How many of you remember root cellars?

How many of you remember root cellars?

A root cellar (American English) is a structure, usually underground or partially underground, used for storage of vegetables, fruits, nuts, or other foods. Its name reflects the traditional focus on root crops stored in an underground cellar, which is still often true.

 

They came in many shapes.. some stood by themselves. Meaning there was a hole in the ground and you open the doors and walked down stairs.. underground..  and there was a room there..  some were 10 feet by 10 feet.. and other larger. I heard that in the 1950’s a lot of them got turned into bomb shelters for a while and then turn back into root cellars in the 60’s.

 

 

Or if it was like my folks.. Ours was in our basement. It had a set of doors to outside… like these…

 

 

 

So you could go there from outside, or go down the stair from inside the house to the basement.   Ours look kind of like this one down there…

In my childhood times…  most mother’s had a root cellar full of canned goods.. Veggie, fruit.. even meat.   The summer was taken up growing food…  some called Victory Gardens in the 1940,s.  Then come fall, it was time to harvest the food and can it in Mason jars.  Even deer and some beef was done, don’t know about pork as we did not have that.

The King’s mother did venison (deer) … She still had hers when I met him. Theirs was in the basement.   Some of them were dated 1960 something..  and that was in 1999.

 

My mother’s newer house  (1960’s) had a root cellar of the kind that was dug in the ground.  The door to it was in the basement..  There was no outside door..  If I recalled right .. it was under the front porch.  Mom kept, potatoes, carrots, onions and etc. In there..  Also her attempt to make dandelion wine.   (it was NASTY!!!)

 With the way the world is going… maybe we should be doing them again.