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A root cellar (American and Canadian English), fruit cellar (Mid-Western American English) or earth cellar (British English) is a structure, usually underground. or partially underground, used for food storage of , , nuts, or other foods. Its name reflects the traditional focus on root vegetable stored in an underground basement, which is still often true; but the scope is wider, as a wide variety of foods can be stored for weeks to months, depending on the crop and conditions, and the structure may not always be underground.
Root cellaring has been vitally important in various eras and places for winter food supply. Although present-day food distribution systems and refrigeration have rendered root cellars unnecessary for many people, they remain important for those who value self-sufficiency, whether by economic necessity or by choice and for personal satisfaction. Thus, they are popular among diverse audiences, including , organic farming, DIY fans, homesteading, anyone seeking some emergency preparedness (most extensively, survivalism), subsistence farmers, and enthusiasts of local food, Slow Food, , and culture.
A potato cellar is sometimes called a potato barn or potato house.
Separate cellars are occasionally used for storing fruits, such as apples. Apples can give off enough ethylene gas to hasten the overripening or spoilage of other crops stored nearby, although this effect is variable, and many farms successfully store vegetables without segregating their apples. Water, bread, butter, milk, and cream are sometimes stored in the root cellar. Items such as salad greens, fresh meat, and jam pies are kept in the root cellar early in the day to keep cool until they are needed for supper.
The ability of some vegetables and fruit to keep for months in favorable cellar conditions stems in part from the fact that they are not entirely even after picking. Although they may no longer qualify as life, the continue to respire in some impaired but nonzero way, resisting bacterial decomposition for a time. The effect can be compared to the way that cut flowers in a vase of water last much longer than cut flowers lying on a table: the flowers in the vase are not entirely dead yet and continue to respire. The analogy is not exact, but the high humidity that supports many cellared crops is involved in this residual respiration.
In some cases, plants are transplanting from the field to the soil floor of a cellar in autumn, and they then continue living in the cellar for months. The fact that they cannot or grow larger in the low-light, low-temperature conditions is not a problem; the only objective is to keep them alive instead of dead, thus warding off decomposition. This is a form of season extension in which the growing season is not extended but the harvest season is substantially extended..
, crawlspaces, garages, , and have all been used successfully for storage of at least some kinds of crops. Even the space under a bed can store some crops (such as pumpkins) for several weeks. Especially before rural electrification, farms with spring house have often used them for root cellar duty (as well as duty).
Most root cellars were built using stone, wood, mortar (cement), and sod. Newer ones may be made of concrete with sod on top.
Many Newfoundland and Labrador cellars use a two-door airlock-type system as a method of temperature regulation, as they allowed people ample time to enter the first door, shutting it behind them before entering the main portion of the root cellar. Folklorist Crystal Braye notes in her study of Newfoundland root cellars:
The town of Elliston has so many of the structures, the town's motto is the "Root Cellar Capital of the World".
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