November 11, 2025 • 20 mins
The frost has settled, most of the garden has gone to sleep, and now we’re turning our attention to what’s left — the fruits (and roots) of our labor.
I’m talking about how to store and preserve that late-season harvest, so all your hard work continues to pay off well into winter.
Today on Just Grow Something We’ll look at how long certain crops can remain in the garden, essentially in storage mode before you truly have to bring them inside, best practices for storing roots and late fall greens, and preservation options that retain nutrition and flavor.
Let’s dig in!
Resources:
Preparing to Preserve: Basic Canning Supplies for Beginners - Ep. 211: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/preparing-to-preserve-basic-canning-supplies-for-beginners-ep-211
Ep. 109 - Preserving, Part One: Freezing: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/ep-109-preserving-part-one-freezing
Ep. 110 - Preserving Basics, Part Two: Water-Bath Canning: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/ep-110-preserving-basics-part-two-water-bath-canning
Ep. 111 - Preserving Basics, Part Three: Pressure Canning: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/ep-111-preserving-basics-part-three-pressure-canning
Ep. 113 – Dehydrating, Cold Storage, and Fermenting: More Ways to Store Your Harvest: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/ep-113-dehydrating-cold-storage-and-fermenting-more-ways-to-store-your-harvest
Getting Started in Fermenting - Ep. 160: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/episode/getting-started-in-fermenting-ep-160
National Center for Home Food Preservation: https://nchfp.uga.edu/
Get my weekly newsletter: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/news
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
So we are just about to the midpoint of November.
For most of us, the frost has started to settle in regularly
in the garden. Most of the garden has gone to
sleep and now we are turning ourattention to what's left, which
is the fruits and the roots of our labor.
I'm talking about how to store and preserve that late season
(00:20):
harvest so that all of our hard work continues to pay off for us
well into winter. Today I'm just grow something.
We're going to look at how long certain crops can remain in the
garden essentially in storage mode before you truly have to
bring them inside. Best practices for storing your
roots and your late fall greens,and then some preservation
(00:42):
options that are going to retainthe nutrition and the flavor.
If you really don't have enough room in the fridge or in a
basement to store a lot of thesethings, let's dig in.
Hey, I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20
years ago turned into a lifelongpassion for growing food.
Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
(01:03):
you do the same. On this podcast I am your friend
in the garden, teaching evidencebased techniques to help you
grow your favourites and build confidence in your own garden
space. So grab your.
Garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to just
grow something. So honestly, it's kind of sad to
say, but food waste is actually sort of a hidden garden problem.
(01:28):
Like after all of that hard work, nothing hurts more than
going into, you know, your storage and pulling out a mushy
carrot or a moldy onion. So we really want to make sure
that we are preparing ourselves appropriately for the proper
storage because that's going to extend the shelf life.
It's going to reduce that waste.And it gives us access to our
(01:53):
own homegrown produce even when there's like a foot of snow
outside in the middle of the winter time, right?
The cool thing about a lot of our late fall stuff is that
things can actually be stored out in the garden.
And I'm using the term stored loosely, but the reason I say
stored is because a lot of thesethings aren't going to be
(02:14):
actively growing while they're sitting out there.
After a certain time in the season, as a day length begins
to decrease, that means the growth of our plants also starts
to decrease. And at some point, they
basically just kind of sit into a sort of stasis, right?
And so especially once we get down below what we call that
Persephone period was, which is where the day length is shorter
(02:37):
than 10 hours per day, nothing'sreally growing or it's growing
at a very minuscule rate. So one of the benefits is we can
get a lot of these crops to their mature size and leave them
in the garden to be able to harvest off of them for an
extended period of time. Now, depending on where you
live, there are certain things that do really well with this.
(03:00):
If you're in really, really coldzones, zones, oftentimes you're
very limited on the things that you can do this with and you
really have to do a lot of row covers and, and plastics.
And so it's not really worth it to you at that point.
It's better just to bring it in.But if you're in a more moderate
climate, there are a lot of things that you can keep out
there. Hardy greens specifically.
(03:20):
So kale and spinach and collards, they don't mind being
out there after a frost or multiple frosts.
