Stone fruit cellars were once popular in the Ozarks, designed to keep food cool in summer and above freezing in winter. Most were constructed in the 1920s and early 1930s, when home canning was widely promoted as a safe food storage method before rural electrification enabled refrigeration. They stored Mason jars of home-canned fruits, vegetables, and meat, and also provided space for root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, turnips, and cabbage. Food from a family garden could be kept for months and would supplement a family's diet during winter, while farmers could also store excess produce grown for commercial sale.