Root Cellaring in the South?

[ninjapoodles]

I have stuffed every bit of freezer space I have full of summer's produce, and am cooking up the last of last year's venison and wild turkey as fast as I can to make more room. It's pretty much a given that we're going to have to add at least another small chest freezer in the basement just for meat, both because of Alex's hunting and the chickens and turkeys we'll be processing. I've just started to learn canning, and have put up everything I could this year water-bath canning (I've not had the nerve to try pressure-canning yet, maybe next year).

SO. I just finished reading the book "Root Cellaring." It's a good reference, and fairly thorough, with lots of different ideas about root cellaring. But one thing that it does NOT cover is climate. As in, where you live. I've been asking around, and I can't find ANYONE who keeps a root cellar around here. Surely Southerners have done and still do this?

We live in central Arkansas, and have very little of what I'd consider "real" cold weather. Yes, we have occasional, isolated ice-storms, and maybe one half-hearted snowfall a year, but nothing lasting. Would it just be a waste of time to try this?

We have a basement, but it's a finished basement, and heated. One thing I thought of was walling off small corner, around one of the high windows, and insulating it as a "cold pantry." Another option would be if there was any way we could utilize the existing smokehouse on the property. It's a small cinderblock building, with one small hole in one wall that could easily have a grate installed over it to keep critters out. But would that stay cool enough?

I keep reading that temps need to stay as close to 32 degrees as possible, and VERY little of our winter is that cold.

To just add to the complications, and further limit our options, we live on a rocky mountainside. Digging would be a major ordeal, but if we had some idea that it would be effective, we could hire a backhoe to dig out a hole in the side of the hill. Obviously, it would be MUCH preferable to use an existing structure, but it might just be too warm for that.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? PLEASE help! I'd love to have something in place by next year, so that I can grow potatoes and sweet potatoes and beets and carrots and things and store them over winter!

 

[FarmerChick]

I haven't dealt with root cellars personally, but I am NC and I have warmer type weather also thru the winters and such.....but Tony's granddad had a cool storage building. about 6 x 6 but built right on the creekside. part of the cool creek ran right underneath and it was also in total shade. I never knew what was truly kept in it but it was definitely used. I had some crude shelving and a rock floor over most of the bottom. Such a cool little building....

hope some of that helps ya

 

[user251]

central Alabama here. my grand parents had one. all they had was a small door in the foundation wall that had a spot my poppy dug a space about 8 foot long 4 foot wide and just deep enough to barely stand in. he kept taters, onions, turnips and the likes in the corners with straw for the veges to rest on and to cover them. he also kept his good wine down there (it was good )

 

[patandchickens]

Even though you won't be able to cool things off so well as someone farther north could, you'll still be able to keep the space cooler than you'd want your kitchen <g> and thus I would think it would be useful. Even getting just an extra month or two of storage of some things would probably be worth it.

Not sure whether digging underground would be good, though... the reason for doing that in the North is to prevent things from freezing *too much*

Good luck, be interested to hear how you make out,

Pat

 

[carugoman]

Hi Y'all !
I live in NW Florida and I am putting in a root cellar next month. My neighbor built his house underground. If you can water-bath can, then pressure canning is easier...just buy the "Ball's" blue cookbook on canning.

 

[Beekissed]

I have stuffed every bit of freezer space I have full of summer's produce, and am cooking up the last of last year's venison and wild turkey as fast as I can to make more room. It's pretty much a given that we're going to have to add at least another small chest freezer in the basement just for meat, both because of Alex's hunting and the chickens and turkeys we'll be processing. I've just started to learn canning, and have put up everything I could this year water-bath canning (I've not had the nerve to try pressure-canning yet, maybe next year).

SO. I just finished reading the book "Root Cellaring." It's a good reference, and fairly thorough, with lots of different ideas about root cellaring. But one thing that it does NOT cover is climate. As in, where you live. I've been asking around, and I can't find ANYONE who keeps a root cellar around here. Surely Southerners have done and still do this?

