Owner/
Builder


Sustainable Architecture

Think Small

Heat with the Sun

Keep your Cool

Use Renewable Energy

Conserve Water

Use Local Materials

Use Natural Materials

Save our Forests

Recycle Materials

Build to Last

Grow your Food

Store your Food

Share Facilities

Store Your Food

   
 
This door next to our refrigerator leads into our pantry.
 

Let nature keep your food cool. In the old days people relied on pantries and root cellars to help keep produce and other provisions fresh. Ice boxes made way for refrigerators, which are obviously much more convenient, but somehow the use of cool pantries and root cellars also fell by the wayside. This is too bad because these spaces havefunctions that a refrigerator simply can't

   
 
The temperature in the pantry ranges between about 40 and 60 degrees F. year round.
 

replace. Root cellars can store large quantities of produce from the time of harvest until the next summer. Cool pantries can store some produce, but also all manner of other foodstuffs and kitchen supplies can be kept there. Cool, dry storage is the best way to preserve most food. The cool of the earth can keep a totally bermed pantry or root cellar cool; the night air can also be used to cool a storage room. The convenience and security of having ample provisions at your fingertips can not be beat.

   
 
From the outside, the pantry just looks like a mound of earth. Notice the air vents to the right and at the top.
 

 

RESOURCES

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BOOKS & VIDEOS

ARTICLES:

The Lost Art of Root Cellars
and Pantries

Karl's Root Cellar

Hybrid Pantry Concept

EXPERT ADVICE

with Kelly Hart


Root Cellars
Cool Pantries
Miscellaneous

INFORMATIVE LINKS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BOOKS & VIDEOS
   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 
The Joy of Keeping a Root Cellar: Canning, Freezing, Drying, Smoking and Preserving the Harvest by Jennifer Megyesi and Geoff Hansen, 2010. A comprehensive, full-color guide to root cellaring—storing vegetables, meat, and more.The winning team behind The Joy of Keeping Chickens returns, this time with a complete guide to building and maintaining a root cellar—even if it’s just a dark and cool closet. This cheap, easy, energy-saving way will keep the harvest fresh all year long. Here, readers will learn: Which fruits and vegetables store best; How to build a root cellar in the country, suburbs, or city; How to deal with specific environmental challenges; Storage techniques ranging from canning to pickling and smoking to drying; Recipes for everything from tomato sauce to venison jerky.
   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

The Complete Root Cellar Book: Building Plans, Uses and 100 Recipes by Steve Maxwell and Jennifer MacKenzie, 2010. Whether as a way to manage challenging economic times or retain a garden's bounty, root cellars are making a big comeback. This book takes a fresh look at the art, science and romance of building and stocking a root cellar. There are detailed illustrated construction guides for making four different kinds of root cellars that are functional and attractive. These include never-before-seen models for apartment and condo dwellers and home owners without a basement. The Root Cellar Book provides technical information on using photovoltaics (solar cells) and other energy technologies to enhance a root cellar's performance and ecological sustainability. It also includes must-know information on how to choose, store and manage a supply of fruits, vegetables, nuts and preserves.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