I have overwintered kale and spinach very successfully out in
the gardens with very minimal row cover.
One simple frost cloth is reallyall it took, and I was able to
(03:40):
go out there and harvest off of those plants all winter long.
And then in the spring, those plants immediately bounced back
with their growth and I had an early spring harvest of those
grains. So that was fantastic.
But there are other leafy greensthat maybe could use a little
bit extra protection and they still will continue to survive
for a little while. So lettuce or arugula and Shard
(04:04):
can absolutely continue going, especially if you're in an area
where the frosts are very infrequent early in the season.
That's kind of where we are in West Central Missouri.
As we've gotten a little bit warmer over the seasons, our
frosts have showed up a little bit later.
Our normal first frost date in the fall used to be right around
(04:27):
the 15th or 20th of October, andnow this year I didn't
experience the first frost in mygarden until Halloween.
It was overnight October 31st into November 1st.
Then before I saw my first frost, which is absolutely
unheard of, and then immediatelylater that that same week, it
bumped up to 70° during the weekand it was fully sunny.
(04:51):
And so we're not seeing a bunch of frosts right now.
So it's super easy for those plants to be able to be out in
that environment with just very light cover and then be
uncovered for a while. And then just me keep an eye out
for when the next frost might hit.
If you're in an area that's evenwarmer than I am, then often
times you don't even have to worry about covers at all with
(05:12):
some of these things until you really start to get into, you
know, the, the, the heaviest or the coldest part of winter other
than greens. We also have root crops that can
be stored in the ground until that ground begins to freeze
solid. So again, if you are in one of
(05:32):
the colder zones further north in the northern hemisphere, then
you might be pulling these cropsearlier than what I would be.
But it still means that these are the last things that you
necessarily need to harvest. And you can extend that a little
bit by adding those layers, years of heavy mulch.
So straw mulch is great for things like beets and carrots
(05:55):
and turnips and parsnips to keepthat soil just warm enough where
you still have the ability to beable to dig in there and harvest
those things as needed. And then once you get down to an
area like mine, you know, our ground doesn't really start to
freeze solid until like sometimein December, maybe late
(06:18):
December. And so I can honestly keep those
crops out there in the garden aslong as the garden soil is
fairly loose. Like, you know, if you have
very, very tight soil, this isn't going to work as well.
But because we have, you know, amended our soil really well,
and also because I'm growing it a lot in the raised beds, the
soil is loose enough to be able to do this.
(06:39):
The one thing that you do have to worry about is if you are in
raised beds, knowing that the volume of soil that's in those
beds is obviously less than whatit is in the ground.
Duh. But it's, it means it's going to
freeze earlier than what the soil in your in ground gardens
is going to. So that is something that you
have to pay attention to, OK, how early is that soil freezing?
(07:01):
But in most instances, again, aslong as you've got some
insulation, these things can be held in the ground until it
begins to freeze solid. And you can extend that by using
heavy straw mulch. Essentially, you have a garden
refrigerator. OK, So then once we get to the
stage where these things absolutely need to be harvested
(07:22):
or if they're things that you have harvested earlier in the
season, what types of conditionsdo we need in order to be able
to keep these going without that, you know, feeling of
disappointment of going into your root cellar or your
basement or whatever and grabbing a potato that has gone
to mush, right? Most root crops like conditions
(07:43):
that are going to mimic a root cellar.
So we want something that's around 32 to 40°F, OK, and
higher humidity. So this is for things like
carrots and beets and turnips, like they like like a 95%
humidity level. Potatoes also like this
temperature and this this humidity as well.
(08:05):
If we're looking at onions and garlic and like our winter
squashes, we want warmer temperatures, but we want lower
humidity. So the temperatures could go,
you know, as much as 60°F, but that humidity should be around
65%. OK.
So we kind of have these two different categories of how we
(08:26):
need to store things. So, you know, carrots and beets
and parsnips and turnips, they all do well in like damp sand or
in sawdust in a box or in a bucket.