We live in central Arkansas, and have very little of what I'd consider "real" cold weather. Yes, we have occasional, isolated ice-storms, and maybe one half-hearted snowfall a year, but nothing lasting. Would it just be a waste of time to try this?

We have a basement, but it's a finished basement, and heated. One thing I thought of was walling off small corner, around one of the high windows, and insulating it as a "cold pantry." Another option would be if there was any way we could utilize the existing smokehouse on the property. It's a small cinderblock building, with one small hole in one wall that could easily have a grate installed over it to keep critters out. But would that stay cool enough?

I keep reading that temps need to stay as close to 32 degrees as possible, and VERY little of our winter is that cold.

To just add to the complications, and further limit our options, we live on a rocky mountainside. Digging would be a major ordeal, but if we had some idea that it would be effective, we could hire a backhoe to dig out a hole in the side of the hill. Obviously, it would be MUCH preferable to use an existing structure, but it might just be too warm for that.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this? PLEASE help! I'd love to have something in place by next year, so that I can grow potatoes and sweet potatoes and beets and carrots and things and store them over winter!

Here's an option...truck in some fill dirt to mound up around your smokehouse and then insulate it from the inside as well. Just make sure you place enough dirt around it to reach the roofline and enough to account for natural settling later. Slope your dirt well to allow for drainage/runoff. Make sure to ventilate it in the normal way. I would also seed your fill dirt with a good groundcover that doesn't require mowing, but will help prevent soil erosion. Would look pretty with some Crown Vetch...

You know, you might even consider a living roof for that new cellar, for added insulation. Just think, a new cellar all covered with flowers!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Here's an option...truck in some fill dirt to mound up around your smokehouse and then insulate it from the inside as well. Just make sure you place enough dirt around it to reach the roofline and enough to account for natural settling later. Slope your dirt well to allow for drainage/runoff. Make sure to ventilate it in the normal way. I would also seed your fill dirt with a good groundcover that doesn't require mowing, but will help prevent soil erosion. Would look pretty with some Crown Vetch...

You know, you might even consider a living roof for that new cellar, for added insulation. Just think, a new cellar all covered with flowers!

You know, that is really a very clever idea. And it was NOT in that book I just read cover-to-cover! The little smokehouse is really ugly as is, too, so it would be a visual improvement. When we first bought this house, we thought we'd use it to store firewood, but we soon learned that with a fire in the fireplace, we were sucking more heat up and out the chimney than we were putting into the house, even with the blower on. So unless we get ambitious and put in a wood-stove, we won't need any firewood. And even if we did, we have an 800SF shop building that is also being used for nothing but storage of our superfluous JUNK.

 

[patandchickens]

Be real careful -- dirt weighs a LOT and banking it up against a structure more than a foot or so will require very careful consideration about how well-braced the structure is. Just the weight of dirt trying to slump back down can push things over unless they are built to withstand it, and a structure intended to be totally aboveground may *not* be.

I have a cement-block 2-3' high 'knee wall' in part of my garage wall that is keeling over (soon the stud wall atop it will slip off) due to some supergenius piling dirt against the outside of it to raise the level around the entrance to the house.

Just a heads-up,

Pat

 

[roosmom]

I just asked my hubby and he said that you would prob have to go 4' deep to get the steady coolness that we have up here. Just to check that, I would call some local contractors and ask them at what depth the ground stays a steady.....say 40 degrees (or the temp you are looking for). Dont tell them why or they might laugh, you know how men are.
Okay so if you wanted to go that deep and were worried about how to shore it up, pick up a used or broken down lg chest freezer. You could put 1x10's on the side of the freezer to stop it from caving in (or recycle your wood you already have). Think of the old mines and how they shored them up to, that if what I mean by using beams and such.
Put the freezer back in the hill at least 6'. Put the door north if at all possible and at the opening of the hill so when you openup the shed door you go back or down two or three steps to pull open the freezer door/root cellar. Maybe if you dug down 4' beneath you smokehouse and put a thermometer down there and watched it you would have a better idea if it is feasible. Food for thought?

edited because sometimes I type without reading the WHOLE thing.