The Complete Guide to Your New Root Cellar: How to Build an Underground Root Cellar and Use It for Natural Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Julie Fryer, 2011. This book will walk anyone through the process of building and using a root cellar to store their fruits and vegetables for later use, through the cold winter months when even the most basic items can cost an arm and a leg. Before even starting your root cellar, you will learn the basics of choosing the right crops and planting them at the right time or buying them in advance for your root cellar. You will learn how to know which crops and which specific vegetables and fruits are good to keep and which ones should be left alone. You will learn how and when to bring in the harvest and how to prepare for storage effectively. You will also benefit from interviews with the top experts in the field of storage and root cellaring and farmers who have been storing vegetables for years. You will learn how to start planning your root cellar, how to utilize your basement if you so desire and how to start excavating and preparing it for the first harvest.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 
The Everything Root Cellaring Book: Learn to store, cook, and preserve fresh produce all year round! by Abbot Catherine, 2011. There's an old-fashioned solution to the problem of fresh produce going bad. Store fruits and veggies in a root cellar or other cold storage location! This book provides you with step-by-step plans on how to build a root cellar--or utilize the one you've got. Professional farmer Catherine Abbott teaches you: How to effectively organize your root cellar; Where to store fruits and vegetables in unconventional places; What the best fruits and vegetables are for storing; Ways to preserve, dry, and freeze a variety of foods to enjoy all winter long; Recipes for fresh fruits, berries, veggies, and herbs to cook all year round. Featuring illustrations for building root cellars as well as a full nutritional breakdown for all 150 recipes, you will love this comprehensive guide. Before long, you'll know how to provide yourself and your family with great nutritious foods all year long!
   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home: Easy Techniques for the Freshest Flavors in Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Relishes, Salsas, Sauces, and Frozen and Dried Fruits and Vegetables by Janet Chadwick, 2009. People are rediscovering the joys of locally produced foods and reducing the amount of the grocery budget that's spent on packaged items, out-of-season produce, and heavily processed foods. For all the vegetable gardeners facing baskets overflowing with bright tomatoes, and for all the dedicated farmers' market fans and CSA members, The Beginner's Guide to Preserving Food at Home has the simple solutions that turn overwhelming bounty into neatly canned tomatoes, jars of jams and jellies, and crispy-tart relishes and pickles. Organized in a friendly, food-by-food format, readers will find freezing, drying, canning, and storing instructions for each vegetable, fruit, and herb. In many cases, several ways to freeze or can a food are described, and there are often other preserving suggestions as well, such as making juice or fruit leather.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation by Sharon Astyk, 2009. Hard times aren't just coming, they are here already. The recent economic collapse has seen millions of North Americans move from the middle class to being poor, and from poor to hungry. At the same time, the idea of eating locally is shifting from being a fringe activity for those who can afford it to an essential element of getting by. But aside from the locavores and slow foodies, who really knows how to eat outside of the supermarket and out of season? And who knows how to eat a diet based on easily stored and home preserved foods? Independence Days tackles both the nuts and bolts of food preservation, as well as the host of broader issues tied to the creation of local diets. It includes: How to buy in bulk and store food on the cheap; Techniques, from canning to dehydrating; Tools-what you need and what you don't. In addition, it focuses on how to live on a pantry diet year-round, how to preserve food on a community scale, and how to reduce reliance on industrial agriculture by creating vibrant local economies.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

The Pantry by Catherine Seiberling Pond, 2007. The Pantry ponders the history, return and rebirth of the kitchen pantry. With a nod toward the philosophy "a place for everything and everything in its place," author and historian Catherine Seiberling Pond delves into the past, present, and future possibilities of this important room, and finds ways to incorporate a pantry into any home. Topics include: Food storage solutions; What to put in your pantry; How to choose the right materials; Design and layout of the pantry; Display and decor tips; How to display dishes and collections. Pantries are one of the most requested features being built into today's homes.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

All About Wine Cellars by Howard G. Goldberg, 2004. As more people come to appreciate the wisdom of buying wine by the case, they're contemplating the installation of a home wine cellar to store and protect their vinous investments, whether they live in a one-bedroom apartment or a house with room to spare. This concise, helpful book by respected New York Times wine writer Howard G. Goldberg offers basic guidance on planning, organizing, and maintaining a wine collection, with tips on how to choose the right storage system, create the proper climatic environment, and keep track of what's there and when it's ready to drink. Goldberg also presents a fascinating history of wine collecting, with wonderfully entertaining stories of some famous cellars.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Mike and Nancy Bubel, 1991. Root cellaring is a way of using the earth's naturally cool, stable temperature to store perishable fruits and vegetables. Root Cellaring will tell you: how to choose vegetable and fruit varieties that will store best, specific individual storage requirements for nearly 100 home garden crops, and how to use root cellars in the country, in the city, and in any environment, how to build root cellars, indoors and out, big and small, plain and fancy. There are reports on the root cellaring techniques and experiences of many households all over North America. Though it's often thought of as an adjunct to a large garden, a root cellar can in fact considerably stretch the resources of a small garden, making it easy to grow late succession crops for storage instead of many rows for canning and freezing. Best of all, root cellars can easily fit anywhere. Not everyone can live in the country, but everyone can benefit from natural cold storage.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