Your potatoes, again, they're also going to like that, you
know, that temperature around 40° or so and that high humidity
(08:46):
like the root vegetables. But they prefer to be in
something like a paper bag or a burlap bag or even a, a paper
box in a, in a cool, you know, dark place that is for regular
potatoes. Sweet potatoes, however, do not
like that same temperature. As a matter of fact, you get
much below 60°F and you're goingto start to see some damage on
your sweet potatoes. They're also not going to store
(09:07):
as long for you. So sweet potatoes are more like
the 55 to 60°F range with about 60 to 75% humidity.
This is also the same temperatures and humidity range
that you're looking for, for like your winter squashes and
even your, your onions and your garlic.
So again, two sort of separate categories for how to store
(09:29):
these things. You know, onions, ideally they
like that cool environment between 40 and 60 Fahrenheit.
So cool but not cold, OK. This temperature range is going
to keep them fresher and longer.It also prevents the sprouting
and the rotting that that humidity is crucial for onion
storage. It's going to prevent them from
(09:50):
drying out, but it's also not sohigh that it's going to cause
them to mold and and get rotten.Proper air flow is also pretty
important here, especially for onions.
You kind of want them to be in mesh bags or baskets or open
crates because you want to allowthat air circulation.
That's going to keep them dry and it's going to keep them
fresh. This is not something that we
(10:12):
want to put in a plastic bag because that's going to trap the
moisture. Your carrots and your beets and
those things would actually appreciate a plastic bag if you
don't have them in sand in orderto help trap that humidity.
OK Onions also should be kept ina very dark place.
We don't want them to sprout. Exposure to light can trigger
that sprouting process. And of course, that reduces
(10:34):
their shelf life. So we want to eat these, not
grow these. If you don't have a cellar, you
can use a basement, you can use a garage.
You can even use a cooler like if you have extra coolers as you
can throw, you know, into a corner somewhere, you know, in a
basement or in a garage or whatever that's going to keep
things colder then great, use those.
(10:55):
But we do want to keep in mind, again, we kind of have these two
categories. We don't want to store onions
and potatoes together. OK, This is going to lead to
faster spoilage for both of them.
And there is some science behindthis.
Onions naturally emit ethylene gas, and ethylene is that plant
(11:19):
hormone that promotes ripening in a lot of our fruits and our
vegetables. So when we have our potatoes
near our onions, that gas is going to cause the potatoes to
sprout and it's also going to cause them to soften more
quickly. And that is going to lead to
spoilage. On the flip side of this,
potatoes have a really high moisture content and they
(11:41):
release moisture as they sit. And we just said that we want to
keep our onions dry because thismoisture could actually cause
those onions to become moldy or mushy and that reduces their
shelf life. So the combination of the
ethylene gas from the onions andthe moisture from the potatoes
just creates an environment thatis not good for anybody in that
situation. So all the more reason for us to
(12:03):
basically have two separate sortof storage, I don't know,
approaches and two separate storage areas for the things
that like the cool, dark, but very humid conditions versus the
ones that like it a little bit warmer.
So I would say, let's over here we've got cold, not even cool
(12:25):
cool. I would consider 35°, you know,
Fahrenheit to be cold. So 35 to 40 or even down to 32
is cold, right? So cold and dark and high
humidity versus cool and dark with a more humidity.
And no matter what, we definitely want that airflow for
everybody involved. OK, So what about for those
(12:45):
greens that we were talking about, you know, the kale, the
collards, the spinach, the things that, you know, maybe can
stay outside for an extended period of time, but at some
point, depending on your climate, do need to come in to
be stored. I really do like to harvest
these things after they have been hit by a frost because they
taste better. You know, it's something about
(13:06):
the frost that induces a much stronger, almost sweeter flavor
in these greens. And so I like to wait at least
until after we've had a good couple of frost before I harvest
them, clip off the rest of whatever it is that you need to
bring in. You want to store them unwashed
in a perforated bag in your refrigerator.
(13:28):
They're going to hold for a longer period of time if you can
put them unwashed because you'renot introducing additional
moisture that they don't need, which is also going to introduce
the possibility of them just getting yucky and funky.
So if you can make sure they're nice and dry before you put them
in the perforated bag in the fridge and then take them out
and wash them as needed until you have used them all up or
(13:51):
until you start to hit like thattwo week period because then
they don't send to to store as well.
