COLD STORAGE: KEEPING VEGETABLES FRESH ALL WINTER

COLD STORAGE: KEEPING VEGETABLES FRESH
ALL WINTER
Cold storage is an old-fashioned but time-tested
method for keeping raw, whole vegetables through
the winter. If you've planted a big vegetable garden
and if you've got (or can construct) the storage space,
storing can be the most practical way to go.
You'll find many vegetables from your garden
well-suited to cold storage, including beets, carrots,
onions, parsnips, potatoes, pumpkins, sweet
potatoes, turnips, winter squash, and many others.
For a complete list, see "Directions for storing
vegetables," later in this chapter. Other vegetables
should be used fresh or preserved. Vegetables that
are not suitable for cold storage include asparagus,
fresh shelling beans, green beans, chayote, corn,
cucumbers, eggplant, fresh greens — beet greens,
chard, cress, dandelion, endive, lettuce, mustard,
and sorrel — fresh lentils, mushrooms, okra, green
onions, fresh peas and chick peas, fresh peanuts,
new potatoes, radishes, rhubarb, fresh soybeans,
spinach and New Zealand spinach, summer
squash, and ripe tomatoes. Shelled dried beans,
lentils, peas and chick peas, soybeans, and dried
peanuts can be kept up to one year in cold storage.
Late-ripening and maturing vegetables are the
best choices for cold storage. Certain varieties take
better to this method than others — late cabbage,
for example. Check seed catalogs and packets before
you buy and plant, and talk to the specialists at your
County or State Extension Service Office. They can
help you decide what vegetables to plant when
you're planning your garden, and what storage
methods work best in your area.
How cold storage works
Like any other method of food preservation, cold
storage keeps food from decomposing by stopping or
slowing down the activity of enzymes, bacteria,
yeasts, and microbes that can eventually spoil food. In
cold storage, this is done by keeping fresh, raw,
whole vegetables at temperatures between 32°F and
40°F. In this range, the food won't freeze, but it stays
cold enough to stop the spoilers. The length of storage
time varies with each vegetable, from a few weeks
for broccoli or cauliflower to four to six months for
potatoes. Dried beans and peas will keep the
longest —10 to 12 months.
One of the advantages of storing your vegetables
is that you don't risk eating unwholesome, spoiled
food. If the food goes bad, you can tell almost
immediately by the way it looks, smells, or feels. But
there's still a lot to learn about storage. For
example, squash have to be kept warmer than do
carrots, so these two vegetables can't be stored In
the same spot. Or, if you plan to keep cabbages or
turnips, don't store them indoors in the basement;
you'll soon find their strong, distinctive odor
penetrating up into the house. And, if you live in a
climate where heavy snow is common in winter,
outdoor storage of vegetables in mounds or barrels
isn't going to be practical for you, because deep snow
will make them inaccessible In winter.
Although storing vegetables may sound easy, it's
a lot more complex than at first meets the eye.
Although you don't have to do any chopping,
blanching, or processing of vegetables to be stored,
each vegetable does have to be handled in a special
manner. Perhaps the trickiest part of all is that you've
got to keep a weather eye on your stored food.
Since the temperature of cold storage depends on the
temperature outdoors, you may sometimes have to
move or change the location of stored vegetables,
open windows or vents, or adjust the humidity
level. When storing food indoors, keep a
thermometer as well as a humidity gauge in the
storage area so you can accurately monitor
temperature and moisture conditions.
Because it's harder to control the temperature of
stored food, spoilage can happen more easily than
with any other form of food preservation. Routine
checks for spoilage will help you prevent food losses
when storing vegetables indoors — but, once you
open up an outdoor mound or barrel, you'll have to
empty it of all the stored vegetables at once.
Storage methods for vegetables
Before the days of refrigerators, freezers, and
supermarkets, most families depended on cold
storage to keep a supply of vegetables all year long.
In colonial times, a certain portion of every harvest
was kept in cool caves or in straw-lined pits that
could withstand freezing temperatures. In later times,
most houses were built to include root cellars or
cold, damp basements intended as storage areas.
These chilly spots were perfect for keeping root
vegetables, celery, pumpkin, squash, potatoes, arid
other vegetables through the cold months.
Compared to houses of a century ago, our
modern dwellings are snug, warm, and dry. Today,
very few homes offer the cool, damp basement
corners, outdoor sheds, or attics that formerly served
as food storage areas. That means you'll have to
plan, and perhaps construct, one or more special
spots for cold storage of your garden's bounty —
particularly if you plan to store a variety of
vegetables.
In milder climates, where fros^t is infrequent and
doesn't penetrate too deeply, vegetables can be kept
in specially prepared outdoor locations. In colder
areas, you'll have to store the vegetables indoors as an
extra precaution against freezing. In the directions
for storing vegetables that follow, you'll find the
proper storage method for each vegetable.