1. Store Vegetables Without a Root Cellar

Learn which vegetables you can store without a root cellar, basement, garage, or refrigerator by using simple curing techniques. Find out which temps are ideal curing, how long to cure, and which vegetables will store the longest using this old-fashioned method of food preservation and storage.

TRANSCRIPT

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MELISSA K. NORRIS:
[00:00:00] Learning how to cure your vegetables is gonna open up a whole new world for you that you don’t have to use any other form of food preservation in order to store your crops for up to an entire year. Shelf stable, no type of cold storage needed. Hi, I’m Melissa from melissaknorris.com and the host of the Pioneering Today podcast, fifth generation homesteader, and I love sharing these old-fashioned tips so that we can have organic homegrown food on the table.

[00:00:56] When you know how to properly cure your vegetables, [00:01:00] it is amazing how long they will last without doing any type of refrigeration or really even cold storage. Now ideally, when you are storing your vegetables, if you have a root cellar, like the homesteads and homes of old would use, or even a basement, that can work very well.

[00:01:21] But if you cure them properly, you can store them in a cool area of your house and they will last for months, if not an entire year. I cure our garlic and our onions and our winter squash, and just in the back closet of our home they will last until the next harvest season. So first up, we’re gonna be curing and pulling our garlic.

[00:01:47] Now, the same procedure that I’m using for the garlic is exactly what you will use for your onions. They go through the exact same thing. So one of the big tips that you need to know is when is the proper time to actually harvest [00:02:00] and to pull your crops so that it’s at the ideal spot for curing. So we want our garlic and our onions to be fully developed.

[00:02:07] And my garlic here, this is softneck garlic. So softneck garlic is ready to harvest and pull when 98% about of the garlic that you have planted, that the tops are falling over. So you can see here in these two rows, a lot of these are just laying all the way over, and they’re really starting to lean. I don’t have really any, this is probably the only one that’s almost upright.

[00:02:28] So we’re gonna go ahead and pull these up. And once they start to flop over, as long as it’s not really wet and rainy in the garden, I’ll let them flop over and stay in the garden for about close to a week. But then you really want to start and pull them up. So we’re gonna go ahead and harvest these. And now for hardneck garlic, instead of them falling over, this is all softneck, you’ll see about the top three to four leaves here will all turn yellow and shrivel up and die.

[00:02:56] So that’s your sign for hardneck garlic. So it depends on what type you have [00:03:00] planted. These are softneck. So you kinda wanna just get your hands down in there- And we’re gonna loosen up the roots because sometimes if you just pull like this, you’ll actually just pull the stem up. And the way that I hang and cure my garlic, and I also braid it for storage, I wanna make sure that I have these on there still.

[00:03:18] So I’m just gonna kinda loosen that up and pull that up. Now, when you’re curing, sometimes this is hard. People see all this dirt and they naturally want to wash it off or remove all the dirt. But when you’re curing your vegetables, it’s important that you’re not introducing more moisture back into the crop.

[00:03:35] So resist, resist, resist that urge, my friend. We’re just gonna take this. Now, if there’s a lot of dirt clumps, this one actually is really clean. There’s hardly any dirt clumps on it. You can just kinda brush that off. But then you’re just gonna take a, and we’re just, I have a little bin here. But whatever container is that you’re gathering it in, just go ahead and put it in there.[00:04:00]

[00:04:08] So now that we have all of our garlic harvested, it’s time to take it to our curing spot. So when you’re looking for a curing spot for your garlic and your onions, you wanna pick an area that has really good airflow. So we’re actually a little bit breezy even right now, um, but an area that’s gonna take advantage of any type of wind that you have coming through.

[00:04:31] But you wanna make sure it’s not in direct sunlight. So I found that a covered back porch or a covered area works really well. So this is the southern exposure, because with your garlic, you ideally wanna have this curing between about 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but you don’t want it to be in that direct sunlight, like I said, because you can actually get, um, sun scald [00:05:00] on your garlic and your onions.

[00:05:01] So here, um, the overhang shades this a little bit, and then at the height of the day, if it’s getting too much sun, I can just lower this shade, but I still get lots of airflow coming through here. So with your softneck garlic, this is really easy. You can see I’ve just got, this is just a piece of metal fencing.