So we're extending the life of these greens by basically
letting them stay out in the garden as long as they possibly
can until we have no choice but to bring them in.
Then we're going to bring them in and we're going to store them
unwashed for up to two weeks. If you see that you have more
(14:15):
than what you could possibly usein two weeks, then we have some
other options. Blanching and freezing is
probably one of the best ways that you can do this for these
particular greens because they hold up.
Now, I am not a huge fan of frozen greens.
It's just not my thing. Some people have no problem with
(14:37):
it. Some people really like frozen
greens. That's fine.
If you like frozen spinach, thenby all means blanch it and
freeze it. It's one of the easiest ways
that you can preserve things. One of my more favorite methods
here recently is to do some fermenting.
So we're making sauerkraut, we're making kimchi, we're
pickling some of these things, right?
(14:58):
It's adding probiotics. It has a better flavor to it and
to me, the texture is better. So when it comes to, you know,
just our greens, that's another way that you can do it.
Obviously you can do some canning.
We're not going to go into canning in this episode, but you
can also can up some of these these greens if you like that
texture. Once again, I do not.
(15:20):
So this is not something that I do.
But if I find that I have a ton of these greens and I've already
saved what I could in terms of, you know, fermenting, the other
thing that I have been known to do is to dehydrate these greens
and crush them down into a powder.
So again, it kind of goes with that whole garden waste thing,
(15:42):
food waste thing of things coming out of the garden.
I spent all this time growing these things.
I don't want it to go to waste. I still want to give those
nutrients the opportunity to be able to do something for us
throughout the winter time. Especially in the winter time,
we don't have as much access to the really fresh things.
And So what I found is if I can dehydrate these things at a
lower temperature where it is preserving the nutrient content
(16:07):
and I'm just grinding them up into a powder, I can add that
powder to my smoothies. I can toss it into soups or into
stews or into sauces. It's adding flavor for sure.
You are getting the flavor coming through, but then it's
also adding those nutrients too.So some of my favorite
combinations have been spinach and kale and beet greens.
(16:29):
If you like the flavor of beets,the beet greens carry that same
earthiness. I know if you're not a fan of
beets, you're going to say it tastes like dirt, and I get
that. OK, then you don't have to
include the beet greens. But you know, if you can grind
these things up into a powder and just keep them stored in a
Mason jar and you can add it to your stuff, I'm telling you it's
a great way to get the nutritionand also feel like you didn't
(16:52):
waste the stuff that was coming out of your garden.
And if we're talking about things other than the greens,
you know, there are other thingsyou can also ferment.
You know, you can ferment the the Pickles that are, are the
Pickles. You can ferment the radishes.
You can pickle those in a ferment as they're coming out of
the garden. You can do this with turnips and
(17:12):
you know, other root vegetables,again, really, really great for
your gut. These can all also be dehydrated
too. Whether you choose to dehydrate
them and then use them sort of like in soups and stews or you
want to rehydrate them and use them in other ways, then that's
great too. I would just always say, you
know, if you're new to any of these types of preserving
(17:34):
methods, and I will go back and I will go ahead and link in the
show notes all of the different episodes that we have done on
preservation of your food. And always use tested recipes
and guidelines from either the USDA or the Bald Blue Book of
canning, any of your University Extension Service resources.
(17:55):
These have all been tested for safety.
So don't go Willy nilly and start, you know, doing some
crazy things with the fermentingor with the, you know,
dehydrating and stuff until you have an idea of what it is that
you're doing and you are using atrusted source to teach you how
to do these things. And then a final note about
(18:15):
storage is just to make sure that you are checking your
stored crops pretty frequently. I mean, I would almost recommend
doing it weekly because when things do start to go South,
they can go South really fast. And unfortunately, when you have
one that starts to go bad, it can sort of spread that to the
other ones that are in that samecontainer or box.
(18:36):
And it can really wreak havoc through everything that you've
stored at that point. So make sure that you're
removing any anything that is soft or that's sprouting or
that's got any mole or anything to it.
Once again, ventilation is key here.
So we get that airflow going. We make sure that you know, if
there is anything that is, you know, giving off that ethylene
(18:59):
gas that is kind of clearing it out too.
