The Potato Hole–An Innovative Mini-Root Cellar

The potato hole

By Sylvia Gist

We had talked of putting in a regular root cellar, but digging one by hand on our property would have been a daunting task. Just below the meager layer of topsoil which grew wonderful vegetables was a gigantic layer of solid concrete-like clay. So we got by with storing potatoes with the canned goods in the basement where the temperature hovered in the 50s. Unfortunately, sprouts were plentiful by spring.

But one day a few years back, we decided we had had enough of a 15-foot chokecherry bush that was sending suckers into the garden several yards away, so my husband cut it down then dug the roots out — a task that required the pickax, saw, and shovel. The resulting hole looked like it wouldn’t take much to make it big enough to sink the 2 foot by 30 inch (inside diameter) concrete riser we had on hand. “Then,” I said, “we could store potatoes in it.”

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