Advice for storing root veg through winter

[Nikki Arnold]

Share your advice for storing root veg here and you could be in with a chance of winning a prize!

Our favourite tips from this thread will be printed in the October issue of GYO magazine and the winning grapes will each be awarded a £10 Thomson & Morgan voucher.
(Tips must be posted before midnight on the 2nd August 2012 to be considered).

Looking forward to reading your posts!

Best wishes from
Nikki & the GYO team

[soladragon]

I just leave them in the ground the pull them as I need them

[VirginVegGrower]

Well in a normal year I would have my old potatoes (maincrops) in hessian bags somewhere cool. But this year my usual plan for harvesting in September, where I would cut down the dying haulms, leaving potatoes to set skins underground for two weeks, won't be happening as my plot suffered blight. My celeriac is polytunnel planted and hopefully this means I will get larger spheres to keep overwintering and pick as required. I will be covering them with straw again to protect the crowns, something I do every year. All onions bolted this year, so no storers for me, instead they are chopped and frozen ready to use. For those more successful than myself this year, the soil/straw clamp method works wonders.

[Peas'n'Kews]

I too have left my parsnips in the soil - if you want to be sure of getting 'em out again on Xmas day, you need to cover them in fleece or straw and black plastic while the soil is still unfrozen....

I have stored carrots in a sand box, and found that the fatter carrots store best.

Apples are stored in the garden shed (frost free) in those cardboard trays the supermarkets get their fruit in. This both keeps the apples separate, to stop rot/disease spreading, and keeps them warm. I have eaten last years apples right up to March of the following year.

As soon as I have enough land and enough veg I'll be experimenting with a clamp!

[redser]

I'm going to reuse any old potting compost from baskets and planters as a substitute for sand.

[Alison]

Potatoes in hessian sacks in the garage but everything else (carrots, swede, parsnips etc) are left in the ground. Pull up what I need for the following week every weekend and they keep very well. I've tried storing carrots in sand etc but find that they're much more crispy in the ground. Sometimes you have to chisel but that's part of the fun . If the weather is very bad you sometimes get frost damage near the surface but that's easy to remove and you have the added advantage of not having to find anywhere special to store.

[binley100]

Beetroot gets frozen either cooked and peeled (for beetroot and chocolate cake) or peeled and grated (for my beetroot and mint jelly) , parsnips generally stay in the ground unless there is the chance of bad frost in which case they are peeled frozen in chunks ready for chucking into hot oil for roasting. I have some potato sacks from a chippy to store tatties in . Anything else would stay in the ground.
Have heard of people burying a dustbin (one with a clip on lid) and packing it with straw to store roots in.

[Rhona]

We use thick paper flour sacks for potatoes
Pumpkins and squash stacked on open shelves in the shed (might be the spare room this year though)
Onions and garlic plaited and hung on nails in the shed
Shallots in small baskets. Shed again.
Parsnips, leeks and celeriac we'll leave in the ground, like VVG with straw over the crowns.
Herbs hanging up around any bit of the shed not already answered for, to be crumbled into jars
Fruit into freezer mainly
Never had to worry about storing carrots as I'm incapable of growing anything other than about four fly-infested stumps every year.

[Kestrel]

Garlic and onions are left to dry, plaited and look great hungs up in the kitchen, easy to access too.
Potatoes go in cardboard boxes in an old (now defunct) outside lav.
Parsnips and leeks stay in the ground.
Have only ever had success with small summer Chantenay carrots, so storage has never been an issue as the local shops look after my winter supply.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Apologies Nikki, don't know how I managed to miss this thread a whole month ago. Beetroot can be stored in boxes in sand in an airy frost free place. Just twist of the foliage a couple of inches above the root. It will also be ok left in the soil if there is no frost. I've been known to dig a hole, line it with fleece, put the beetroot in the hole, cover again with fleece and then cover with a minimum of 6" of soil to protect from frost. It keeps very well that way. Only problem can be if it is frosty, it can be difficult to get at the beetroot to use it. There's also the forgetful squirrel syndrome and the possibility of forgetting where the beetroot has been stored. Push a cane into the ground beside the beetroot to avoid that problem. Carrots can be stored in the same ways and of course can be blanched and frozed.

As a grower of spuds for exhibition, I frequently have builders bags full of used compost sitting ready to be used as a soil improver in the springtime. Ideal for storing root veg in the centre of the bag. Parsnips are best left in the ground as they actually benefit from a touch of frost improving the flavour. Likewise with swedes.

Spuds need to be kept frost free and do well in an old fashioned clamp(which really is what the beet are stored in as referred to above). They can also be store in hessian or stout paper bags or cardboard boxes. Best stored in the dark to prevent them greening.

[john115]

Here is my blog post on storing fresh vegetables, hope you find it informative.