Vegetable Gardening (130 page)

In the fall, wait as long as you can to dig up root crops, such as carrots, rutabagas, and beets, if you intend to store them in a root cellar or cold storage room. However, remember that while root crops can withstand frosts, you should harvest them before the ground freezes. They'll come out of the ground easiest if the soil is still slightly moist. Also, don't wash crops that are going to the root cellar; instead, just gently brush away soil crumbs. Use any blemished or cut vegetables within a few days.

Putting Away Your Vegetables

You have only two choices when you harvest your crops: Eat the veggies right away, or store them to use later. Specific vegetables need different storage conditions to maintain their freshness. These conditions can be summarized as follows:

Cool and dry:
Ideally, temperatures should be between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit, with 60-percent relative humidity — conditions you usually find in a well-ventilated basement.

Cold and dry:
Temperatures should be between 32 and 40 degrees, with 65-percent humidity. You can achieve these conditions in most home refrigerators or in a cold basement or garage.

Cool and moist:
Temperatures should be between 50 and 60 degrees with 90-percent humidity. You can store vegetables in a cool kitchen or basement in perforated plastic bags.

Cold and moist:
Ideally, your storage area should be 32 to 40 degrees, with 95-percent humidity. You can create these conditions by placing your vegetables in perforated bags (vegetables in bags without ventilation are likely to degrade faster) and storing the bags in a refrigerator.

You also can create cold and moist conditions in a root cellar. An unheated basement works well as a root cellar. However, these days, most homes have heaters or furnaces in the basement, which make the conditions too warm for storing vegetables. But if you don't have a heater, or if you can section off a portion of your basement and keep temperatures just above freezing, you can store vegetables like root crops and even cabbage for long periods of time.

Make sure your vegetables are well ventilated in the root cellar; you can store onions, potatoes, and other root crops in mesh bags. Shoot for a humidity level that's as high as you can get. To increase humidity, spread moist wood shavings or sawdust on the floor but keep the vegetables elevated on wooden boxes.

In Table 19-2, I provide specifics on how to store your vegetables so that after you pick them, you quickly know what to do with them (that is, if you don't eat them right away). Table 19-2 also includes information on whether you can freeze, dry, or can vegetables, topics that I cover later in this chapter.

If you want to store vegetables, make sure you harvest them at their peak ripeness. Also avoid bruising the produce, because bruises hasten rotting. The storage times in Table 19-2 are only estimates; they can vary widely depending on conditions. Store only the highest quality vegetables for long periods of time; vegetables that are damaged or scarred are likely to rot and spoil everything nearby.

If you live in an area where the ground freezes in the winter, you can actually leave some root crops — including carrots, leeks, rutabagas, and turnips — in the ground and harvest all winter long. After a good, hard frost, but before the ground freezes, cover your vegetable bed with a foot or more of dry hay. Cover the hay with heavy plastic (4 to 6 millimeters) and secure the edges with rocks, bricks, or heavy boards. The plastic keeps rain and snow from trickling down through the hay and rotting your vegetables, and it also keeps the soil from freezing solid. You can harvest periodically through winter, but be careful to re-cover the opening after each harvest.

Freezing, Drying, and Canning Veggies

You can preserve vegetables three different ways — by freezing, drying, or canning them — to make your harvest last longer than if you stored your vegetables fresh. (Refer to Table 19-2 for information on whether a particular vegetable can be frozen, dried, or canned.) I don't have room to cover all the details about these different methods, but the following list gives you a thumbnail sketch of each technique:

Freezing:
This is probably the easiest way to preserve vegetables. Heck, if you want, just puree up some tomatoes, put them in a container, and throw them in the freezer — they'll last for months. The mix is great to use in spaghetti sauce or soups.