How to Store Garden Vegetables

Have as well many garden vegetables to consume? Common cold storage, freezing, drying, pickling, and canning are just a few ways to make your bounty last. With these techniques, yous'll save money on food, boost your nutrition during the winter, and keep your veggies all the way to bound —here's how!

How to Shop Carrots

Carrots are 1 of the easiest vegetables to store. You lot have several methods to choose from:

• Refrigerator: if you have a 2nd fridge or extra infinite, y'all can store them at that place for up to iii months with the following steps:

• Preparation: cut off the stems, castor off excess dirt (don't wash them), and permit the carrots dry out in an airy place for a day.

• Storage: put them in the vegetable drawer with dry paper towels beneath them. Check the paper towels every week and replace them if they're damp.

• In Sand: y'all can store carrots for 3-4 months in a saucepan or crate of sand in a cool location with the following steps:

• Preparation: cut off stems and brush off garden soil (but don't launder them).

• Storage: Lay 2 inches of sand at the lesser of the container, followed by a row of carrots (non as well crowded). Then add ane inch of sand followed by another row of carrots until the container is full. Keep them at 32-40F in a basement, root cellar, garage, or clamber space. Annotation: don't seal a lid on superlative of the bucket, but identify information technology on loosely to let the carrots exhale.

• Freezing, Fermenting, and Canning: blanched carrots, carrot soup, pickled carrots, or canned carrots are all reliable and delicious ways to keep carrots for months.

How to Store Onions

Y'all tin cure, dry, and store garden onions throughout the Chicago winter with the post-obit steps:

• Preparation: brush off soil and lay out onions at room temperature for ii weeks to cure.

• Storage: cut away withered stems and identify bulbs in a mesh bag, perforated cardboard box, or something similar. Keep them in a dark, absurd place at 35-40F.

Annotation: only pungent onions can be stored with this method. Sweet onions have too much moisture for long-term storage, although they tin be cooked and frozen.

How to Store Potatoes

Potatoes are another easy vegetable to store as long as you keep them absurd and dark—hither's how.

• Preparation: brush off excessive soil and lay them out to cure in a dark room for 2 weeks at 50-60F.

• Storage: shop them in a perforated cardboard box, burlap sack, or well-ventilated bag (non plastic) in a dark room betwixt twoscore-50F. They should last for many months, simply bank check them periodically to ensure none are going moldy.

How to Store Lettuce

Lettuce is one garden vegetable you lot need to eat when it's fresh, but in that location are means to preserve information technology in the fridge for 6-viii days:

• Dunk the lettuce in cold water after harvesting.
• Keep information technology in a plastic purse away from fruit, which gives off gas that can shorten the shelf life of vegetables.

How to Shop Beets

Store garden beets in the same style you store carrots: in the fridge or in sand (see to a higher place), canned, blanched and frozen, or fermented. Pickled beets are an particularly tasty way to preserve them.

How to Shop Kale, Collards, and Swiss Chard

• Freeze them: you tin can cook these powerhouse greens into soups or sauces and freeze them. Or, you can freeze kale and collards without cooking or blanching—merely pop them into the freezer in a ziplock bag and they'll last for months.
• Dry out them: they'll dry in the oven at 150F in two hours or less. Afterwards, you'll accept highly nutritious flakes to add to smoothies, stews, sauces, and stir chips throughout the wintertime.

How to Store Tomatoes

• Sauce and Freeze: skip the refrigerator when it comes to this garden veggie, as chilled tomatoes plow mealy in a day or ii. The best option is to melt ripe tomatoes into sauces or other dishes that you can freeze.
• Green Tomatoes: green garden tomatoes last for months nether the correct conditions. Wash and store them in a cardboard box in a cool, dry surface area at 50-60F. Ensure they take air apportionment and that no tomato is touching another. When you want to swallow one, take it out and let it ripen at room temperature.

Final Tips on How to Shop Garden Vegetables

• Remove any bruised or damaged garden vegetables before storage, as they volition chop-chop rot.
• Check your stored goods periodically, so that if i veggie spoils, you can remove information technology and however salvage the balance.

Platt Loma Nursery is Chicago's premier garden center and nursery in the Chicagoland expanse.

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Source: https://platthillnursery.com/how-to-store-your-harvest/

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