These Simple Stone Shelves Tell A Story Of Survival And Ingenuity!
September 10, 2024
source: Alanya Dickson/Facebook
A room with stone shelves on the walls is characterised by the slow and silent ticking of the clock. This type of shelving can still be seen in some of the older homes and was the main way of food storage before the use of refrigerator. These shadowy and rather cool rooms were crafted to hold canned foods, root crops, and other such perishable commodities, thereby enabling the families to survive through the winter or the periods of scarcity. The building of the cellar with heavy stones and the coolness of the cellar helped a lot in maintaining the food items as there was no frequent shopping and fresh produces were available only in particular seasons.
The large squares and shelves in this space probably were used for storage of preserved foods, as the temperature below the ground is lower than the ambient one. These shelves made of stone were to store jars with home canned fruits, vegetables, jams and other products which people used to preserve during the harvest time. The heavy stone ensured that the temperature of the room was constant and this made it ideal for the storage of food and other perishable goods so as to avoid going bad and thus required no use of ice or refrigeration.
Such storage spaces like this one here in the picture were very essential in supporting early households in any society. There was no use of processed foods and people had to rely on their own production and storage of food. Therefore, these areas served the purpose of pantry storage of canned foods but also root crops such as the potatoes, onions, and carrots among others which could be stored in their natural form in the pantry for several months especially if the environment was cold and free from moisture. These spaces were very useful since the stone structure served as a natural cooler in the structures of that time before the advent of electricity.
The layout of these cold storage rooms was quite utilitarian in nature most of the times. Situated underground in basements or cellars they were able to avail the cooler temperatures of the underground to regulate temperature. The walls and floors were made of thick stones which also helped in maintaining a constant temperature and do not let the heat of summer enter nor the cold of winter come in. This made them very much useful in any home that needed to store food for a longer period of time.
As a result of the advancement in technology especially the use of refrigeration these cold storage rooms began to be phased out. Still they are interesting pieces of the past that give us a certain idea of how people had to rely on their creativity in order to survive. Some of these spaces are still used to this date for wine cellars or for additional storage of certain perisables. Some have preserved them as part of the structure of their houses where they can still see how people used to survive during the various seasons.
These spaces are not just storeroom – they are evidence of how people of old pandered to the echo of the seasons. Designed in simple and functional way, the cold storage rooms from this period reflect a period when home food preservation was an art that was also deemed necessary in order to enable families to have food throughout the year. Despite the fact that these rooms are no longer in use in the contemporary society due to advancement in technology, they still exist in many homes which were constructed some years back.
