How to Make a Small Root Cellar
Root cellars were designed to preserve food by maintaining a cooler temperature than the house. The average winter temperature is around 55 degrees, even in the south where the temperatures rarely drop below 32 degrees outside. Root cellars allowed your harvest to stay fresh all winter. Today, you can still store canned or packaged goods, dried foods and survival supplies in your root cellar. Dry foods, such as beans, grains, and rice can be kept well, in sealed packages. Root cellars provide practical food storage and can be built inexpensively. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- 6 Pallets
- Shovel
- Thick plastic sheeting
- Bailing wire
- 2 by 4-inch boards
- Tarp
Instructions
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Measure the depth of the pallets, add two depth measurements to the length of the pallet, this is the width of your hole. Repeat for the length. You want the bottom pallet and the side pallets to fit securely inside the bottom of the hole. Dig your hole to the length and width calculated. The hole should be dug deep enough that the whole pallet cellar will be six inches underground. Measure the length of one pallet, typically four feet, and the depth of the pallet. The depth of the pallet is the distance between the top of the pallet and the bottom "rungs." Add two depth measurements, the length and then six inches to get the exact depth. For instance, if your pallet was four feet, and the depth was six inches, the depth of your hole would be 5-feet, 6-inches deep. Make the bottom of the hole as flat as possible.
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2
Line the hole with your plastic sheeting. Push the sheeting into the corners lightly, so that it will not be torn when you insert the pallets.
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Set the "floor" pallet at the bottom of the hole. Do not tear the plastic sheeting. Center the floor pallet so the walls will slip into place, to form a wall.
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Insert the "wall" pallets carefully next to the floor pallet, but do not rip the sheeting. Face the pallets so that the top faces the inside. Secure the pallets together using bailing wire. At the bottom and top corners, twist the bailing wire around the planks of one wall and then around the planks of the adjacent pallet. Tighten the bailing wire to secure the pallets. Push the edges of the wire under the planks so they will not put holes in the plastic sheeting.
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Measure the distance from the outside of one side wall to the outside of the opposite side wall. For instance, if you have a 4-foot pallet, and the depths of the pallets are six inches each, this measurement will be four feet plus one foot, or six feet. Cut two 2-by-4-inch boards this length. Secure two 2-by-4-inch boards along the top of two of the side walls 6 inches from the corners of the cellar. The newly cut boards should fit perfectly on the top of the pallet walls so that they do not protrude outside the outside of the walls. The two boards will hold the top pallet in place so that it is a true "lid" or "ceiling." Because all the pallets are the same size, simply placing a pallet over the other walls wont work, it would sink in since they are all the same size.
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Secure the two boards with bailing wire. Wind the wire around the board, and then wind it through the boards on the supporting walls. Aim the wire away from the plastic sheeting.
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Fill your cellar with all the things you want to store. Make sure all items are sealed shut.
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Place the lid of your cellar upside down, so the top of the pallet is facing downward, on the 2-by-4-inch boards. Add three inches of newspaper to the top of the cellar. Wrap the plastic sheeting around the top so that it overlaps. Cover the plastic sheeting with a strong tarp.
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Back fill the dirt around the walls of your cellar. Fill them with dirt, then walk around the area to tamp the dirt down. Add more. Add at least six inches of dirt over the top of the cellar's plastic sheeting. You can also use rocks or bricks to make the cellar easier to get into.
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References
- Photo Credit PhotoObjects.net/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
