Have More In Winter, Too!
(Page 3 of 10)
But don't hurry your harvesting to put the vegetables in
storage. It is the early part of the storage period that is
most dangerous. It's hard to get the temperature down to
40° or less when the weather is still warm so leave
root crops in the soil until the ground is almost ready to
freeze. Tomatoes, onions, squash and pumpkins, of course,
have to come in before the first killing frost.
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Squash, pumpkins and dry beans keep best in the attic, if
you're lucky enough to have one that's warm and
dry. Onions should be kept cool and dry.
Lettuce, spinach, broocoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts,
collards, kale and Chinese cabbage are hardy enough to
survive light frosts and can even be left in the garden
long after frosts if they are given protection with straw.
We have been surprised how long you can eat right out of
your garden, even in our cold New England climate. At times
we have had some of these hardy vegetables in the garden
until December. We've found, too, you can save your
full-sized green tomatoes - just pull up the whole vine
before the first frost and hang, or store the tomatoes in
small baskets. They will gradually ripen if kept in a warm
(not hot!)place.
But don't make one mistake we did! We didn't weed out the
poor specimens at first and we lost a lot of our precious
vegetables.
Bank storage space if you have a hill handy-can be made
with concrete or heavy lumber walls and ceiling. It should
be at least 6' x 5' x 5' high and covered with 3 feet of
dirt. No extra moisture or damp packing is necessary. In
fact, getting plenty of drainage is the main problem along
with keeping out vermin.
There are other methods of storage: sinking a barrel
upright in the ground which is not too satisfactory because
it holds so little. Another is the trench method which is
simply digging a trench below frost and lining with straw;
vegetables are then added, and all is covered. Obviously,
it's not easy digging vegetables out and you can't check up
on them easily.
For people with small cellars like us or for those of you
who are planning new houses with radiant heating (which
doesn't require expensive cellar space), it might be
possible to have shed-type storage space attached to the
garage. Of course, the walls would have to be insulated, as
with the other methods, and the thickness would have to be
determined by the material you used. We have not tested out
this idea but it would seem to be a workable plan.
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