Putting Food By - Janet Greene [192]
Warning: pears that have started ripening above 75 F/24 C during the interim between picking and storage, or are root-cellared at too high a temperature, will spoil, often breaking down or rotting inside near the core while the outside looks sound.
Root-Cellaring Vegetables
Root-cellared vegetables freeze sooner than fruits do, as a rule; and, if you store a variety beyond the commonest root crops—beets, carrots, potatoes, turnips, and rutabagas—you need several different kinds of storage conditions. See the chart again, and the individual instructions below.
Wooden crates and movable bins, splitwood baskets, stout cartons—all make good containers for indoor storage. Insulating and layering materials are straw, hay, clean leaves, sphagnum and peat moss, and dry sand. The moist sand suggested for certain vegetables shouldn’t be at all puddly-wet: if it’s cold to the touch and falls apart when squeezed, leaving a few particles stuck to your hand, it should be the right degree of dampness.
Don’t fill containers so deeply that the produce at the bottom is ignored in the periodic examinations for spoilage. And forgo building permanent bins that can’t be moved outside for between-season scrubbing and sunning—stout shelving for the containers at convenient heights off the floor is a much better use of storage space.
Beans (Shell), Dried
Cool the finished beans and package in plastic bags which you then put in large, covered, insect- and mouse-proof containers. See chart for conditions.
Beets
Harvest in late fall after nights are 30 F/–1 C (they withstand frosts in the field) but when the soil is dry. Do not wash. Leave tails and ½ inch of crown when removing the tops. Pack in bins, boxes, or crates between layers of moist sand, peat, or moss; or bag like Carrots in the largest size of food-grade plastic freezer bags; cut ½-inch breathing holes in about 12 places. See chart.
Incidental intelligence: A noted Shaker cook always bakes her large beets (then takes off their tips and tails, peels them, cuts them for serving): she says they retain their juiciness and flavor best this way. Try it!
Cabbage, Late
Cabbage is not harmed by freezing in the field if it’s thawed slowly in moist sand in the root cellar and not allowed to refreeze. Late cabbage can be stored effectively in several ways. (1) Roots and any damaged outer leaves are removed and the heads are wrapped closely in newspaper before being put in bins or boxes in an outdoor root cellar (the odor is more noticeable when they are wrapped than when covered with sand or soil). (2) With roots removed, the heads are covered with moist soil or sand in a bin in the root cellar. (3) In pit storage, stem and root are left on and they are placed head-side down. Straw, hay, or clean, dry leaves may be packed between the heads for added protection and the whole business covered with soil. (4) The outer leaves are removed and cabbages are hung upside down in a dry place at normal room temperature for several days or until they “paper over.” Then they are hung upside down in the root cellar.
Warning: cabbages have one of the strongest odors of all vegetables, so don’t store them where the smell can waft through the house. See chart.
Carrots
Carrots may stay in the garden after the first frosts. After digging, handle like Beets. See chart for conditions.
Cauliflower
Another hardy vegetable that can withstand early frosts. Cut off the root and leave plenty of protecting outer leaves; store in boxes or baskets with loose moist sand around and covering the heads. See chart for conditions.
Celery
Celery should not be stored near turnips and cabbages, which taint its flavor.
Pull the plant, root and all; leave the tops on. Do not wash. Place the roots firmly in moist sand or soil, pressing it well around the roots. Water the covered roots to keep them moist but do not water the leaves.
The procedure for celery may be followed in a trench, a coldframe bed, or in a corner of the root-cellar floor that has been partitioned off to a height of 6 inches.