Comments on: On food storage in January

By: El

El — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:54:30 +0000

Hah, Dennis, you’re reminding me why we moved from Minnesota! Yep it’s a balmy 9* here now whereas it got to -16* in Chicago, South Bend and Kalamazoo got down to -10* overnight. I will take my hot spot on the lake, thanks! But yeah it’s weird out there. Lots of monkeyshines when it gets this cold if you’re not used to it.

Hiya Mrs. Chiots, did you happen to leave the roots on your cabbage? I guess the best way to store them is with the roots on and the more loose bottom leaves removed. I made the mistake a couple of years ago of hacking the roots off the cabbage and yeah I got brown stinkbombs too. It does sound like you have a stairway just waiting to be a root cellar though.

Jeri, yeah, different strokes! Really, you lucky folks just need to change up the gardening plan year-round…I kind of do the same thing with having the greenhouses but even though I plant stuff in November, say, I won’t expect to see the seedlings until Feb. In other words we have a dead zone in which all I can do is harvest what’s already there and nothing’s growing. It beats the alternative here of not even harvesting!

Sounds like you’re in the same situation, Dani, as our California friends Jeri and cookiecrumb. I looked on your site and saw your barbecued corn and nearly fainted! YUM! I guess in any of this provide-your-own-food thing it’s really important to just think local too and if root cellaring won’t work then there’s probably something a lot easier ahead of you!

Sylvie, yeah, storage types of apples are key. Trouble is all mine are either mine or are foraged so I don’t have much of a choice because my primary consideration was FREE apples In point of fact I have no idea what any of them are with absolute certainty. Ah well.

By: Sylvie, Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener

Sylvie, Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:29:20 +0000

Regarding Mangochild’s apples keeping and El’s not… I wonder what cultivar you are storing? not all apples have the same keeping quality. I think one want the old fashioned one that were bred for keeping before the days of extended refrigerated storage…

Sylvie

By: Dani

Dani — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 20:55:07 +0000

I’d love to cellar root vegetables but it just doesn’t get cold enough here. It never occured to me that onion sprouts are edible d’oh *slaps self*. Thanks for that!

By: Jeri

Jeri — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:56:45 +0000

I’m surprised our onions look just like yours. The floor in the garage might not be the place for them. The heat wave we’re having doesn’t seem to make a difference. Like cookiecrumb, I was considering the space under the house but hadn’t tried it yet.
You’re right, though, in your comment to cookiecrumb–here in Southern California we can grow many things year-round without a greenhouse. We’ve already planted a few seeds for spring and have been harvesting our lettuce, kale, and spinach the last couple of weeks.

By: Chiot's Run

Chiot's Run — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:27:32 +0000

My cabbage went all brown & stinky. Oh well. Perhaps I can get Mr Chiots to build me a cold room by the back outdoor steps into the basement.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:02:08 +0000

10 degrees, El??? That’s positively balmy!

This morning we woke up to temperatures south of minus 20 degrees. Our fancy, dancy digital outdoor thermometer – that we can read on a digital readout from inside the house – gave up the ghost! Some thermometer! Why even build it if it can’t read temp’s as low as we get them here in central Wisconsin?

Almost every public and many private functions were called off last night (and probably tonight), all schools around the state are cancelled today. Wind chills are in the range of -30 to -40 last night thru tomorrow (Friday).

Come on over for a visit and experience some real weather! (:-)

By: El

El — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:52:48 +0000

Hey Sylvie, yeah, there is a learning curve, isn’t there? I swear I still need to look things up as to how much humidity and what temp and all that every year: I swear I forget! i know sweet potatoes need to be cured at 80* before they’re stored. Yeah pears are really fleeting: even the Bosc pears I got from a neighbor I used up quickly in a pear/apple sauce. Celeriac is the one thing I throw in the bottom of the fridge in those veg bins (that never get used here) and they keep forever in there!

Good question, Liz, so I checked. 38% which seems mighty dry to me. I am sure it’s just because they’re the red ones. The yellows (Copra and some mutt) and the whites are just fine. So I made a mess of caramelized onions last night and put them on a pizza! The greens are saved for a stir-fry so not all is lost

Hiya Robin, chicken rancher! Yep, the only potential problem I have encountered with garden storage in the winter is voles, but they’re hit or miss. I tend to hill the produce up with some extra dirt so the tops of the carrots, etc. aren’t so tempting to them. But icy leeks are great, aren’t they?

CC, gawd, that sounds awful! (says she who’s looking at a 10* morning and another 6″ of snow) But I guess saving things won’t be an issue if you can grow stuff outside year-round, eh. You know it’s not too late to sow some lettuce…

Thanks for the tip, MC. That process is called transpiration and it is something all fruit and veggies do once they’re harvested. To stop the process grocers insist that the growers put petroleum or wax on cukes, peppers and apples! Yuck. Sure you can eat the stuff but why. My apples don’t up and dry though, they get mushy and moldy! yuck! but the compost thinks they’re quite yummy…

By: Mangochild

Mangochild — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:43:40 +0000

I was thinking the same think as Liz, do you think it might be too moist? But yes, it does that a lot more management than freezing/canning. Neat that you can store in the greenhouse! Did you know about apples, the dry naturally from the outside in. At least mine have/are. I have them in a cool dark area about 45-50*F, and they shrivel right up, looking as if they are spoiled. But slice them open, and they are clean, whitish-pink, and delicious. (I put pics on my blog) Perfectly good. I was skeptical, as I didn’t intend this, but it happened. So your apples might do better than you thought

By: cookiecrumb

cookiecrumb — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:24:48 +0000

I had dreams of a root cellar in the crawl space under my house. But, lord, the temperature here (CA) in January is approaching 80º. Something’s wrong.

By: Robin Wedewer

Robin Wedewer — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:41:26 +0000

I admire your industry. And I do believe you’re quite right that some vegetables are best left to shelter in place rather than storing in a root cellar. My goodness, how many leeks have I had to toss in my time?

Robin Wedewer
National Gardening Examiner

By: Liz

Liz — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:25:59 +0000

I wonder if it’s too damp in your basement for the onions. The temp sounds good (50), but they like a dry environment. Our onions are in an unheated (but insulated) upstairs room with the squash, and they are still rock hard and going strong!

By: Sylvie, Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener

Sylvie, Rappahannock Cook & Kitchen Gardener — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 19:52:55 +0000

I can’t wait to have a proper “fresh” food storage, aka. a root cellar. I do can and freeze a lot, and while canning is a lot of work at the time, once done, it’s done! I am fully with you there…

This year – not having a root cellar or any coll but frost free area – I stored winter squashes & pumpkin. Not a problem. Sweet Poatoes – Ok as long as they were cured properly… obviously not all did. The pears went bad fast (lesson: next year: can or freeze them all), the potatoes are sprouting already. I did not try to store carrots, cabbage nor Jerusalem artichoke: they are all in a garden. I had some celeriac, but those need cool storage as I found out… oh well, live and learn.

It’s interesting the routine that need to be re-created and the knowledge that need to be re-acquired!

Sylvie