An underground root cellar is an old-fashioned and time-honoured method of storage that predates refrigeration. One hundred years’ ago you would have been hard-pressed to find a ranch or homestead on the prairies without one.

Essential to storing homegrown raw, pickled and canned vegetables and preserves, the 7K root cellar is also used to store bulbs and rhizomes for the many perennial flowers you see around the ranch.

Root cellars work just as well today as they did when settlers first established in the foothills. Add modern materials, a little solar power and you have yourself (or we have ourselves) the perfect, energy efficient storage solution.

We start stocking the cellar in the late fall and we’re still enjoying crisp carrots come May the following year.