Winter Storage

[archeryrob]

Anyone here have knowledge on long time storage of garden supplies?

Year before I kept sweet potatoes in the house and did fine, but cured them on a heat pad. they were fine in the spring. This past year I built garage storage boxes and did not heat cure them and they are all softer now.

Onions kept in the basement got to hot and sprouted. Got to try the garage for them now.

Butternut was great in fall and winter, but once soring started they grew white mold and it destroyed them? Wondering is a bleach spray would help or just need to can what you don't use in the winter. I love butternut stew, as I call it.

 

[Fueling Around]

Root cellar?
My uncle built a root cellar in his basement under the (normally wasted space) stairs. He enclosed and insulated the walls and ceiling. Attached an old refrigerator (door removed) to the back wall for cooling. Mounted fridge door to the front wall. Not sure what temp he held, but it stored items well.
No experience with sweet taters or hard squash. Hard onions (not sweet) will store fairly well.

I bring potatoes and carrots south in the fall. Limited options in an apartment.
Carrots will store for months in the regular fridge.
Potatoes I keep in a cooler with a ice pack suspended in the top. Reds don't store long, but russets and purple will store a long time in my cooler. Sorry no photo.

 

[ajbert]

Agree with Fueling Around. Another option would be canning them, unless you are planning to use them veggies to plant the next years crop. Root cellars have been around for a long, long time. They also were used, and may still be, as tornado cellars.