I've been hearing about these things in relation to storing produce. But WHAT are they (or how are they different from regular cellars) and HOW do they work? =)

I grew up in the suburbs with a public education...

Thanks!

I lived as a child in northern Wisconsin. I would describe the root cellars that I knew of in various farm houses as small rooms off to one side of regular cellars. Being off to the side, they were underground rather than being under the house itself. This kept the temperature in the room just above freezing in the winter and cool in the summer. I can remember eating slightly limp carrots in January from the root cellar. I've never had better tasting carrots than homegrown even if they were a few months old from the root cellar.

flash

Root cellars were the every mans and womens refrigerater
before the days of electricity, Learn what you can because
those days could come again.

for info and specs go to waltonfeed.com/old/cellar4.html

Im starting on mine soon

Thanks a lot!

I've also been hearing about them when reading about Earthships, and other sustainable living projects... but wasn't 100% sure what root cellars were about. That's what happens when you spend your childhood watching TV on a giant block of concrete! It's so funny... so many simple, important things that so many young people are missing out on. =\

Hmm. I know. I've gotta get out of the apartment and into my earthship, quit my job to garden, and then somehow figure out how to pay property tax until 2012.

*scratches head*

What are the limitations of storage for a root cellar?

Root cellars, as riverhousebill indicated, are below ground rooms that allow one to store certain kinds of produce beyond it's normal keeping dates..It does this because the earth's temperature stays constant below a certain depth..

Root vegetables, hard skinned fruits such as squash & pumpkins, apples, & many other fruits & veggies can be stored for weeks & months after they would ordinarily spoil..

A root cellar IS NOT for someone that is not going to be checking up on the contents of the cellar regularly..Root cellars need to have their contents checked often, preferably every day, & ALL produce removed (consumed or tossed on the compost heap) that is beginning to turn, or has already turned (spoiled)..

A root cellar harkens back to pre-refrigeration days when a families very survival during the cold winter months would absolutely depend on their ability to harvest, fill, store, & manage a winter's & early spring's supply of food stuffs in their root cellar..

Rodale Press, Mother Earth News, & other organizations have books & publications dealing with root cellaring..

Different fruits & veggies have very different needs as to the ambient temperatures & the relative humidity that they need to be stored under in order to preserve the greatest levels of freshness & the longest storage..An ideal root cellar would have at least three different rooms that would allow for storing produce under different temperatures & degrees of humidity..

Yes, root cellars take advantage of the cooling effect of the earth (in almost any local?) The last root cellar I worked on was in New England, USA, built in a crawl space and made uninsulated and circular (8' diameter) out of mortared brick (to hold back the sandy soil).. and accessed by a floor hatch and ladder. Temperatures in the root cellar in the 30's (F.) and 40's could be expected in the winter months, and 50's and 60's during the summer.

I was thinking Alaska would be a great place to have a root cellar.. [www.uaf.edu] .. but they should work well almost anywhere shouldn't they?

O.K. so lots of fruits and veggies like to be stored at VERY cool temps which you may not find in the tropics.... in a "moderately WARM and dry" root cellar you can store:

Dry hot peppers
Pumpkins
Winter squash
Sweet potatoes
Green tomatoes (up to 70 degrees F is OK)

[www.waltonfeed.com]

Root cellars work best in the temperate climatic regions of both the northern & southern hemispheres..In the tropics there is a year round growing season pretty much eliminating the need for long-term food storage..Being willing to eat seasonally is the only prerequisite for living in the tropics..

Root cellars, & the implications of a raw vegan consuming the kinds of foods that are capable of being stored in a root cellar for months at a time past their normal spoilage dates; are another example of the dichotomy that currently exists within the raw vegan community..

On the one hand, there is pretty much a unanimous consensus that a raw vegan diet is healthier in every respect than a cooked food diet, even the healthiest vegan cooked food diet..Only several hundred additional years of humans consuming an exclusively raw vegan diet amidst other humans consuming the admixture of cooked food diets that currently are in vogue will provide the scientific data that will confirm or deny what we raw vegans now feel to be the "TRUTH"..Only by being able to compare the ratio of illnesses & diseases, both mental & physical, that afflict long-term raw vegans versus humans eating cooked foods, will scientists be able to determine the validity of a raw vegan diet..

