[langdon]

hi sam  clammping sounds good but what do you mean exactly by rinsing after putting sand over veg?
surley not pouring over water just to repeat the same again?
not trying to be smart ere, just interested in the same thing as we got loads.
thanks langdon

[northfifeduckling]

mice (and rats) are amazing acrobats on the lookout for food - I watched one in our kitchen last year walking up at the side of the shelf, then jumping onto a bag I had on the top hook where I hid the kids' chocolates! On its way it had nibbled at several cookery books from the back  So much for storing high...Now everything is in glass jars or metal boxes, but beware of the tiniest gap under the lid - they can squeeze into holes the diameter of  pencil! I was quite cross with the cat at the time , a brilliant mouser outdoors, useless in the house

[Blonde]

hanging onions and garlic in the shed is ot a problem  but you  need to put a tin plate above the onions and have a tiny whole thorugh it so you can  put the wire and then when the rodents come down the wire they land on the tin plate and dont get to the produce underneath.  The Italians use this method  kwhen they are doing their sausges and this prevents vermin form getting to them 

[ballingall]

Fleecewife- I know this now a while ago you were talking about this- but I do have a spare chest freezer that isn't working if you are still looking for one.


Beth

[Fleecewife]

Thank you Beth but I found a sneakier place to store the potatoes - in the granny flat (in hessian sacks on a tarp).  It's cool and frost free, and my aunt (not granny) doesn't use it in the winter - and what she doesn't see she won't know about  .  It has worked well this winter for tatties, but I lost all the beetroot still in the ground when the hard frosts hit so early last year. (doganjo - OH doesn't like vinegar with his beetroot - prefers it freshly cooked  ). 
Carrots I left in the dry ground in the tunnel and most have survived very well and are still edible - just a few left to eat this weekend. Rodents didn't get them, nor frost, but a few dried out too much to use.  The rest still taste wonderfully carroty 

Onions just freeze in the shed.  I like the tin plate idea although I think our vermin are too acrobatic for it to work 100%.  I had a slightly different problem with the alliums this year in that although I dried them thoroughly in the sun, and cleaned them up before storage, quite a lot didn't make it to January as they developed mould/rotting under the skins.  A few were at the necks, but mostly fairly widespread under the top layer of skin - which looked ok until I cut into them.  This applied to shallots as well as onions, but not garlic which has been excellent.
For the onions, I had tried growing them through black weed suppressing fabric and I wonder if that somehow contributed to the rotting.  I am doing the same this year but I will be more diligent at making sure the holes are big enough so the onions are not hiding under the fabric, rather than on top which they should be.

So, another year and another go at finding the best storage methods - I love it 

[Blonde]

Thank you Beth but I found a sneakier place to store the potatoes - in the granny flat (in hessian sacks on a tarp).  It's cool and frost free, and my aunt (not granny) doesn't use it in the winter - and what she doesn't see she won't know about  .  It has worked well this winter for tatties, but I lost all the beetroot still in the ground when the hard frosts hit so early last year. (doganjo - OH doesn't like vinegar with his beetroot - prefers it freshly cooked  ). 
Carrots I left in the dry ground in the tunnel and most have survived very well and are still edible - just a few left to eat this weekend. Rodents didn't get them, nor frost, but a few dried out too much to use.  The rest still taste wonderfully carroty 

Onions just freeze in the shed.  I like the tin plate idea although I think our vermin are too acrobatic for it to work 100%.  I had a slightly different problem with the alliums this year in that although I dried them thoroughly in the sun, and cleaned them up before storage, quite a lot didn't make it to January as they developed mould/rotting under the skins.  A few were at the necks, but mostly fairly widespread under the top layer of skin - which looked ok until I cut into them.  This applied to shallots as well as onions, but not garlic which has been excellent.
For the onions, I had tried growing them through black weed suppressing fabric and I wonder if that somehow contributed to the rotting.  I am doing the same this year but I will be more diligent at making sure the holes are big enough so the onions are not hiding under the fabric, rather than on top which they should be.

So, another year and another go at finding the best storage methods - I love it 

The other idea you can use is an old paint  tin lid, put two holes in the centre and suspend the vegies underneath it by the use of wire being  put thorugh the middle  holes and being tied by a length of say 18 inches from  rafters of the shed for garage.   Vermin dont go down the fine wire and land on the lid and they certainly dont get under the lid to the food below.  Sausages that hand all year to mature are fine at the end of the year and ready for human consumption

[Hermit]

I have left the carrots in the ground again and they are still 90% good.

[Blonde]

If you leave the carrots in the ground for too long they go woody and also go to seed.   You can for a short period of time that is fine,  better to sow a row and a few weeks later sow another row and as you use them up sow another row.

[Fleecewife]

Carrots are ok stored for the winter in the ground in a tunnel where it is dry.  Once the foliage has died down for winter they don't deteriorate further.  Mine are just now beginning to sprout new growth so I need to use them or lose them 

[northfifeduckling]

if I leave them in I tend to find only one's with lots of carrot fly holes...beetroot was all eaten by mice or similar - the foliage was still intact and lovely - but no root 

[Blonde]

if I leave them in I tend to find only one's with lots of carrot fly holes...beetroot was all eaten by mice or similar - the foliage was still intact and lovely - but no root 

Well you learn something everyday

[Fleecewife]

if I leave them in I tend to find only one's with lots of carrot fly holes...beetroot was all eaten by mice or similar - the foliage was still intact and lovely - but no root 

Probably best not to store them in the soil then, as you must have a carrot root fly problem (don't we all  ).  Leaving them in the soil will just provide an overwintering haven for them and they will be waiting in the spring to attack your new crops - grr!.  It's like with brassicas, where you still have last years crops in the ground when you are sowing the new ones, so pests can hop straight from one to the other.  I really only left my carrots in because the winter came so suddenly and so early this time that I hadn't had tiome to dig them up.  My beetroot were lost to frost before the mice could get them.  Every year I tell myself I will get it right next time - I might get that for my headstone  'she tried hard - maybe she'll get it right next time around'

[OhLaLa]

Carrot Root Fly - this is what I do and I get a nice carrot crop every time:

Plant the carrot seed using a raised bed (or container) system. Make sure the level of the soil is about 5" lower than the 'rim'. Carrot fly will miss the carrot bed totally. You will never have holes in your carrots again.

  

[ellied]

Has anyone managed to store their beetroots successfully over this winter without pickling in vinegar?  I want to plant a lot this year as they're one of my favourite veg along with broccoli, but I like it baked rather than pickled

[northfifeduckling]

I've not tried it but isn't the sand storage method supposed to work for all root veg?