Heller Homestead Root Cellar

In the back of Heller House, tucked into a bank is  the Heller Homestead’s root cellar. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps  indicated a one and a half-story summer kitchen attached to the root  cellar. Since all stone structures have survived over two centuries, it  can only be assumed this structure was of wood construction. 

The  root cellar is a marvel, having survived to this day. Original to the  homestead’s farmstead, the structure is literally a buried stone room  with an arched ceiling, four walls and a paved floor. The structure has a  protective shingled roof to shed precipitation.

The floor of the  root cellar is well below the frost line, and even in 90-degree heat of  summer, the floor below ground remains cool enough to see your breath. 

The root cellar allowed winter storage of produce from the garden without processing, preserving or canning. 

Ideally,  a root cellar could hold food for several months after harvest time.  The cool, moist atmosphere prevented freezing or decomposition of  produce. 

A root cellar needs to remain between thirty-two and  forty degrees Fahrenheit. Not all kinds of produce are successfully  stored under those conditions. The best candidates are carrots, onions,  turnips, beets and Irish and sweet potatoes.

Fruits and other  vegetables include apples, pumpkins, cabbage, cauliflower and peppers.  Parsnips do very well by being left in the ground in the garden all  winter.

Onions are harvested, dried and packed in barrels to  avoid freezing and thawing. Onions and garlic are often braided and hung  to dry for storage in the kitchen.

Sweet potatoes are stored in  bulk, after drying on straw and layered with potatoes and straw. In fact  the more layers, the better they keep. Large cans or covered crocks  kept milk, eggs and butter cool until needed.

The root cellar was  used by farmers and country folk alike years before electricity and  refrigeration ever reached their farmsteads. It was really the best way  of storing fresh produce at that time without cooking or preserving.  Most farm wives knew these agrarian customs which were handed down from  family to family over the years.