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How to Build an Old Fashioned Root Cellar

With the easily changeable temperatures of modern refrigerators and access to almost any food desired with supermarkets, the old-fashioned root cellar is not commonly seen throughout North America. Historically, digging into the earth was the only means of keeping foods cold enough to store all year round, utilizing the natural humidity and coolness of the ground. While not as common nowadays, creating your own root cellar at home is simple and allows you to store food without the excess cost of running a refrigerator.

Things You'll Need

Outdoor thermometer
Outdoor humidity reader
Ventilation equipment
Shovel or backhoe
Wood planks
Saw
Hammer
Nails
Cinder blocks
Fast-growing ground plant, such as mint
Wooden shelving units

Instructions

- 1
  Examine your property and look for small hills or a raised area in the land that would be large enough to hold a storage cellar. Or if building under your home, consider whether the foundations can accommodate it.
- 2
  Determine the temperature and humidity of the area where you will build your cellar. Optimally, it needs to be in the range of 32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit for temperature and 85 to 90 percent for humidity.
- 3
  Look at the area and determine where your ventilation will be and how it will be employed, whether through a grate, pipes, or just a hole dug through the earth and strengthened with wood.
- 4
  Determine what your latitude calls for -- if building the cellar in the southern United States, ensure that it is fully in the ground as it can get too warm if built into a hill, whereas in the North, the cellar can simply be built into a hill.
- 5
  Figure out how large you desire your cellar to be. The larger it is, the more unstable it can become over time.
- 6
  Dig the cellar in your chosen site, but away from any areas where water accrues, as this can erode and damage it. Support the structure as you desire, whether with wood supports or cinder blocks.
- 7
  Place a fast-growing and insulation-forming ground plant that will hold the soil around the cellar. This is generally a low-lying vine such as mint or fast-growing wildflowers.

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