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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] storing fruits and vegetables

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  • From: "Gwen Giffen" <ggiffen@1st.net>
  • To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] storing fruits and vegetables
  • Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:56:29 -0400

I live in Ohio. My family has lived in several homes where there were both root cellars and springhouses - both very moist and cool. One springhouse had a room built on it for that specific use, and there were no shelves for canning jars there. It was built for crates of vegetables. We have stored root vegetables in both successfully. You just have to do it right. Some root vegetables have to be laid in the sun until they have a waxy-like coating on them.

My oldest brother loves to grow potatoes. He also loves woodworking and has a lot of extra sawdust. He stores his potatoes in vats of sawdust, so they don't touch each other. One year he gave everyone their own big burlap sack full of potatoes for Christmas. They did not grow eyes on them as Art says, and they sure weren't rotton either. Some of the root vegetables do rot - that is why you store them in a manner where they don't touch each other, and you check them periodically and take the rotten ones out so the rot doesn't spread.

Gwen


Some of these articles on the internet may sound good but a lot of them are
only people repeating what they have read. When you have actually done that
you will see that a lot of this stuff doesn't work exactly like some are
saying. If you ever dig a cellar close to trees you will learn very quick
why they are called "Root Cellars".

First of all for about anything to keep for any length of time without being
canned or frozen it must first be air cured (dried) to some degree. This
goes for veggies, meats, fruits or anything else. You can dry just about
anything and it will keep a long time. You cannot keep anything in a damp
root cellar that is not sealed from the moisture. Potatoes, carrots, sweet
potatoes, and a lot of other things are not sealed from the moisture. Water
melons, and some of the other tough skinned veggies and fruits are sealed as
long as the skin is not punctured.

A lot of these people that publish some of this stuff simply do not know
what they are talking about. A root cellar is to protect foods that are
protected from moisture from freezing and that's it. Here in Arkansas they
are very often use to get out of the way of these stupid tornadoes.

Art in Arkansas




  • Re: [Livingontheland] storing fruits and vegetables, Gwen Giffen, 07/23/2006

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