The old root cellars were the favorite method to store food in the ole' days and have often been part of any farm site for so many reasons. The root cellar uses geo-thermal temperatures to keep foods at a near perfect presevation temperature and that's why they were used prior to The Age Of Oil which we are moving away from.

The root cellar can also act as a tornado shelter when its built properly. Anyone seen The Wizard of Oz? They ran for the root cellar when the high winds started blowing and with good reason. A tornado can level a most of a farm site in minutes. Prior to the turn-of-ther century, barn bases were built from stone and had som portion built underground to keep animals safe & warm over winter. It also made un-loading hay easier if a earth ramp was built to the hay loft.

The best root cellars also doubled as the place to stay if re-building after a hurricane was needed since food was still available there and the root cellar of the 1880s was often outfitted with double rooms built from stone walls and sod ceilings.

To outfit a root cellar, make sure you have quick & easy access for storms, plenty of shelving for both root crops and canned goods and at least one way to manage humidity. If it doubles as your tornado hang-out - keep lighting available as well as entertainment for younger children since they often need to be kept entertained. An emergency bucket with sanitation supplies might come in handy as well as few bottles of water.

Best root crops are potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, winter squash, carrots, onions, parsnips and some types of cabbage keep well. Some apples are good keepers - others are not. Go through the cellar regularly and eat what looks like it needs to be eaten before it spoils but don't eat food that looks bad. Canned goods keep longer in root cellars because they are kept from sunlight and are less likely to dis-color. I also like storing things in root cellars because the floor can handle the heavy shelving that comes from all the canned goods' weight.