What to do when your organic farm comes with a chlorine drinking, time sucking, energy hog of a swimming pool?

Fill it with carrots, of course!

This was the predicament  we faced when we moved to our farm about 2 years ago. To us, a swimming pool is a luxury we, and the environment, cannot really afford in this era.  But, with every problem,  an opportunity presents itself.  A swimming pool, when empty, is also a concrete foundation embedded in the earth.  What better place to store our vegetables?!

After consulting with Chris Vanderhout of Evolve Builders Group, our particular pool was deemed an ideal starting point for a root cellar, providing an insulated space for storage crops in the winter and reducing energy requirements drastically for cold storage of summer crops.  We could convert our pool into a root cellar at a fraction of the cost of a conventional cold storage unit, and run it using practically no energy.

With support from the Carrot Cache, a foundation that lends a hand to local organic farmers,we embarked on what we believe is the first ever swimming pool root cellar conversion!  The building uses rot resistant hemlock to cover the pool and give it lateral strength to resist caving in.  Additional insulation was sprayed inside and a door cut into the side of the pool, which is accessed by means of a ramp taking you below ground level. To increase the insulative value of the cellar, it will be under a living roof, looking like little more than a grassy hill when completed in the spring of 2010.

Best of all, we still have a place to cool off, and so do our carrots!