The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Graemscifi on November 19, 2013, 03:45:48 pm
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hello all, my first garden post this so hope you have some ideas. I am a keen if sadly lacking in knowlage veg and fruit gardener, i am slowly getting on top of the growing side for my unique climate here in caithness, but i am frustrated by how poorly my veg stores. This year my onions and garlic just rotted in the outbuilding i was keeping them. I find that i either have to freese everything which is expensive in power terms, and takes up space that could have my homegrowen meat in it, or leave in ground. For root veg that works ok for a time but is not ideal long term. my sister whos in New Zealand has been talking about canning???? anyone here doing that? any suggestions of books or the like or helpfull experiance would would be very much appreciated. i am game for building storage facilities if thats what i should do, i like a bit of slapdash home construction, i am currently building cold frames out of recycled windows and am considering a home made greenhouse.
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I'm glad you're enjoying your gardening - it's wonderful growing your own veg and fruit.
First point, onions etc: If onions are grown too damp then they won't store. I have taken to growing mine inside my polytunnel to keep the summer wet off them. They also hate being surrounded by weeds. Ideally, onions need a hot dry time to ripen before storage - can be hard to achieve in Scotland. There is some effect from the variety you grow too, some naturally storing better than others.
I keep looking for tips on how to store my veg over the winter, but most of them require a 'frost-free' garage ::) - what's one of those? Nothing matching that description in this part of Scotland. We have a number of sheds and stone buildings, but none is frost-free when it's really cold.
Different veg require a variety of storage conditions. For me the most surprising is squashes, which I now keep in a cool room indoors - the hall in fact, and they keep fine well into the new year.
Carrots I now grow inside my polytunnel, both to make it easier to keep them weed free and to keep them out of range of carrot root fly. I find they keep well if left in the ground, which I leave very dry. I wondered about covering them with straw but I'm sure the mice I seem to share my polytunnel with would simply be attracted by that.
Potatoes are always a problem to store for me, as these are the produce most usually meant to be stored in the mythical frost-free garage. I tend to leave them in the ground and accept there will be some frost and slug damage. One year I found a mouse nest inside a large dug-out potato! The first year we were here I built a straw bale container for them, a sort of indoor clamp - it kept them frost free but the mice got in and I also found it too much of a bother to dismantle the bales every time I needed some spuds.
I do freeze some veg, such as peas and beans, also cherry tomatoes which can be frozen whole and used a handful at a time. Mostly though I try to have year round crops, so brassicas, leeks etc in the winter, and all the summer favourites kept to the summer - gives you something to look forward to.
I've never tried canning/bottling. My mother used to store a lot of produce in Kilner jars, but every year she lost some when the seal failed. There is also a danger of botulism. They seem to be more into canning into tins in the US, so that's where to look for hints. I'm not sure where you would get canning equipment in the UK.
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My understanding is that most home 'canning' is done in kilner type jars rather than metal cans and is basically sterilising the contents of the jars in the jars in large boiling water baths and popping the lids and seals on so the partial vacuum that forms as they cool keeps the seal.
Jars and replacement seals are quite expensive and put me off bothering. Let alone the fuel costs to do it
beans, peas and sweetcorn I freeze. Last year was my first harvest and potatoes kept fine in sacks in the barn but the quantity we had got used up by mid january so not much of a test. I've got way way more stored this year so it'll be interesting to see how well it keeps for a full winter there.
I did chat with my 95yr old mum about how they managed when she was a girl living on a farm but she is a bit sketchy on soem of the details now. Dry cellars under the house was the tadiitional way of having a frost free place. Some stuff was salted or kept in strong brine, pickling of course - I pickled a load of french beans this year which are great. I think she said tomatoes were stored in isinglass like eggs used to be. Things like pulses would have been dried and quite a lot just naturally dessicated in such dry storage.
She insisted that whole boughs of cherries and plums could be kept in cool conditions through til christmas (suspended on string down a deep well)- which I find hard to believe. And then there's the rumtopfs of fruit.
Apparently they didn't bother doing anything in smaller than 5L jars.
They'd have also been out heavily gathering mushrooms and edible fungi this time of year which dry well and were kept hanging in muslin bags near the woodstove and the room above that would have been hot and dry for other storage.
I recall reading about chestnut harvesting - used to be ground into a type of flour - with the chestnut farming family i read about lving downstairs with a huge storage attic above with just a lattice ceiling to allow the downstairs fire's heat and ventilation through.... the smoke acting as pesticide.
Perhaps it's time to go talk to aged locals before we have to reinvent this stuff.
But it's also worth remembering that diets were based on soups, casseroles and stews and high calories for the manual labour and not necessarily as healthy a diet as folk want now..specially if they spend the day sitting in a heated tractor cab...
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Jars and replacement seals are quite expensive and put me off bothering. Let alone the fuel costs to do it
beans, peas and sweetcorn I freeze.
? freezers cost to run aswell.
We got a load of 500ml Kilner jars and screw tops from freecycle so only have to buy replacement lids each year ( I don;t re-use the lid discs). I store all my stuff in Kilner jars. At the moment we have got 30 litres of passata from this year's tomatoes which will keep until next year.
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I've just finished our last potatoes of the year (must plant more next year) and they've just been in a bag in the kitchen. Same with onions which have been on a tray and have been OK although if I'd had more, I'd have put them upstairs in our unheated top bedroom. I've got the garlic in the fridge. I grow the onions and garlic outside but we are in the driest part of the country and I do make sure they're ready to pick (tops completely dried) and I leave them out in the sun for a couple of days before storing.
Carrots and beetroot I think you're supposed to put in sand or something in a cool, dry place. I tried putting beetroot in our cellar last year but it really wasn't great - just wrinkled up - so I think too damp. I've just brought this year's crop in and have made about a gallon of Borscht, will pickle some and the rest will go in the top bedroom.
I've also got pumpkins and squashes in our hall - to the extent that my husband doesn't seem entirely happy with the arrangement. I've also tried them in the basement before but too damp.
Cabbages, Brussels, leeks and parsnips are still out and I hope will overwinter.
Beans have been frozen - and in theory peas would have been but I missed the slot.
If you've got an attic, that might be a good place to store things - my mum keeps all hers there - it tends to be cool but frost free because of the rising heat.
I've not tried canning except for pickling but it's somewhere on my 'to do' list - I suspect it wouldn't get eaten though.
H