This section is from the book "Save It For Winter.", by Frederick Fry Rockwell. Also available from Amazon: Save It For Winter; Modern Methods Of Canning, Dehydrating, Preserving And Storing Vegetables And Fruit For Winter Use, With Comments On The Best ... For Saving, And When And How To Grow Them.
In most old houses the cellars were designed for storing and no changes of any great extent are necessary. The ventilation is sometimes inadequate. This may be improved by building a box or hood over the cellar window, so that air can be admitted in stormy weather and without letting in much light if it is desired to have the window open during the day. Another mistake is to allow old bins or partitions to remain after they have become half decayed and make the finest kind of camping place for germs and equally good resorts for mice and rats. All bins should be renewed as often as necessary and kept in good condition. The cellar should be cleaned after the last of the stored products are moved in the spring, and given a good coating of whitewash or calcomine before they are put in in the fall. Every square inch of bins, walls and ceilings should be dry and clean: this is not a matter of being "finicky" but common sense precaution against losing the things you have gone to the expense and trouble of putting into storage. Ideas for the convenient arrangement of a storage cellar may be had from the accompanying diagrams.
In the cellars of most modern houses, little or no provision has been made for the storing of food products for winter. There frequently is but one big room, well lighted and with concrete flooring, more sanitary perhaps than the old-fashioned cellar but in many ways not so well suited for the purpose in hand. Usually, however, there is space enough to partition off a small room to be used for vegetables alone, where conditions can be controlled independently of the cellar.
The expense involved in doing this work is not great. Rough pine two-by-fours run from the floor to the ceiling may be set up, leaving a space for a door. Artificial wall board or compo board, which comes in strips thirty-two inches wide, may be used to sheathe these uprights, inside and out. This will make a substantial partition with a fourinch air space, effectually keeping out the heat from the warm part of the cellar. The strips of wall board can be bought in any length or height up to twelve feet, so there will be practically no fitting to be done. The door may be made out of the same material, nailed to both sides of a frame made out of two-by-threes.
Fig. 23 - Part of the cellar may be partitioned off for a storage room, by leaving a dead air space between the walls. If shelves and containers are arranged to make the best use of the space available, a small room will accommodate enough fruits and vegetables for several months' supply.
It is preferable to have two windows in a storage cellar, even if they are very small ones. If they are exposed it may be necessary to have double sash or a wooden frame or shutter to put over the windows in very cold weather. There should, however, be some means of ventilation that can be used even in cold weather. A piece of stove pipe with a damper, placed in the window so that the lower end is near the floor and another piece placed in the second window, or in the top light of the same window, will aid greatly in keeping the cellar ventilated at all times, and the ventilation can be adjusted to suit conditions without the bother of opening or shutting the sash.
Fig. 24 - A well-arranged storage cellar. The cool air entering is delivered near the floor where it can he distributed through the room and find its way out of the open pane at the top, carrying with it surplus moisture. Note air space under the bin for potatoes and other root crops. The hanging shelf not only economizes on room but is safe from rats and mice.
The cellar should be kept dark as well as cool and thoroughly ventilated. A double thickness of burlap or some other heavy material can be arranged so that most of the light can be excluded.
Convenience in storing and in getting out stored things, as well as the keeping qualities of the cellar or storeroom, will depend largely on how the storeroom is fixed up. If there are more than a few bushels of potatoes and root crops to be kept, bins should be arranged along one side. If the floor is of concrete, they should have raised bottoms with a couple of inches or so of space to allow free circulation of air. The size, of course, will depend on the amount of stuff to be stored. If there is a considerable quantity it will be convenient to have the boards forming the front of the bins held in position by cleats so that they may be removed as the contents of the bin are lowered. Shelves may be arranged along the wall or depended from the rafters. The latter method makes a way of utilizing space which is not available for other purposes. As most of the canned and dried products will keep better in the cool dark room than where it is warmer, a set of shelves or a cabinet should be arranged for these also.
It is often the case that where there is no cellar space available there is a room that can be used for storage; a small room or even a large closet, if it can be used exclusively for storage, will accommodate a large quantity of vegetables and fruit. It should be located, if possible, on the north or west side of the building-the coldest room in the house. If no small room is available, a partition like that already described for use in a cellar, may be put in to make a special storeroom. Ventilation and some method of keeping the room dark should be supplied. One of the chief objections to using a room of this kind is the trouble and the "muss" of taking things through the house to be stored.
This can be overcome by the simple expedient of building a small platform and steps at the window on the outside, so that the baskets or boxes of vegetables may be taken in readily through the window and put in the barrels or boxes or other containers in which they are to be kept.
Fig. 25 - A convenient outside entrance to a cold store-room. If kept dark and at as low a temperature as possible, potatoes, root crops and fruits may be carried for a long time in such a room.