Cold Storage for Fruits & Vegetables: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin A-87 by John Storey, Martha Storey, 1997. Since the 1973 publication of Storey's first Country Wisdom Bulletin, our commitment to preserving the arts, crafts, and skills of country life has never wavered. We now have more than 200 titles in this series of 32-page publications, and their remarkable popularity reflects the common desire of country and city dwellers alike to cultivate personal independence in everyday life. Storey's Country Wisdom Bulletins contain practical, hands-on instructions designed to help you master dozens of country living skills quickly and easily. From traditional skills to the newest techniques, Storey's Bulletins provide a foundation of earth-friendly information for the way you want to live today.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

Build Your Own Underground Root Cellar Describes the right location, tools, and materials needed. Includes detailed drawings on building the cellar, adapting the cellar to your needs, root cellar maintenance and getting the most from your root cellar. Gives storage requirements of individual fruits and vegetables.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

Home Food Dehydrating: Economical "Do-It-Yourself" Methods for Preserving, Storing & Cooking by Jay Bills, Shirley Bills, 1999. This valuable book presents the basic principles of the dehydrating art with clarity, and provides many useful tips and dozens of delicious recipes for all types of meals. After explaining the nutritional aspects of dehydrating foods, dehydration methods and basic techniques are examined in detail by the authors. The use of preservatives is considered in simple terms. Explanations are then given about how to dehydrate various types of foods. Chapters are devoted to dehydrating fruit and making fruit leather. Other chapters tell how to dehydrate vegetables, herbs, and meats. Methods for storing the food after it has been dehydrated are also given.

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

How and Why to Build a Wine Cellar by Richard M. Gold Ph.D., 2007. Worried that your beloved Montrachet is coveting the 50-degree embrace of another's cellar? Think one of your own is out of reach? The classic naturally air-conditioned wine-cellar construction guide is now revised and updated for the modern wine collector who wants or needs a wine cellar but lacks the means to fund a massive renovation, or has do-it-yourself-ness in the blood.The book begins with how to plan for optimum humidity and temperature with a discussion on the best positioning (key to a passive system that takes advantage of an existing structure's natural cooling capabilities and keeping temperature fluctuation to a minimum) and insulation.Section two outlines, step-by-step and with detailed diagrams, every level and aspect of construction, including building of racks and storage bins. Section three is all about the art and science of selecting, recording, tracking and enjoying your wines at their peak performance.

 

 

Putting Food By
by Janet Greene, 1992

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Keeping Food Fresh: Old World Techniques & Recipes by Claude Aubert, 1999

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis
by Peggy Layton, 2002

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

The Busy Person's Guide to Preserving Food: Easy Step-by-Step Instructions for Freezing, Drying, and Canning
by Janet Chadwick, 1995

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Where's the Wheat?: Food Storage Your Family Will Eat
by Juli Brown, 2003

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Your Guide to Emergency Home Storage
by Alan K. Briscoe, 1999

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Food Storage for the Clueless
by Clark L. Kidd, Kathryn H. Kidd, 1999

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

The Food Storage Bible
by Jayne Benkendorf, 1999

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Keeping the Harvest: Home Storage of Vegetables and Fruits
by Nancy Thurber, 1976

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

 

How to Dry Foods
by Deanna Delong, 1992

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Food Storage Stability
by Irwin A. Taub, R. Paul Singh, 1997

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry
by Liana Krissoff, 2010

   
 
Click on image to buy from Amazon.com
 

 

David Knapp's Hybrid Pantry Concept
Drawn by Leonard Jones, P.E.

The wall on the left is a tire wall for our 10,000 gallon cistern (round, insulated on outside pantry wall side). The bags on the right are filled with local sandy soil. The bags above are filled with scoria. The pantry will be covered in 3 layers of 4 - 6 mill plastic before backfilling with local soil. Not shown in the berm 12 inches from the surface is a 12 inch layer of scoria and another vapor barrier. That should keep the berm a bit warmer for us in winter and the pantry should stay closer to that 45F-55F ideal (in theory).

LINKS

waltonfeed.com several links to root cellar sites.

tribwatch.com extensive article about root cellars

howtogardenadvice.com has detailed infoprmation about how to dehydrate vegetables.

Disclaimer Of Liability And Warranty
I specifically disclaim any warranty, either expressed or implied, concerning the information on these pages. Neither I nor any of the advisor/consultants associated with this site will have liability for loss, damage, or injury, resulting from the use of any information found on this, or any other page at this site. Kelly Hart, Hartworks, Inc.

 

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