An Old Root Cellar Can Enhance the Look of Your Home

old root cellar

Root cellars are underground cold storage spaces typically constructed of brick, stone or logs that serve both as essential cold storage for seasonal vegetables and fruit harvested by gardeners, and attractive features that add charm and value to any home.

As soon as settlers from England made the journey across to North America, they realized they would need to be proactive about protecting their produce from spoiling in the damp and cold conditions of America. A ground cellar Grundkeller became a key feature of many homesteads as families set up colonies – often constructed before even the house itself! According to Martin, Grundkellers were used as storage spaces for potatoes, beets, baskets of apples and pears, fermented goods like sauerkraut as well as whiskey or cider.

At first, cellars were simple holes dug into the ground or dug into hillsides for storage; later on however, people began creating more complex cellars as part of hillside structures or home basements. Underground locations help reduce temperatures and humidity levels to extend shelf life of fruits, vegetables and other food items. If you don’t have access to digging your own cellar, an alternative solution would be insulating a cooler or repurposed box like an old ice chest, or simply keeping vegetables and fruits you harvest in crates, bags or baskets for safe keeping and proper air circulation. This helps ensure mold won’t form while also ensuring that ethylene gas (emitted by some fruits and vegetables) doesn’t build up, leading to other produce becoming fermented over time.

If you want to build a root cellar, the first step should be laying down footers — consisting of concrete blocks which provide support for the walls — before lining them with brick or stone. Concrete, bricks and cinder blocks are low-cost materials for this task; alternatively you could try using recycled insulation like old refrigerators or straw bales as alternative insulation materials.

Once the walls have been constructed, a layer of sand or sawdust should be spread over them before adding straw or leaves for additional ventilation and air circulation. Produce should then be added directly into the pit by stacking rather than piling.

Gary Bares of Manheim-based restoration business Restore N More has restored a cellar on Miller Street in Strasburg that originally housed two-story farmhouse dwellings; today it serves only as a 6-by-10-foot pit with front wall, door and ventilation chimney. Tony Dalessandro plans on doing something similar at his property along Blue Lake Road near Reinholds; both cellar restoration projects will include fixing up their entrance and small chimney in their ceilings.


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