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Discover Dry Storage
| Article
# : |
14902 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1988 |
1,551 Words |
| Author
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Walter Chandoha
Walter Chandoha's pictures and articles have appeared in many
major magazines; and he has also written and illustrated
twenty-four books. |
Back when time seemed to be more plentiful, canning the garden's bounty was the rule rather than the exception. These days, with time at a premium, home canning and freezing are almost defunct. But there is practical alternative--dry storage.
Although many home gardens are "discovering": dry storage, it's not a new technique. Before the era of central heating and refrigeration, cellars, barns, garages, porches, and attics were used to store fall harvested crops for winter use. Some crops were even stored in the garden where they grew.
In-garden storage
Most root vegetables needn't be harvested: they can be stored in the ground where they've been growing. Cover carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips, Jerusalem artichokes, and horseradish with a foot-thick mulch of chopped leaves or straw, and harvest as required. The mulch keeps the ground from freezing and insulates the roots from the cold. An early snow will add more insulation and is a help rather than a hindrance. Mark the buried root crops with a stake. To harvest, shovel away the snow, then the mulch, dig up one week's supply, and re-cover the bed to protect the unharvested crops.
Potatoes can also be stored in the ground, but being more cold-sensitive, they need more insulation (1 ½ to 2 feet of mulch). In warm-weather states, where the ground doesn't freeze, root crops need not be mulched.
When hardy broccoli, kale, collards, and brussels sprouts are touched by the cold, their flavor is
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