the shed).
- Digging into the side of a hill (easier to excavate and facilitates water drainage).
- Building a structure at ground level and piling rocks, earth, and/or sod around and over it. This may be easier to build on rocky terrain where excavation is difficult.
Most root cellars were built using stone, wood, mortar (cement), and sod. Newer ones may be made of concrete with sod on top.
Further Information
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