One occasionally sees, cut into the side of a hill or lying flat next to a home's foundation, a door in that ground that leads to a drab, potato-colored wonderland of vegetable storage: a root cellar.

The sun is sitting high in the sky. Its rays reach down to warm your skin. A drop of sweat trickles slowly down your back, but you hardly notice. Your bare toes wiggle deeper into the warm soil as a ...