And as the raw vegan community is slowly beginning to realize; regular, daily, vigorous exercise is essential for any healthy human, regardless of the diet consumed..

The dichotomy I mentioned above is that here in the first decade of the 21st Century a raw vegan diet for the majority of the planet's population just would not seem to be possible without the modern car, truck, rail, & airplane transportation system that has been developed, built, implemented, & maintained within the industrialized world..

I think that it is safe to say that without the immense variety of produce choices that exist in our super markets, farmers markets, etc., the majority of the people that are currently raw vegans would find it SUBSTANTIALLY more difficult to adhere to a raw vegan diet..Especially during the transition period from cooked foods to raw foods..

A lot of the produce that raw vegans currently regularly consume WILL NOT grow naturally outside of the sub-tropical & tropical regions of the planet..And if a raw vegan diet would come to predominate sometime in the future, the people living in the sub-tropical & tropical regions of the planet are going to want to eat a substantial amount of the produce grown in those regions..Which begs the question of what produce choices the raw vegans living in the temperate & cold regions of the planet are going to have to choose from..

It seems to me that as the number of world wide raw vegans grows, the foods that we are currently choosing as the biggest components of our diets may have to be modified greatly as a shrinking sub-tropical & tropical food supply is spread out over an ever enlarging raw vegan population..

I'd like to hear what others think about this, especially those who are long-term raw vegans..Do you feel that you could exist as a raw vegan without ANY of the sub-tropical & tropical fruits & vegetables currently in your diet??..And how much more difficult, if any, would your transition from cooked to raw have been had you not been able to consume any of the sub-tropical & tropical fruits & veggies..

Bruce



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2008 02:21PM by baltochef.

I think if we stop destroying permaculturable forests for monocultures of cattle feed, our tropical food sources could expand. (That would be such an awesome thing for the planet as a whole, not just for hungry humans.)

This still begs the question of how environmentally ethical this is, as far as petrol use is concerned.

I know if society were knocked back into a level of subsistence, I'd sure as heck want to be living in the tropics... not... CANADA!!

This past winter, I insulated myself with durian. But if I am to get completely serious about local/seasonal food, next winter could be tough. Makes me wonder about moving someplace warm...

That's one of the reason why we decided to move to Andalucia, south of Spain. We can grow veggies year round, and grow different kind of fruits all year long, and get locally some tropical winter fruits as well like mangoes and cherimoyas.

Raw Fruit Festival
[www.raw-fruit-festival.net]
Health, Fitness and Fasting Retreats in Spain
[www.fit-in-nature.net]

phantom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
This still begs the question of how
environmentally ethical this is, as far as petrol
use is concerned..

I know if society were knocked back into a level
of subsistence, I'd sure as heck want to be living
in the tropics... not... CANADA!!..

Makes me wonder about moving someplace warm..

phantom

My thoughts exactly!!..It's abundantly obvious that we all cannot move to sub-tropical & tropical regions of the planet..Although, I'm giving very, very serious thought to doing exactly that for my long-term health..

It's also clear that moving vast quantities of produce & other goods over large distances using fossil fuels as the means of locomotion is not a long-term viable system..The drawbacks of nearly 200 years of having done so are clearly apparent today..We need an alternative to fossil fuels, & we are not getting one..Regard;less of whether there is 5 years, 100 years, or 1000 years of fossil fuels left to be discovered & harvested from the planet, we need a viable non-polluting alternative NOW..

5000 plus years of human, animal, & wind power to move goods over long distances damaged the planet, no doubt..But, not nearly as much as the past 200 years of fossil fuel dominated Industrial Revolution..

The point remains that raw vegans are going to have to start giving serious consideration to a raw vegan diet with limited or no sub-tropical & tropical produce choices..And to eating locally & seasonally..

Bruce



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/03/2008 03:14PM by baltochef.