[00:05:23] And I can, depending upon the size of the bulb, this is obviously way too big to put through there. So I can just take these stalks- And with a soft neck, just go like this, and then it has lots of nice airflow and it’s not gonna fall through there. So this works for both the hard neck or the soft neck, and it also works for onions.

[00:05:46] So like I said, just you wanna make sure once you have all the weight of this, I think this is about 20, got about 26, um, heads of garlic here. So you wanna make sure that whatever it’s attached to is gonna be strong enough to hold [00:06:00] all of the weight. Another option if you don’t have a screen, or this isn’t a screen, excuse me, but the other option is a screen, is you can take some window screens or old screen doors or anything like that, and put them on some sawhorses or something where it’s gonna keep ’em elevated and lay everything out flat.

[00:06:17] You just wanna make sure that you’ve got enough room however you’re laying it, that you’re gonna have airflow all the way around it. So like I said, a screen works great ’cause air is gonna flow through that. But make sure that you don’t overcrowd the onions and the garlic, whatever you’re putting them on, when they’re next to one another.

[00:06:50] You’re gonna wanna let your garlic hang and dry for up to two weeks. The signs that you know that it’s ready to stop its curing process and go into storage is all of the [00:07:00] dirt will obviously be dry. It will feel like paper, so this outer skin will no longer feel wet. And then everything, this’ll all be really dry, and especially the part that you really wanna check is right here.

[00:07:15] So you wanna make sure that n- there’s no moisture remaining in here in the stem, especially where it meets the garlic and/or the onion, and that is fully dry. So in temperatures between about 68 degrees, like I said, and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, don’t go over 85 degrees Fahrenheit if you can help it at all.

[00:07:33] I realize there’s some days that are gonna get, you know, warmer. We can’t control the weather. I have to do all of my stuff outside. I do not have a humidity-controlled environment, so all of it gets done out here. But for your garlic, ideally about 70% humidity of two weeks in those temperatures, and it’s gonna be dry.

[00:07:52] But sometimes living here in the Pacific Northwest, I can have days, believe it or not, in the middle of summer when I’m pulling my garlic in July, that [00:08:00] aren’t, that are barely at that 68-degree Fahrenheit mark. If you’re having cooler temps, don’t worry about it. You’ll just have to extend that curing time.

[00:08:07] Sometimes I have to go up to three weeks before it’s fully dry, especially if we’re really wet and rainy and there’s more moisture in the air instead of dry, sunny days. So those are, you know, your guidelines, but you can just extend the time if they’re not fully cured and fully dried. So that’s your times for your garlic and your onion.

[00:08:27] But there’s a few other crops that we also want to cure, and they will store extremely well without any type of refrigeration. But there’s a few key things that you need to know. So first up, we’re gonna be talking our winter squash. So when you are harvesting your winter squash, you want it to be as, not overripe, but you definitely want it to be ripe.

[00:08:52] So this is spaghetti squash and some butternut squash. So you wanna wait for a dry day. You don’t wanna really be doing this in the middle [00:09:00] of the rain, um, and you don’t wanna be scrubbing all of the dirt off. I will wipe mine off, um, with a spaghetti squash I’ll wipe it off with a vinegar-moistened paper towel to just get any excess dirt or moisture off.

[00:09:13] But the key thing is you wanna leave the stems on. This is especially important. The stem, if it’s removed, is going to allow oxygen in there, and it’s gonna break it down faster, and you’re gonna really shorten that storage shelf life. So stem on, and then- Keep it dry. We don’t wanna get it wet. And again, you’re gonna store it not in direct sunlight, but in a warm area.

[00:09:42] So this works really well. Spaghetti squash stores the longest for me. Believe it or not, this spaghetti squash I picked and cured at the end of August, so 11 months ago, and it has been sitting in, averaging about 65 to 70 degree Fahrenheit weather in our back [00:10:00] closet of our home, which is furthest away from our wood stove, which is our heat source.

[00:10:03] And that’s it. And it’s still totally fine and edible. So ideal storage conditions, this works well with spaghetti squash. And then this is some butternut squash, same thing, stems on, butternut squash that was done at the same time. You can do this also with pumpkin, Hubbards, acorn, um, pretty much any of your winter squash.

[00:10:23] Pumpkins will last, um, the shortest amount of time for me. They usually will go till about, I’ll harvest them end of September, beginning of October, and they will usually last through January, maybe February, and then some of them will start, start to get some spots and to break down. But still, that’s pretty good without doing anything to it.

