Root cellars: Store the harvest all winter · Alt Ordo Systems Guide

A root cellar is a cold, dark, damp room that uses the steady temperature of the earth and cold night air to keep living vegetables alive and asleep through the winter. Potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage and apples can keep for months with no canning, no freezer and no electricity. The cellar does three jobs: it holds the produce near freezing without letting it freeze, it keeps the air damp so roots do not shrivel, and it lets out the warmth and gases the produce gives off. Everything in this guide serves those three jobs.

This guide helps you work out how much cold storage your harvest needs, pick the right kind of cellar for your site and budget, build it with working vents and a dry roof, and keep potatoes, roots, cabbage and apples sound from fall to spring.

What's inside. 17 pages in 9 chapters (At a glance, Where it works, How it works, Size it, Parts and cost, Build it, Run it, Rules and permits, How it connects), then the sources and a notes page. 9 numbered figures drawn for this guide, including a fit map of every US county. You also get a worked example with a fill-in worksheet, 12 numbered steps, a year-round calendar, and a troubleshooting table.

Sourced and fact-checked. Facts and figures are cited to the 26 sources listed at the back, and the whole guide was fact-checked before release. General guidance, not engineering advice: your county and a qualified pro have the last word on your site.

Pairs with other Alt Ordo Systems Guides: The off-grid vegetable garden; Canning and food preservation; Food forests; Off-grid solar. For your county's permits and rules, see our county and state guides.

Instant PDF download. After checkout you get a download link by email. Letter-size pages, made to read on screen or print at home.