FALL PRESERVING TECHNIQUES

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Root cellars, waterglass
and a better mouse trap.

DearMOTHER,

We need to store approximately 600pounds of potatoes. What is the best wayto keep them?

Ed T.
Hamilton, IN

Potatoes are alive but dormant, awaiting spring to sprout and grow. Keep them thinking that they're still buried in the soil and that it's late fall, and they will last through winter and into spring - longer if you can maintain their temperature and humidity needs.

To do this, you must provide them absolute, pitch-black dark - a squeak of light makes them think spring has arrived and they'll start pushing out buds. Also, they need to be stored at high (95%) humidity and at a temperature of 38°F to 40°F if they are to be eaten soon. Reduce temperatures to 34°F to 36°F for long-term storage (but warm again before eating).

Pack loosely in open-slated crates with air passages over, under and around them to reduce the chance of rot. Discourage sprouting by leaving apples to spoil in the storage. The ethylene gas that apples emit encourages fruit to ripen, but potatoes to remain dormant.

Potato pits dug below frost level in the soil and lined with straw have been used to store potatoes for centuries. More elaborate root cellars - ranging from storage pits under a house floor to walk-in rooms dug into a hillside - were a feature of country life till the advent of electricity and refrigeration.

A deep, unheated cellar under a modern home can be adapted to maintain potato-storage conditions. You'll need fans to circulate air, outside windows that can be opened and closed to maintain proper temperatures during winter, and electric coolers in summer. A dirt-floored cellar will maintain humidity naturally. In a concrete-floored cellar, humidity can be maintained by lining the floor with water-soaked burlap bags.

For more information on growing and storing potatoes, read roving editor John Vivian's article "The Spud of Life: Growing Nature's Most Perfect Food," in MEN #172, March 1999.

Dear MOTHER,

Issue #48 addressed the long-term storageofeggs. There was an issue that did a follow-up to that article, but I can no longer, find it. Can you give me any update on this subject?

Charlene A.
Columbia City, IN

Before electric lines got to the farm, the spring deluge of eggs were stored in waterglass, a thin gel of sterilized water and powdered sodium silicate that combines to form an inert, fluid form of glass. Eggs were partitioned by age in a vat with boiled - wood-slat dividers or grid-bottomed boxes. They were used on a first-in, first-out basis and replaced with fresh eggs over the year as production slowed so none were more than a few months old.

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