Root cellar anyone have one like this?

[Collector]

When I was a kid my grandparents had a root cellar made out of a 55 gal. Drum. They had three of them spaced about 2 feet apart buried in the ground . They had the lids with the snap rings to hold them on. I remember my grandma sending us out on Christmas to get stuff out of them. One would hold potatoes one had onions the otherone would have the extra potatoes in it and sometimes apples. Those are the only ones I have ever saw though. Is this method very popular anymore I wonder.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have Nancy Bubels book "Root Cellaring" wherein she shows a lot of those sort of alternative root cellars. Thats another project on my list,
good thing summer days are long, my list is already longer than my stamina. I wonder what your grandparents used for venting, and did they have an insulating layer of straw over them or anything?

 

[Collector]

I am not sure how it was vented or anything like that I was 10 maybe 12 years old at the time. I do remember there were 3 barrels with the snap ring lids and built over them was a wood structure inside the wood structure was straw. So you would lift the lid and prop it up with a stick sweep the straw aside to get to the barrels. All of the produce was In gunny sacks in the barrels, to make it easier to get at I'm sure.
It was a long time ago, I am really trying to reel in the years here so I can make some for us. So I posted this hoping someone here is familiar with these root cellars to help shed some light on the important design elements.
Thistle does your book have any ideas about the venting for the barrels?

 

[thistlebloom]

I think it is definitely worth taking a look at the book. It may be available in libraries. She shows a lot of different methods and includes venting info and all that. Really a great option if you don't have a basement or real root cellar.

 

[ninnymary]

I bet you Hoodat would know. He knows EVERYTHING. Hoodat, where are you?

Mary

 

[April Manier]

You will have to tackle ventelation. Please keep us posted on your research.

 

[hoodat]

I bet you Hoodat would know. He knows EVERYTHING. Hoodat, where are you?

Mary

That's a new one on me. When I was a youngster everyone lived in houses with cellars that doubled as root storage. I do remember some dugouts in hillsides, usually lined with elm planks. Red elm resists decay better than cedar or redwood. I even remember some water supply pipes made out of elm.

 

[vfem]

This is very interesting, I would love to hear about what you find out. We're too warm here for this to work for us.

I think we can simply keep a sack under the crawl space to the house and that would be enough for us... but would probably only work well December-January here.

Our ground stays much too warm.

 

[Ariel72]

Ground too warm...poor thing......I'm still trying to muster some sympathy for you up here in the middle of my ice storm .

 

[vfem]

Hahahaha.... Don't you worry, the nasty trade off here is I have clay soil, with poor drainage and root veggies barely grow in it.
For every positive its balances with a negative!

You are ALL always welcome to move to NC. We love the gardeners company!!!