EcoRenovator - View Single Post

Ryland · 04-21-09, 02:47 PM

keep them cool and dry, eat the damage ones first, keep apples and vegies in different rooms/fridges/ice chests as some vegies off gas in ways that attack and rot others, so find out what gets along and what does not, sort veggies and use the sad looking ones right away, don't let a single bad apple spoil the batch.
Potatoes like being dark, dry and cool, like the dirt they came out of, don't scrub them but do clean them with water, store them in wood, paper or open top plastic baskets, just make sure they can breath and are in a dark cool place, we keep them in a root celler that is about 50 degrees.
Onions are also in the root celler, tied or braided in to twine by their stems to keep them spaced out from each other and to keep them from resting on any one side, they hang that way and tend to keep until end of april or early may when green winter onions start coming up, thus you have onions year round.
squash is warmer and drier, but still in the dark basement kept in a pallet so air can move all around it and with a few mouse traps near, they are left in the sun for a few weeks to "cure" then washed with a soap and vinigar to kill mold, hey last all winter as well, still have a few left.
Dry beens are any been that you let reach full maturity, green beens and wax beens turn purple in the pod if you let them, but just like kidney beens, you let them dry on the plant until the husk gets tan and dry, pick them, shell them out of the pod and let them sit out to dry for a week or more, baking them in a warmed oven for a few hours will make them last many years in a jar otherwise just air drying they should last a year or more and will still sprout so you can reuse a hand full of them as seed, oven drying them will kill them as seed.
Apples, Carrots and Cabbage can be kept in the fridge, but they do not get along well long term, so pick up a few good ice chest coolers and a simple remote sensor thermometer, use these coolers as fridges, one for each type of veggie or fruit, try to keep them as cool as possible without freezing, if they get above 40F set them out side on a cool night, once they get down to 33F or so bring them back in the garage or some other mildly heated space, much cheaper then another fridge.

04-21-09, 02:47 PM	#11
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	keep them cool and dry, eat the damage ones first, keep apples and vegies in different rooms/fridges/ice chests as some vegies off gas in ways that attack and rot others, so find out what gets along and what does not, sort veggies and use the sad looking ones right away, don't let a single bad apple spoil the batch. Potatoes like being dark, dry and cool, like the dirt they came out of, don't scrub them but do clean them with water, store them in wood, paper or open top plastic baskets, just make sure they can breath and are in a dark cool place, we keep them in a root celler that is about 50 degrees. Onions are also in the root celler, tied or braided in to twine by their stems to keep them spaced out from each other and to keep them from resting on any one side, they hang that way and tend to keep until end of april or early may when green winter onions start coming up, thus you have onions year round. squash is warmer and drier, but still in the dark basement kept in a pallet so air can move all around it and with a few mouse traps near, they are left in the sun for a few weeks to "cure" then washed with a soap and vinigar to kill mold, hey last all winter as well, still have a few left. Dry beens are any been that you let reach full maturity, green beens and wax beens turn purple in the pod if you let them, but just like kidney beens, you let them dry on the plant until the husk gets tan and dry, pick them, shell them out of the pod and let them sit out to dry for a week or more, baking them in a warmed oven for a few hours will make them last many years in a jar otherwise just air drying they should last a year or more and will still sprout so you can reuse a hand full of them as seed, oven drying them will kill them as seed. Apples, Carrots and Cabbage can be kept in the fridge, but they do not get along well long term, so pick up a few good ice chest coolers and a simple remote sensor thermometer, use these coolers as fridges, one for each type of veggie or fruit, try to keep them as cool as possible without freezing, if they get above 40F set them out side on a cool night, once they get down to 33F or so bring them back in the garage or some other mildly heated space, much cheaper then another fridge.