Storing Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
by Anton S. Horn and Esther H. Wilson[18]
Many fruits and vegetables can be stored fresh. But the home gardener must gather them at proper maturity and observe correct temperature, humidity, ventilation, and cleanliness rules.
Basements or outdoor cellars can serve as temporary storage for some produce. A cellar mostly below ground is best for root vegetables. It can be run into a bank and covered with 2½ feet or more of soil. Sometimes outdoor root cellars are made with a door at each end. Combining the outdoor storage cellar with a storm shelter in the event of tornadoes or other needs may be a satisfactory solution.
Modern basements are generally too dry and warm for cool moist storage. However, a suitable storage room may be built by insulating walls and ceiling and ventilating through a basement window. You may ventilate by extending a ventilating flue from half of the window down almost to the floor. Cover the other half of the window with wood and the outside openings of the ventilator with a wire screen for protection against animals and insects.
Keep the room cool by opening the ventilators on cool nights and closing them on warm days. If properly cooled, the room temperature can be controlled between 32° and 40° F during winter. To maintain the humidity, sprinkle water on the floor when produce begins to wilt. A slatted floor and slatted shelves will provide floor drainage and ventilation. A reliable thermometer is needed for operation of any home storage room.
A cool corner in the basement, a back room of a small house with no basement, or a trailer may be suitable. One lady we know uses part of a closet built into the outside corner of a bedroom. It is also possible to adapt storage sheds in carports by insulating and proceeding as outlined earlier.
Pits and trenches or mounds may be used for storage if a root cellar is not available or basement storage is impractical. Also, you may bury a barrel, drainage tile, or galvanized garbage can upright, with four inches of the top protruding above ground level. This will keep potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, and apples through winter. For convenience, place the produce in sacks or perforated polyethylene bags of a size to hold enough for a few days. Then you can easily take out fruits and vegetables as needed.
Place the barrel on a well drained site, and make a ditch so surface water will be diverted and not run into the container. A garbage can has a good lid, but for a drainage tile or barrel a wooden lid may have to be built. The lid should be covered with straw, and a waterproof cover of canvas or plastic placed over the straw.
Requirements of fruits and vegetables differ. Controlled cold storage or refrigerated storage are best.
Good references are Storing Vegetables and Fruits in Basements, Cellars, Outbuildings, and Pits, USDA Home and Garden Bulletin No. 119, and bulletins on this subject prepared by your State Extension service. Your county Extension office may have the bulletins. This office may also be able to tell you how to obtain plans for a fruit and vegetable storage room, or a storm and storage cellar.
Brief notes on specific storage problems follow:
With proper care, hard-rind varieties of winter pumpkins and squash will keep for several months. Harvest before frost, and leave on a piece of stem when you cut them from the plants.
Store only well-matured fruits that are free of insect damage and mechanical injuries.
Pumpkins and squash for long-term storage keep better when cured for 10 days at 80° to 85° F. If these temperatures are impractical, put the pumpkins and squash near your furnace to cure them. Curing hardens the rinds and heals surface cuts. Bruised areas and pickleworm injuries, however, cannot be healed.
After curing pumpkins and squash, store them in a dry place at 55° to 60° F. If stored at 50° or below, pumpkins and squash are subject to damage by chilling. At temperatures above 60°, they gradually lose moisture and become stringy.
Acorn squash keep well in a dry place at 45° to 50° F for 35 to 40 days. Do not cure acorn squash before storing them. They turn orange, lose moisture, and become stringy if cured for 10 days at 80° to 85° or if stored at 55° or above for more than 6 to 8 weeks.
A dark green rind at harvest indicates succulence and good quality.
Do not store pumpkins and squash in outdoor cellars or pits.
Parsnips, Salsify, Horseradish can be left undug (stored) in the ground.
These vegetables withstand freezing, but alternate freezing and thawing damages them. If you store them in the ground, mulch lightly at the end of the growing season. Keep them covered until outdoor temperatures are consistently low. Then remove the mulch to permit thorough freezing. After they have frozen, mulch deep enough to keep them frozen.
Some fruits and vegetables can be stored outdoors in a partially buried galvanized garbage can or wooden barrel.
waterproof cover straw drainage ditch garbage can or wooden barrel