_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.
[Illustration: 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