In the South the turnip hill and sweet potato hill were both root cellars to protect the garden harvest through the winter. The manuscript collection called Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery (1749) tells us how to dig a turnip trench in the root cellar in the basement of the house or in the yard outside: “though it be out of dores, it matters not” after Michaelmas. A winter turnip hill was necessary to Mary Randolph’s many recipes for turnips mashe