Sample Chapter – Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation

Gardener’s Guide to Fruit and Vegetable Preservation

Subtitle:

Complete Guide to Canning, Dehydrating, Freezing, Pickling and More

Series:

Gardener’s Guide Series

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 $10.99

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Ebook Price

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Root Cellar

A root cellar is a structure, usually constructed underground, that is used to store various types of vegetables, fruits and nuts for long periods of time. The name derives from the use of the cellar to store root crops like potatoes, turnips and carrots.

History of the Root Cellar

People have stored food underground since ancient times. Many times, this practice involved simply placing the food in an urn or barrel and burying it or digging trenches and mounding the earth over the food. The first walk in root cellars didn’t appear in England until the 17th Century. The North American English colonists took the concept along with them and used root cellars extensively to store food. The Jamestown settlers constructed the first root cellars in the New World in 1607. Nearly every colonial farm had a root cellar to store vegetables, fruits and other foods. The use of root cellars continued as the dominant food preservation device until the advent of refrigeration in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The history of root cellars can be traced back to ancient civilizations, indigenous Australians, and European settlers in North America:

Ancient civilizations

The Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians all used cellars for various purposes, including storing wine in Greece and keeping food cool in Egypt.

Indigenous Australians

Some of the first people known to preserve food by burying it were the indigenous people of Australia.

European settlers in North America

English and Irish settlers built root cellars shortly after arriving in North America, realizing that the climates were different from what they were used to. For example, settlers at the Colony of Virginia in Jamestown built cellars in 1607.

Use in the New World

Root cellars became more common in the New World, especially in the 17th and 18th centuries. In New England, almost every farmstead had a root cellar to keep produce cool in the summer and above freezing in the winter.

Use by slaves

Slaves used root cellars to hide food and personal possessions from their owners. Some slave owners raised their cabins off the ground to prevent slaves from creating hidden spaces under them.

Root cellars were a critical part of farm subsistence strategies, especially during the winter when eating was seasonal. They were used to preserve food year-round until the refrigeration era.

How a Root Cellar Works

The root cellar functions best when it maintains temperatures between 32º to 40º Fahrenheit and humidity levels of 85 to 95 percent. The cool temperatures and high humidity slow the release of ethylene gas from the fresh produce. These temperatures also retard the growth of bacteria which can spoil the food. The high humidity slows the release of water from the crops, preventing them from withering.