So it's not promoting over ripening of the other things.
So I just say, you know, a well stored harvest really is a
reminder that gardening isn't just about the actual growing of
the thing. Yes, that's what we put all of
our energy to into. But like the end result is the
(19:21):
stuff that we're eating, right? And so as we're pulling stuff
from like our pantry or from ourfreezer or out of our jars and
stuff, we get to take a minute to kind of celebrate what it is
that we grew. And sometimes that's a bit
overwhelming. In the summertime.
We have so much stuff coming in and, you know, we're going from
one activity to another and we're trying to preserve things.
(19:43):
It's in the preservation and theusing of those preserved things
that I feel like we really get achance to kind of savor and
appreciate the work that we put into things throughout the rest
of the gardening season. And I don't know, that's a
little bit of motivation for me to make sure that I do it again
come springtime. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
(20:04):
talk again soon.
So we are just about to the midpoint of November.
For most of us, the frost has started to settle in regularly
in the garden. Most of the garden has gone to
sleep and now we are turning ourattention to what's left, which
is the fruits and the roots of our labor.
I'm talking about how to store and preserve that late season
(00:20):
harvest so that all of our hard work continues to pay off for us
well into winter. Today I'm just grow something.
We're going to look at how long certain crops can remain in the
garden essentially in storage mode before you truly have to
bring them inside. Best practices for storing your
roots and your late fall greens,and then some preservation
(00:42):
options that are going to retainthe nutrition and the flavor.
If you really don't have enough room in the fridge or in a
basement to store a lot of thesethings, let's dig in.
Hey, I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20
years ago turned into a lifelongpassion for growing food.
Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help
(01:03):
you do the same. On this podcast I am your friend
in the garden, teaching evidencebased techniques to help you
grow your favourites and build confidence in your own garden
space. So grab your.
Garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to just
grow something. So honestly, it's kind of sad to
say, but food waste is actually sort of a hidden garden problem.
(01:28):
Like after all of that hard work, nothing hurts more than
going into, you know, your storage and pulling out a mushy
carrot or a moldy onion. So we really want to make sure
that we are preparing ourselves appropriately for the proper
storage because that's going to extend the shelf life.
It's going to reduce that waste.And it gives us access to our
(01:53):
own homegrown produce even when there's like a foot of snow
outside in the middle of the winter time, right?
The cool thing about a lot of our late fall stuff is that
things can actually be stored out in the garden.
And I'm using the term stored loosely, but the reason I say
stored is because a lot of thesethings aren't going to be
(02:14):
actively growing while they're sitting out there.
After a certain time in the season, as a day length begins
to decrease, that means the growth of our plants also starts
to decrease. And at some point, they
basically just kind of sit into a sort of stasis, right?
And so especially once we get down below what we call that
Persephone period was, which is where the day length is shorter
(02:37):
than 10 hours per day, nothing'sreally growing or it's growing
at a very minuscule rate. So one of the benefits is we can
get a lot of these crops to their mature size and leave them
in the garden to be able to harvest off of them for an
extended period of time. Now, depending on where you
live, there are certain things that do really well with this.
(03:00):
If you're in really, really coldzones, zones, oftentimes you're
very limited on the things that you can do this with and you
really have to do a lot of row covers and, and plastics.
And so it's not really worth it to you at that point.
It's better just to bring it in.But if you're in a more moderate
climate, there are a lot of things that you can keep out
there. Hardy greens specifically.
(03:20):
So kale and spinach and collards, they don't mind being
out there after a frost or multiple frosts.
I have overwintered kale and spinach very successfully out in
the gardens with very minimal row cover.
One simple frost cloth is reallyall it took, and I was able to
(03:40):
go out there and harvest off of those plants all winter long.
And then in the spring, those plants immediately bounced back
with their growth and I had an early spring harvest of those
grains. So that was fantastic.
But there are other leafy greensthat maybe could use a little
bit extra protection and they still will continue to survive
for a little while. So lettuce or arugula and Shard
(04:04):
can absolutely continue going, especially if you're in an area
where the frosts are very infrequent early in the season.
That's kind of where we are in West Central Missouri.
