As we are finally past the “Hungry Months” as March, and April are known to most gardeners growing and preserving their own food, I thought I would chat about cold storage with you. We will be harvesting our first batch of potatoes shortly. We will plant succession plantings to take us into an October harvest. How will we store all this food?
Our first and easiest method of preservation is cold storage. It offers true food security when we cannot grow new crops.
It can also be known as root cellaring but I hesitate to call it that simply because so few people have proper root cellars today. But we do have pockets of microclimates that create optimal conditions for certain food storage. And there are now some creative ways you can search up to build cold storage using old freezers, and unused rooms with coolbots and air conditioners. For myself, I use an unheated barn. For a more comprehensive guide to root cellaring, you can read Stocking Up by Rodale Press. It’s a great book for food storage.
When I grew up on a 200 year old Welsh farm, my grandparents had a proper root cellar and a cold room and at our house close by, we had an unfinished basement we used to store food from the fields. We also had walk-in coolers for hanging meat to cool so we didn’t use those for vegetables that I remember. After the orchard was picked of apples and pears,, they went in a wooden bin in the root cellar. A little under ripe if possible but otherwise no special treatment. But not with the onions and potatoes as they off-gassed and created quick spoilage.
Carrots are washed in cold water to shock and stored in bins between layers of damp sawdust. We also store carrots in the ground for the winter. We plant them in mid August and we dig them as we need them all winter.one downfall to this is digging them out of the snow. We do put down a piece of plywood over them to make it a little easier.
I also have laid carrots in single layers in the wooden crates I keep in my barn between layers of straw. I have successfully kept them for months and months this way. We have alot of humidity here on our island which is good for cold storage, as it cannot be a dry cold, which will cause freezing.
Winter turnip, parsnips and beets, after picking get trimmed and shocked with cold water and stored in bins with damp sawdust as well.
Potatoes need to be cured before storing. This means keeping them undercover on racks to develop a thicker skin perfect for longer storage. Two weeks does it and then they get stored in an old dresser in the drawers layered in between straw. We eat from these stored well into April and even May.
I take care to cover my crates or dressers with wool blankets if the temperatures dip below minus 15, checking them often as I do the “grocery shopping” in the barn.
Turnips, we have stored in the fridge crisper for many months, washed and trimmed in plastic bags with holes in them. This is especially good for summer turnips as it is too hot in the barn when they are hauled but last until January in our fridge crisper.
Squash is cured in the barn after stems are completely dry. Then brought in the house as I find the barn too cold. Some squash last longer than others this way. Spagetti squash giving up first, then butternut , but blue Hubbard and acorn last almost 6 months.
Cabbages have been picked and then stored on an insulated cooler in our unheated barn. I put a small paint stick in the side for airflow. I watch them carefully, peeling off out leaves as they turn but often the insides are just fine.
I also store onions and garlic after drying on racks, screens or pallets . These are able to be tied together in bunches and hung from rafters. Then onions are braided and brought into the house for the winter as they do not like it too cold or dark. Garlic is trimmed and stored. We just finished up our garlic from last year.
In order not to waste vegetables that do show signs of softening, I will often use them first or cook and freeze them. I turn garlic and onions into shelf stable dehydrated powders as well.
Another form of cold storage is holding spinach plants and lettuces in cold frames throughout the winter. Planting in early August (we use shade cloth so the cold loving crops don’t bolt in a hot August) and having mature plants by late October to hibernate throughout the winter months and be able to be picked when needed. I LOVE my cold frame for fresh greens.
PESTS
We don’t seem to have a problem with rodents but then again we have plenty of cats. One thing I do is store lids and loads of dried mint in the barn hanging from the rafters. It’s for the chicken coop refreshed for the winter but I believe it helps repel pests as well. Also cotton balls soaked in peppermint tucked around where the cats or dogs can’t get at them is supposed to help as well. We have used traps baited with bacon grease in the past for the odd trespasser.
While the beets, potatoes, carrots, squash, garlic, and onions held strong this past year, we ran out of turnips. We lost part of our harvest this year to horrific rainfall.
Eating still “in season” from our garden for six months in cold storage is still something to be so thankful for.
Love Jenn xx
