This root cellar located near Merritt is a reminder of earlier days when root cellars were used as refrigerators.

Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Vic Torres

The remains of an old root cellar near Merritt is a charming reminder of earlier times before refrigeration in the Thompson-Okanagan region.

Located in the village of Shulus, the relic no longer has a door and isn’t safe to enter.

“It was my late mom’s property and was used up to the late 70s,” Rena Joe told iNFOnews.ca. “There was another one on the right side of it that caved in. It’s not safe to go into it.”

Root cellars used to be a standard part of the homesteads in the region.

The cellars have been around since early European settlers brought their skill in root cellaring to North America long before refrigerators or grocery stores, with the oldest remnants dating back to the early 1600s in Newfoundland, according to The British Columbia Food History Network.

The structures used natural cooling, humidifying and insulating to store food. The cold temperatures slowed the ripening process and prevented the growth of microorganisms that cause decomposition, while high humidity levels prevented loss of moisture in root veggies and thick-skinned fruits.

In the Thompson-Okanagan region, the history of root cellars is intertwined with Indigenous culture and agricultural practises.

Jen Brown is a member of the Nlaka'pamux First Nation in Lytton. Now 68, she grew up with two root cellars dug into hillsides on her family property.

“You’d dig them into the hill, that way you didn’t have to build them up,” she said. “They were common for the old homesteads, I think just about every one of the families had one. If I look at the old homes around here, some cellars are still standing. There are impressions on the ground from the ones that were scraped away for new development.”

The structures used natural cooling, humidifying and insulating to store food in a region that was exceptionally hot in the summer months.

Brown’s family kept fruits and vegetables in one cellar, while the other one was used to store canned foods, dry berries in jars, salt fish and dried fish wrapped up in newspaper and stored in boxes.

There were shelves in both, and a pipe that went through the roof to keep air circulating, preventing food from spoiling.

“It was a huge difference when you walked in, it was quite cool,” Brown said. “My mother and I did a lot of a lot of canning of fruits and vegetables like beans and sometimes corn. We canned fish and deer, even wild berries. It would all be stored in the cellars.”

The cellar used for storing fresh produce filled up quickly in the fall with apples from the family’s orchard.

“With the apple cellar, mom would say go get an apple for school, so we’d all go into the cellar and get us an apple,” she said. “Each of us went in. It’s a good memory. We were allowed just one apple because of the stretch of the foods.”

Brown said her brother still makes use of his root cellar by storing tools in it. She knows of another old root cellar located in Merritt that is more run down than the one in Shulus.

“Where ever you go in the rural areas, even between Merritt and Kamloops you look at the old homesteads on the side roads and you’ll likely see a root cellar there," she said.

It is dangerous to walk into or on top of the root cellars like Brown did growing up.

“You can’t walk on the roof like we used to, we used to play around the top of it,” she said. “The family would yell at kids to get off, some roofs aren’t as strong as others, and also, it was our family fridge.”

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