As we've gotten a little bit warmer over the seasons, our
frosts have showed up a little bit later.
Our normal first frost date in the fall used to be right around
(04:27):
the 15th or 20th of October, andnow this year I didn't
experience the first frost in mygarden until Halloween.
It was overnight October 31st into November 1st.
Then before I saw my first frost, which is absolutely
unheard of, and then immediatelylater that that same week, it
bumped up to 70° during the weekand it was fully sunny.
(04:51):
And so we're not seeing a bunch of frosts right now.
So it's super easy for those plants to be able to be out in
that environment with just very light cover and then be
uncovered for a while. And then just me keep an eye out
for when the next frost might hit.
If you're in an area that's evenwarmer than I am, then often
times you don't even have to worry about covers at all with
(05:12):
some of these things until you really start to get into, you
know, the, the, the heaviest or the coldest part of winter other
than greens. We also have root crops that can
be stored in the ground until that ground begins to freeze
solid. So again, if you are in one of
(05:32):
the colder zones further north in the northern hemisphere, then
you might be pulling these cropsearlier than what I would be.
But it still means that these are the last things that you
necessarily need to harvest. And you can extend that a little
bit by adding those layers, years of heavy mulch.
So straw mulch is great for things like beets and carrots
(05:55):
and turnips and parsnips to keepthat soil just warm enough where
you still have the ability to beable to dig in there and harvest
those things as needed. And then once you get down to an
area like mine, you know, our ground doesn't really start to
freeze solid until like sometimein December, maybe late
(06:18):
December. And so I can honestly keep those
crops out there in the garden aslong as the garden soil is
fairly loose. Like, you know, if you have
very, very tight soil, this isn't going to work as well.
But because we have, you know, amended our soil really well,
and also because I'm growing it a lot in the raised beds, the
soil is loose enough to be able to do this.
(06:39):
The one thing that you do have to worry about is if you are in
raised beds, knowing that the volume of soil that's in those
beds is obviously less than whatit is in the ground.
Duh. But it's, it means it's going to
freeze earlier than what the soil in your in ground gardens
is going to. So that is something that you
have to pay attention to, OK, how early is that soil freezing?
(07:01):
But in most instances, again, aslong as you've got some
insulation, these things can be held in the ground until it
begins to freeze solid. And you can extend that by using
heavy straw mulch. Essentially, you have a garden
refrigerator. OK, So then once we get to the
stage where these things absolutely need to be harvested
(07:22):
or if they're things that you have harvested earlier in the
season, what types of conditionsdo we need in order to be able
to keep these going without that, you know, feeling of
disappointment of going into your root cellar or your
basement or whatever and grabbing a potato that has gone
to mush, right? Most root crops like conditions
(07:43):
that are going to mimic a root cellar.
So we want something that's around 32 to 40°F, OK, and
higher humidity. So this is for things like
carrots and beets and turnips, like they like like a 95%
humidity level. Potatoes also like this
temperature and this this humidity as well.
(08:05):
If we're looking at onions and garlic and like our winter
squashes, we want warmer temperatures, but we want lower
humidity. So the temperatures could go,
you know, as much as 60°F, but that humidity should be around
65%. OK.
So we kind of have these two different categories of how we
(08:26):
need to store things. So, you know, carrots and beets
and parsnips and turnips, they all do well in like damp sand or
in sawdust in a box or in a bucket.
Your potatoes, again, they're also going to like that, you
know, that temperature around 40° or so and that high humidity
(08:46):
like the root vegetables. But they prefer to be in
something like a paper bag or a burlap bag or even a, a paper
box in a, in a cool, you know, dark place that is for regular
potatoes. Sweet potatoes, however, do not
like that same temperature. As a matter of fact, you get
much below 60°F and you're goingto start to see some damage on
your sweet potatoes. They're also not going to store
(09:07):
as long for you. So sweet potatoes are more like
the 55 to 60°F range with about 60 to 75% humidity.
This is also the same temperatures and humidity range
that you're looking for, for like your winter squashes and
even your, your onions and your garlic.
So again, two sort of separate categories for how to store
(09:29):
these things. You know, onions, ideally they
like that cool environment between 40 and 60 Fahrenheit.
