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Much more fun than a Sub-zero....

14 years ago

Fun read in our local paper, and there's a few photos to illustrate Terziev's work:

European native digs culinary caves at local homes

Nancy Davis Kho to the SF Chronicle, February 12, 2012

(Excerpt) When Ellen Freeman wants to bring out a bottle of wine during a dinner party at her home in Marin County, the simple act becomes an occasion. "I say, 'I'm going to my cave.' " Naturally, everyone wants to come along. "It's a lot more bang for the buck than reaching into the refrigerator," Freeman says.

The cave to which she refers is a 5-by-5-foot space behind a door accented with iron rosettes, its floor and vaulted ceiling lined with brick. The cave was excavated behind a retaining wall, directly underneath the coop where her four chickens roost.

"We don't have a real yard," Freeman says, "and I always thought of that spot as wasted space."

That's when she turned to her neighbor Zdravko Terziev, whose passion for building culinary caves springs from a love of gardening, home cooking and functional art.

Here is a link that might be useful: SF Chronicle: Culinary Caves

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Comments (8)

foodonastump
14 years ago
jkom - That's so cool, thanks for posting this. I've long been meaning to research whether "natural" root cellars and wine cellars share the same optimal conditions such that the two could share space. Looks like maybe so. Some day I'll start digging.
deborah_ps
14 years ago
My grandparents always had a cellar...certainly not as nice as this one! In fact I was always afraid to go down there with out my grandma present :D

Boy o' boy would I ever love to have one now though....especially if it was all tricked out like the one you linked jkom :)
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smm5525, that combination, 30" induction and 15" gas power burner, is what I'm tumbling around in my head. Actually, if we were to do this, I think we'd go for a 36" induction with the 15" gas power burner module, but pretty much the same configuration that you're doing. We have a Cuisinart griddler that we use every weekend morning, and a quesadilla maker that is used daily. The griddler looks kind of cool and we put it away after use, but the quesadilla maker is ugly and it's always on my countertop. I am actually planning an appliance garage simply to hide it from view because I cannot bear the thought of my beautiful new kitchen having that blasted red appliance sitting out on the counter - all.the.time. Last night I learned that it's possible to make quesadillas on the griddle on the gas rangetop and I hatched an evil plan to banish the quesadilla maker from the kitchen. But if we go with the induction it'll get a reprieve. Sigh. So, gas rangetop with griddle and charbroiler = two less appliances.
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annie1992
14 years ago
I love it, an upscale root cellar!

Mine isn't nearly that pretty, maybe I can talk Elery into a fancier one when we build at the farm if I call it a wine and cheese cave, instead of a root cellar...

Annie
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
14 years ago
All should have one in tornado zones. Works also as a safety shelter.

dcarch
John Liu
14 years ago
Mine is stocked with NBC filtration, water, and 10,000 rounds of .223 ammo.

. . . Not really.

How is a root cellar different than a basement?
foodonastump
14 years ago
John - Colder and damper than your typical basement. From the linked article:

Foods that like cold temperatures (32 to 40 degrees F.) and high humidity (90 to 95% relative humidity) include beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, celery, winter radishes (Daikon), leeks and Jerusalem artichokes. Potatoes, cabbage and apples also do best at 32 to 40 degrees F. but with less humidity (80 to 90% relative humidity). Garlic and onions keep best in cool temperatures, 32 to 50 degrees F., and dry conditions, 50 to 60% relative humidity. Pumpkins, winter squash and sweet potatoes store ideally with a moderately warm temperature (50 to 60 degrees F.) and dry conditions.

IIRC wine likes something like 57 deg and 60% humidity, so that tells me it could share space with winter squash and sweet potatoes and perhaps onions and garlic, but that might be about it. I suppose it would be a good room to display home canned goods if you're not filling to the brim with wine.

Here is a link that might be useful: root cellar
Lars
14 years ago
Cave temperatures vary from one geographic region to another. Where I grew up in Texas, the cave temperature is 72F, which is approximately what the average mean temperature is for central Texas. Growing up, I thought 72 was cold, and so I would wear a sweater when I went into the cave. In northern or central California, the caves are about 10 degrees cooler - at least the one I went to at Kings Canyon is.

For now, my garage is my root cellar because it has no windows.

Lars
rob333 (zone 7b)
14 years ago
A tornado shelter filled with goodies like those (bottles of wine, but also cured meats, and jars of garden yummies, if you didn't see the picture)? Heck ya! I'm on board.

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