By NANCY JANE KERN
CAVES WERE ONE OF THE FIRST PLACES early man may have learned that food and drink could be cooled and stored for longer periods. About 10 feet into the earth the temperature is about 56 degrees Fahrenheit. This keeps food from freezing in winter as well as cooler in summer. Many older homes have root cellars near them, or sometimes food was kept in deep, unheated cellars under the house. Growing up in the Town of Austerlitz we had primitive farmhouses without basement heat and used these for our root cellars.
In my grandparents’ house, the cellar was very cool on one end near the ramp that led up to an unheated woodshed attached to the house. This area was good for hanging beef and we would cut off pieces of meat as needed. I remember the meat had a fine layer of blue mold on the outside which we washed or wiped off before cooking. This was some of the best beef I have ever eaten. Maybe it was because we raised the cattle and fed them well, or perhaps the long aging process added to the wonderful flavor. Whatever it was I sure wish we could duplicate it.
The name root cellar comes from its primary purpose of storing root vegetables. Our staples for winter were potatoes, onions and turnips. Apples were stored on the other end of the cellar because they gave off gases that could harm other foods. My father would tease us saying don’t store the onions next to the potatoes because the potatoes have “eyes” and will cry. There were rules and traditions we always followed, and it worked. My mother said her mother-in-law always used the stored apples that were beginning to rot. The problem was you never got to eat the good ones because they were always going bad. But if you didn’t, there would not be enough to last the winter.
Behind our house, were two hand-dug wells, and one was used as a smokehouse in the fall. Corn cobs were placed in a pan on boards over the top of the well stones. A small well house was built over it and the hams that had been brined and rubbed with salt would be hung on a rod above the smoking cobs. After smoking, the hams were hung in a cool place like a root cellar. In our house, it was in an unheated upstairs closet that always smelled of smoke. The house was so old the smell had seeped into the wood.
There is more interest in these old storage methods as food prices rise and food quality decreases. I am happy to see more and more local farms starting up again. There is a huge difference in improved taste and freshness. And hopefully a lot fewer chemicals and sprays on or in them.
I went on a camping trip with two friends in the early ’70s and traveled the Alcan Highway. We were in the Yukon Territory north of White Horse and explored an abandoned, large Canadian Mounties station used in the 1920s. One area that impressed me was what looked like a deep mine shaft back into a small hill. It was their food storage and root cellar. Their big problem in winter was to keep things from freezing when it was -30 or more below 0. What a rough life they had, but they knew how to survive.
Other “roots” that store well are parsnips and carrots. Old ways are becoming new again and the root cellar is something to consider.