So cool but not cold, OK. This temperature range is going
to keep them fresher and longer.It also prevents the sprouting
and the rotting that that humidity is crucial for onion
storage. It's going to prevent them from
(09:50):
drying out, but it's also not sohigh that it's going to cause
them to mold and and get rotten.Proper air flow is also pretty
important here, especially for onions.
You kind of want them to be in mesh bags or baskets or open
crates because you want to allowthat air circulation.
That's going to keep them dry and it's going to keep them
fresh. This is not something that we
(10:12):
want to put in a plastic bag because that's going to trap the
moisture. Your carrots and your beets and
those things would actually appreciate a plastic bag if you
don't have them in sand in orderto help trap that humidity.
OK Onions also should be kept ina very dark place.
We don't want them to sprout. Exposure to light can trigger
that sprouting process. And of course, that reduces
(10:34):
their shelf life. So we want to eat these, not
grow these. If you don't have a cellar, you
can use a basement, you can use a garage.
You can even use a cooler like if you have extra coolers as you
can throw, you know, into a corner somewhere, you know, in a
basement or in a garage or whatever that's going to keep
things colder then great, use those.
(10:55):
But we do want to keep in mind, again, we kind of have these two
categories. We don't want to store onions
and potatoes together. OK, This is going to lead to
faster spoilage for both of them.
And there is some science behindthis.
Onions naturally emit ethylene gas, and ethylene is that plant
(11:19):
hormone that promotes ripening in a lot of our fruits and our
vegetables. So when we have our potatoes
near our onions, that gas is going to cause the potatoes to
sprout and it's also going to cause them to soften more
quickly. And that is going to lead to
spoilage. On the flip side of this,
potatoes have a really high moisture content and they
(11:41):
release moisture as they sit. And we just said that we want to
keep our onions dry because thismoisture could actually cause
those onions to become moldy or mushy and that reduces their
shelf life. So the combination of the
ethylene gas from the onions andthe moisture from the potatoes
just creates an environment thatis not good for anybody in that
situation. So all the more reason for us to
(12:03):
basically have two separate sortof storage, I don't know,
approaches and two separate storage areas for the things
that like the cool, dark, but very humid conditions versus the
ones that like it a little bit warmer.
So I would say, let's over here we've got cold, not even cool
(12:25):
cool. I would consider 35°, you know,
Fahrenheit to be cold. So 35 to 40 or even down to 32
is cold, right? So cold and dark and high
humidity versus cool and dark with a more humidity.
And no matter what, we definitely want that airflow for
everybody involved. OK, So what about for those
(12:45):
greens that we were talking about, you know, the kale, the
collards, the spinach, the things that, you know, maybe can
stay outside for an extended period of time, but at some
point, depending on your climate, do need to come in to
be stored. I really do like to harvest
these things after they have been hit by a frost because they
taste better. You know, it's something about
(13:06):
the frost that induces a much stronger, almost sweeter flavor
in these greens. And so I like to wait at least
until after we've had a good couple of frost before I harvest
them, clip off the rest of whatever it is that you need to
bring in. You want to store them unwashed
in a perforated bag in your refrigerator.
(13:28):
They're going to hold for a longer period of time if you can
put them unwashed because you'renot introducing additional
moisture that they don't need, which is also going to introduce
the possibility of them just getting yucky and funky.
So if you can make sure they're nice and dry before you put them
in the perforated bag in the fridge and then take them out
and wash them as needed until you have used them all up or
(13:51):
until you start to hit like thattwo week period because then
they don't send to to store as well.
So we're extending the life of these greens by basically
letting them stay out in the garden as long as they possibly
can until we have no choice but to bring them in.
Then we're going to bring them in and we're going to store them
unwashed for up to two weeks. If you see that you have more
(14:15):
than what you could possibly usein two weeks, then we have some
other options. Blanching and freezing is
probably one of the best ways that you can do this for these
particular greens because they hold up.
Now, I am not a huge fan of frozen greens.
It's just not my thing. Some people have no problem with
(14:37):
it. Some people really like frozen
greens. That's fine.
If you like frozen spinach, thenby all means blanch it and
freeze it. It's one of the easiest ways
that you can preserve things. One of my more favorite methods
here recently is to do some fermenting.
