Thinking ahead to this years harvest/storage

[kkweinb]

As we are setting here in the freezing cold weather we are planning out this years garden. Something we must do better at this years is planting specifically for storage and preservation. We lost lots of food last year because a fridge in the barn failed and because our daughter was born in late August.
For storage this year we will get another fridge for the barn. Last year we stored potatoes in a 5 gallon bucket with sand that we set in a whole slightly bigger than the bucket, that worked pretty well. I also do some canning for tomatoes, green beans, and carrots but I want to expand there also.

So.. I feel the need to stream line everything in our life right now, and be sure we are using all of our resources effectively, I'd like to hear from you all what you grow for storage and what forms of storage you use.

[Vosey]

Last year was our first year of aggressively trying to store everything, and we still failed in some areas! Mostly due to my having to travel to see family during peak harvest time. But we have made it into March with buying very little veg since July, and didn't have to buy anything, but won't make it much more than another month or so.

We don't have ideal root cellar conditions. Onions and garlic keep well for us, carrots and parsnips need to be in a fridge, potatoes we ate quickly and canned the rest. We just unplugged our 2nd fridge and I hope to keep it unplugged.

Overall I found that a mixture of canning and dehydrating worked the best. Dehydrating is the most efficient use of time. Dehydrated veggies are great to use in soups and stews all winter. I was pleasantly surprised to find that canned potatoes are excellent. Dehydrated slices are very versatile as well. I thought I dehydrated enough green peppers to last several years, but we use them in everything, including scrambled eggs.

We grow a lot of Roma tomatoes and I have purposely choosen ones that will stagger the harvest as I work and cannot handle them all being ripe at once. For onions, seeds for green onions/scallions that dehydrate beautifully, walla walla's for immediate use and storage onions for the winter.

We also grow an overwintering carrot alongside or parsnips and leave them in the ground to harvest in December/January. This year we're adding parsnips and rutabagas to that plan.

[GrannyCarol]

How do people store veggies in really cold climates? At times in the winter it gets below zero for a couple of weeks. I don't have much of a way to keep anything from freezing unless it is in the house and heated.

Any ideas what to grow? and how to store regular veggies? I cooked and froze some tomato sauce this year, can freeze things and possibly can them. I don't so much enjoy the pressure canner though. I do a lot of jams and jellies with our fruit for the family and also syrups. I have a dehydrator, what dries well?

I would like to keep root vegetables. Our house is awfully warm (we have my husband's 89 yr old mother here and she needs it warm) for them and our garage is too cold.

[bigjon]

canning and freezing aren't enough here,building a walk in cooler for apples-taters-squash.

[GrannyCarol]

Well, there are two of us and my husband's elderly mother. Though we share with the kids and grandkids, they aren't that nearby either. We don't need tons and tons of stuff.

We do keep two freezers though and buy a 1/4 of a beef every so often to share out.

I'd like some better way to keep apple/taters/squash, esp the latter two. A walk in cooler is too much though.

[Vosey]

GrannyCarol - here's a link to recent dehydrating thread, there was another good one recently as well.

Why I love dehydrating

I much prefer pressure canning over water bath, hate the boiling cauldron of water!

[GrannyCarol]

Oh, didn't occur to me I can powder some for flavorings! I powdered some hot peppers that I love on potato chips though! People are listing things I had never considered drying too. Thanks.

[sammyd]

We can a lot of stuff. We use the dehydrator quite a bit. We do freeze some veggies but not a lot.
We store our squash and onions upstairs which is unheated and runs around 55 degrees or so. Potatoes in bins in a room in the basement which gets cooler and moister.
Squash and potatoes do not belong in the same room, they have different needs and by trying to make them both fit you will end up with stuff that doesn't keep well.

I suggest reading Root Cellaring by Mike and Nancy Bubel. It is very informative on how to keep your garden bounty over the winter.

[jwal10]

Potatoes and apples, pears need a cool moist place but not close together, potatoes need to stay in the dark. Squash, pumpkins and gourds need cool and dry. Onions, garlic need dry and dark. I have an unheated, insulated garage, in real cold areas, it would need some heat to keep it from freezing. Great place to store fruits and vegetables. Squash, pumpkins and such are stored in my shop, wood floor, no heat, in a bin with straw. Onions and garlic are stored in the house, in a wood box on the floor or braided or tied together in a closet on an outside wall. Best in the dark. Our cottage and cabin are on concrete floors....James