Root Cellars

Growing anything in Newfoundland is tough. Grain is impossible. The best one could hope for is to fence in a scrap of soil, enriched with seaweed or anything to provide some sort of nourishment and grow some hardy root vegetables: potatoes, turnips, onions, rhubarb, maybe carrots.

The growing season is mighty short, but there was no real need for refrigeration. If anything, harvested crops need to be protected from freezing, so an outside pantry is out of the question.

With rocks and slate in abundance, the answer is the root cellar. Dig a little, set a foundation of stones and insulate it with more stones, install a secondary door so you have a little hall between the outside and the vegetables. Cover the whole thing with sod or grass and you have a chance of keeping live-saving sustenance through the many months of nothing but fish.

There are dozens of root cellars on Bonavista peninsula. Some of them have been around for over a century. Whether they are still used or not, they are still kept in immaculate condition. And in case of a hurricane, you can close yourself in with the carrots!