Getting Back to Our Roots:Root cellars make a comeback during a rutted-out economy By Erin Crowell Think about your last shopping trip to the grocery store. What food did you buy? How much did you buy? Did you eat everything you purchased? According to research by former University of Arizona anthropologist Timothy Jones, more than 40 percent of all food produced in America is not eaten. Wasted food costs our country more than $100 billion annually. The average four-person household wastes $600 in food each year – that’s a decent flat screen TV. One major culprit is food spoilage. Sure, our intentions are pure – buying fresh fruits and vegetables for a healthy lifestyle; but the fact is, we don’t know how to store fresh foods, and it’s costing us. One major solution: keep those veggies green and you’ll save some green. Root cellars have been around since the dark ages, but they are slowly regaining momentum as home food preservation typically increases during a rough economy, according to the National Gardening Association.
WHAT IS A ROOT CELLAR? A root cellar is natural cold storage, whether it’s in a basement or a concrete structure dug into the ground. With higher humidity to preserve moisture in vegetables, root cellars maintain a temperature of 33 to 40 degrees during the winter if built correctly. A few years back, Jeff Geiger—owner of Grand Traverse Balloons—built a root cellar on his Traverse City property. An avid gardener, Geiger wanted to keep his harvest fresher, longer. He also was getting apples by the bushel from his friend Sandy Rennie of Rennie Orchards near Yuba. “We literally had thousands of apples last year,” says Geiger. “We fed our neighbors and friends.” Thanks to Geiger’s root cellar, last fall’s apple crop is still edible today. “Galas usually only last a month or two,” Geiger says, just before taking a bite out of one, its skin snapping – followed by a crunch. “Apples give off ethylene gas, so you have to store them separately from other produce.” Geiger’s apples are stored in one of two rooms. They sit in the entrance, guarded from the elements behind a re-purposed house door. It’s cool in this room, surrounded by darkness. That’s until you open the second door. With a turn of the knob (and a good shove), a wave of cold air punches you in the darkness. The smell is earthy, but it’s not stale. clink Geiger snaps the switch on a small lamp clamped to a cedar shelf. There are 12 shelves total, spaced at just the right height and distance from the wall for optimum food preservation. The room is fairly empty this time of year, accept for a couple boxes of potatoes and carrots and a folding lawn chair. There are different roof options for a root cellar: flat, pitched and rounded – Geiger chose the latter for air circulation purposes. “Next time, I’m doing a pitch. It took way too long to get the roof just right,” he says of the cement blocks above. Geiger enlisted the help of his friend Dave Smith to handle the masonry work. A couple friends and family members also helped to build the root cellar—which measures 10 feet wide by 14 feet deep. Nestled into the side of a hill, Geiger dug out a hole and used the dirt to cover the structure to help keep it cool. A root cellar typically needs to be at least four feet below the ground to avoid the frost line. Four vents keep cool air in and stagnant air out. Two are located near the entrance, the other two are on the roof. It took over a month to build his, but Geiger says a decent-size crew can build a root cellar in just a couple weeks. It also pays. “Oh, it paid for itself in the first year,” Geiger says. “It’s just phenomenal how long it preserves food. We had more food than we knew what to do with.”
FOOD FOR HOPE Like Geiger, Harry Round has known about root cellars ever since he was a child. Round is president of House of Hope in Traverse City, a non-profit that helps struggling and at-risk teens become responsible young adults through discipline, faith and hard work. House of Hope is currently in the process of building a root cellar on its campus. The cellar, which will be about the size of a two-car garage, will house cabbage, beets, carrots, celery, parsnips, potatoes, turnips, apples, pears and more – food that is grown right on property, as well as produce that has reached its shelf life in local grocery stores. “What stores normally do is leave products on shelves for as long as what’s safely possible, and 55% of that food is thrown out,” says Val Stone, community services coordinator for the Northwest Michigan Community Agency & Food Coalition. “So, Food Rescue picks up the near-expired food to find a home.” The goal of Food Rescue of Northwest Michigan is to collect food from restaurants, bakeries, caterers and grocery stores and distribute it to area food banks and homeless shelters. Also on the forefront is the Fresh Food Partnership – a non-profit that purchases fresh produce from local farmers and gives it to area food pantries and shelters. These fruits and vegetables are high in nutrients, something pantries and shelters rarely get from average food drives where most of the shelves are stocked with non-perishables like macaroni and cheese. But, even though these organizations are working hard to bring fresh food to the less fortunate, the problem lies in the food pantries’ distribution schedules. “Maybe a pantry’s food distribution isn’t until the next week, so the potential is there for the food to spoil,” says Stone. The solution? A root cellar. “House of Hope’s root cellar could store those foods – foods that have a longer shelf life, but don’t do well in the pantry closet,” continues Stone. “The idea of using a root cellar is a great idea because you can store larger quantities and it’s still fresh and good.”
WORKING TOGETHER The idea for building a root cellar came from an early April meeting between several non-profit agencies at the Father Fred Foundation to discuss a survey of the 41 pantries in Northwest Lower Michigan. Food spoilage was high on the list, so began a collaboration between the Northwest Food Coalition, Fresh Foods, the Michigan Land Use Institute, Goodwill, Oryana Food Co-op, the Father Fred Foundation and House of Hope. Once again, it was Dave Smith volunteering his time to do the masonry work, who brought Geiger on-board. “I talked with Harry and helped him with the design and ventilation aspects,” says Geiger. Currently, the root cellar is just a foundation, carved into the side of a hill near the House of Hope’s main building. Cement blocks of different color—donated by Concrete Services—make up the start of what will be one of the largest natural fresh food storage facilities in the area. In the entrance, “Gen. 21” is imprinted on one of the cinder blocks. It’s Genesis from the Bible – the chapter about “Beersheba” or a “well of the oath.” Interestingly, many root cellars were made out of well pits – that is, until they were deemed unsafe. This root cellar should be just fine; and with a rising number of people going hungry in the area, it has to be. “In 2008, the 41 pantries gave food to around 205,000 people,” says Stone. “Last year, it was up to 255,000.” A root cellar will be one more tool for the cause, says Stone. “It’s worked for hundreds of years and people are just now going back,” she continues. “It’s true, we really are going back to our roots.”
Interested in building your own root cellar? Geiger recommends “Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables” by Mike and Nancy Bubel. This how-to paperback—which retails for $14.95—covers everything from building tips to the history of root cellars. For more information on the organizations involved in the Fresh Food Partnership, visit freshfoodpartnership.org; information on the Northwest Food Coalition may be found at nmcaa.net. You may reach Harry Round and the folks at House of Hope by visiting houseofhopetc.com.
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