Root Cellars are underground storage places that have been used for hundreds of years, throughout the world to store food using the naturally cool temperature of the earth without having to rely on energy intensive refrigeration. Cool temperatures help to keep foods longer by slowing the growth of microorganisms in food.
Image courtesy of Rosemoon Mecho
While refrigerators typically keep food at around 40°F, most foods can be stored for months in the cool earth. A few feet underground, the earth is naturally between 45-58°F,[1] throughout the world, regardless of season. Using various passive cooling methods we can decrease the temperature within the root cellar even further. Highly perishable items like cheese and bread will naturally spoil faster when stored at higher temperatures, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just means we have to eat food a little fresher.
Many people are without refrigerators, and building root cellars is relatively simple and offer the dual purpose of serving as great storm shelters when burmed into the side of earthen mounds, hills, or mountainsides.
[1] Geothermal Education Office. “Geothermal Energy Facts,” available at: http://geothermal.marin.org/pwrheat.html
