Root cellar

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.

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.

[4] 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 inanimate even after picking.

[1] Although they may no longer qualify as living, the plant cells continue to respire in some impaired but nonzero way,[1] resisting bacterial decomposition for a time.

[1] The fact that they cannot thrive 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.

Common construction methods are: Most root cellars were built using stone, wood, mortar (cement), and sod.

[4] Historian Sean Cadigan writes, "Newfoundland and Labrador's climate and soil have not been conducive to agriculture, but outport isolation and poor incomes in the fishery have made supplementary farming crucial.

[7] Growing enough vegetables to last the winter was imperative to the survival of Newfoundlanders, and without refrigerators, root cellars were one of the few methods to preserve crops.

They are heavy-timbered, gable-roof structures built with logs (or later, sometimes with concrete), covered with shingles made of birch bark to reduce moisture penetration, and then topped with a thick layer of sod held in place by a perimeter picket fence.