[00:10:41] So your curing times for your winter squash, um, are gonna be anywhere from about 10 to 14 days, and ideally 80 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 to 85% humidity. So you’ll know when they are cured because this stem, as you can see here, will be dried. It won’t be green. It’s gonna [00:11:00] be brown, um, and dried out, but it’s still pretty hard.

[00:11:02] Like, and then also the skin. So here are nicks when it was being harvested and it was growing, and so those nicks will harden over. Um, they’ll kind of scar if there’s been any nicks on there. And then this outer skin, this outer rind, is gonna harden up and be really tough. So if I, like, push my fingernail in there, I can take my thumbnail and push into there, and it doesn’t leave any type of indent.

[00:11:25] It doesn’t pierce the skin. Those are all signs that it is cured and ready to move into storage. Now, again, especially the end of September, beginning of October, I do not have 80-degree weather. So I will let them go for about three weeks, or if it’s just really rainy and cold by that point, especially for my pumpkins, ’cause it takes the pumpkins and the butternut squash actually a little bit longer to ripen, I will move them indoors next to our wood stove, which is the warmest spot in the house, until they’ve reached those signs where they’ve scarred over, they’ve hardened up, stems are dry, and then move them back into [00:12:00] that cooler storage area for long term.

[00:12:02] So one of the other crops that benefits from curing for that long-term storage is gonna be your potatoes. So both sweet potatoes and your regular potatoes benefit from this. Now, there are definitely within your varieties of potatoes, there’s some long-term storage varieties. Even like I was mentioning with our winter squash, there’s some varieties that are gonna just last longer naturally.

[00:12:25] Same thing with your potatoes. So rough-its, uh, russets and some of those thicker-skinned potatoes are going to be better storage potatoes than some of your, you know, really, like the buttery, yellow, thin-skinned ones that are delicious, but they’re not going to store as long. So here I have got my potatoes, which are obviously nowhere near close to harvesting, so I can’t walk you through step-by-step on curing these.

[00:12:49] But similar principle, but when it comes to your potatoes, differences in temperature. So your sweet potatoes Those you need to cure, but you need [00:13:00] really high temps, which is why I cannot even grow them here in the Pacific Northwest. We’re just not warm enough. But your sweet potatoes are 80 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit with 80% humidity, and it takes about two weeks.

[00:13:12] Now, your non-sweet potatoes, so your regular potato varieties, they have different temperature requirements. So you’re gonna be curing them between 45 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit and 85 to 95% humidity. So they require a l- a lot more moisture in the air, uh, when you’re curing them. But the great thing is, is a lot of our potatoes, especially if we planted them in summer for a fall harvest, we don’t have super hot temps that time of year when it’s ready to begin harvesting them.

[00:13:40] So you can cure them, and usually it’s a little bit wetter and rainier for most places in the fall than it is in the summer. So that’s actually great for our potatoes. But the humidity and storage of your potatoes, even when they’re cured, and it’s same signs. Um, they’ll, the skin will harden up. If there’s any nicks, those will scar over to let you [00:14:00] know that they’re cured.

[00:14:01] But when it comes to the storage of your potatoes, um, without having an area that you can kind of control the humidity or somewhere that’s damp like a basement or a root cellar, I am not able to store my potatoes as long as my onions and my garlic and my winter squash. Those I can store an, for an entire year, uh, for most of them, with the exception of, like I said, the pumpkins don’t go quite as long.

[00:14:24] But the potatoes, without having the moisture, they will shrivel up, and then if they’re not kept cool during storage, then they tend to want to sprout. So I can store the potatoes usually about, usually around three months or so before they’ll either start to rot ’cause they get too warm, or they’ll super shrivel up ’cause they don’t have enough humidity.

[00:14:44] So I will either can them, um, or dehydrate them or something like that after that timeframe, so just for a little bit of reference. So the chart that I’ve been reading to you from is from The Family Garden Plan, my book, Grow a Year’s Worth of

[00:15:00] Sustainable and Healthy Food. And don’t forget, your download guide has all of the chart information, all of the temps and the times for you so you don’t have to try to have it all memorized.

[00:15:09] So you can print that out and have easy reference.

Download a PDF from this workshop video!