Everyone wants the harvest to last as long as possible. In a good root cellar, many vegetables easily will keep 5 or 6 months. You don’t have to process vegetables going into the root cellar. It’s a true low-energy food preservation system. A steady cool temperature (35°-45° F.) is the main requirement. Read the rest of this entry »

The temperature in a root cellar is always a compromise. It’s never equal in all parts of the cellar. Most vegetables never get the perfect temperature.

The temperature near the ceiling of many root cellars can sometimes be 10° F. or so higher than near the floor. This variance creates temperature zones in the root cellar. Your vegetables will keep better if you understand the temperature zones of your root cellar and store crops accordingly. Read the rest of this entry »

No two home root cellars function the same. You’ll have to learn about yours through trial and error. You’ll know better than anyone else which crops will keep a long time in your root cellar and which ones won’t.

Never put anything directly on the floor because vegetables need air circulation from all sides. If you set them on the floor, they will become moist underneath and start to rot much sooner. Set your boxes, barrels, and baskets on boards on the floor so air can circulate under them. Read the rest of this entry »

Consider using a standard potato dust or spray regularly. It is a mixture of chemical insecticide and fungicide which prevents troublesome diseases such as early and late blight. It thwarts some pests, too, such as the Colorado potato beetle. To be effective, most standard dusts must be applied to the potato foliage every 7 to 10 days, beginning when the plants emerge.

You may have a disease problem in the potato patch one year and none the next. The weather plays a big part. Moisture and temperature conditions trigger certain diseases which will spread rapidly through the potato rows. Read the rest of this entry »

A good potato crop starts with good seed potatoes. Get the best ones you can because you don’t have many chances at planting time. A garden store will have certified seed potatoes that are free of disease. These are the best. Don’t rely on old potatoes from your root cellar because they could be carrying disease organisms without showing it.

When you buy seed potatoes, you’ll get some small ones. Plant these whole. Cut the bigger ones into two or three blocky pieces, being sure to cut them so that each piece has two or three buds, or “eyes.” I cut up seed potatoes a day or two before planting and leave them in a warm place. This gives the cut surfaces time to heal over and dry out a little.

I also douse seed potatoes with sulfur immediately after cutting them up. Sulfur powder is a cheap, natural protectant available at most drug stores. Two ounces will protect 10 pounds of seed potatoes. Put the cut and whole potatoes in a paper bag. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of sulfur and shake the bag. The powder sticks to the potatoes and helps keep out rot organisms. This sulfur also will lower the soil pH around the potatoes a bit. That’s good because potatoes like an acid soil. Read the rest of this entry »

Down-to-earth storage

It’s easy to keep root crops from the fall garden for months in your root cellar. Keep these points in mind:

Your late crop should be as late as possible. The later you can harvest and store them, the longer they’ll keep.

Pull or dig your storage crop after 2 or 3 days of dry weather. Leave the crop out in the sun for an hour. The vegetables will dry quickly and the soil on them will fall off easily.

Don’t wash or brush the vegetables. As soon as you dig them, “top” them right in the garden, but don’t cut the tail roots of your carrots or beets. Leave about an inch of stem on beets so they don’t bleed. Cut the tops close on other root crops. Wash the roots when you’re going to use them, not before. Read the rest of this entry »

Delicious out-of‑season eating without canning, freezing, or even a root cellar.

Our Thanksgiving meal is not complete without a serving of home-grown winter squash. We store Blue Hubbard, Gold Nuggets, Butternut, Acorn, and Buttercup in the root cellar. For Thanksgiving, we choose our favorite, Blue Hubbard. I have yet to taste as flavorful a squash.

Winter squash is getting more popular with gardeners. Perhaps it’s because they require very little work, yield well, and keep for months in a cool place. You don’t even need a root cellar.

If you have a small garden, try the Gold Nugget. This winter squash takes up as much space as a zucchini plant and yields a bundle of small, delicious squash. We cut them in half and bake them— they’re wonderful. Read the rest of this entry »