So we're making sauerkraut, we're making kimchi, we're
pickling some of these things, right?
(14:58):
It's adding probiotics. It has a better flavor to it and
to me, the texture is better. So when it comes to, you know,
just our greens, that's another way that you can do it.
Obviously you can do some canning.
We're not going to go into canning in this episode, but you
can also can up some of these these greens if you like that
texture. Once again, I do not.
(15:20):
So this is not something that I do.
But if I find that I have a ton of these greens and I've already
saved what I could in terms of, you know, fermenting, the other
thing that I have been known to do is to dehydrate these greens
and crush them down into a powder.
So again, it kind of goes with that whole garden waste thing,
(15:42):
food waste thing of things coming out of the garden.
I spent all this time growing these things.
I don't want it to go to waste. I still want to give those
nutrients the opportunity to be able to do something for us
throughout the winter time. Especially in the winter time,
we don't have as much access to the really fresh things.
And So what I found is if I can dehydrate these things at a
lower temperature where it is preserving the nutrient content
(16:07):
and I'm just grinding them up into a powder, I can add that
powder to my smoothies. I can toss it into soups or into
stews or into sauces. It's adding flavor for sure.
You are getting the flavor coming through, but then it's
also adding those nutrients too.So some of my favorite
combinations have been spinach and kale and beet greens.
(16:29):
If you like the flavor of beets,the beet greens carry that same
earthiness. I know if you're not a fan of
beets, you're going to say it tastes like dirt, and I get
that. OK, then you don't have to
include the beet greens. But you know, if you can grind
these things up into a powder and just keep them stored in a
Mason jar and you can add it to your stuff, I'm telling you it's
a great way to get the nutritionand also feel like you didn't
(16:52):
waste the stuff that was coming out of your garden.
And if we're talking about things other than the greens,
you know, there are other thingsyou can also ferment.
You know, you can ferment the the Pickles that are, are the
Pickles. You can ferment the radishes.
You can pickle those in a ferment as they're coming out of
the garden. You can do this with turnips and
(17:12):
you know, other root vegetables,again, really, really great for
your gut. These can all also be dehydrated
too. Whether you choose to dehydrate
them and then use them sort of like in soups and stews or you
want to rehydrate them and use them in other ways, then that's
great too. I would just always say, you
know, if you're new to any of these types of preserving
(17:34):
methods, and I will go back and I will go ahead and link in the
show notes all of the different episodes that we have done on
preservation of your food. And always use tested recipes
and guidelines from either the USDA or the Bald Blue Book of
canning, any of your University Extension Service resources.
(17:55):
These have all been tested for safety.
So don't go Willy nilly and start, you know, doing some
crazy things with the fermentingor with the, you know,
dehydrating and stuff until you have an idea of what it is that
you're doing and you are using atrusted source to teach you how
to do these things. And then a final note about
(18:15):
storage is just to make sure that you are checking your
stored crops pretty frequently. I mean, I would almost recommend
doing it weekly because when things do start to go South,
they can go South really fast. And unfortunately, when you have
one that starts to go bad, it can sort of spread that to the
other ones that are in that samecontainer or box.
(18:36):
And it can really wreak havoc through everything that you've
stored at that point. So make sure that you're
removing any anything that is soft or that's sprouting or
that's got any mole or anything to it.
Once again, ventilation is key here.
So we get that airflow going. We make sure that you know, if
there is anything that is, you know, giving off that ethylene
(18:59):
gas that is kind of clearing it out too.
So it's not promoting over ripening of the other things.
So I just say, you know, a well stored harvest really is a
reminder that gardening isn't just about the actual growing of
the thing. Yes, that's what we put all of
our energy to into. But like the end result is the
(19:21):
stuff that we're eating, right? And so as we're pulling stuff
from like our pantry or from ourfreezer or out of our jars and
stuff, we get to take a minute to kind of celebrate what it is
that we grew. And sometimes that's a bit
overwhelming. In the summertime.
We have so much stuff coming in and, you know, we're going from
one activity to another and we're trying to preserve things.
(19:43):
It's in the preservation and theusing of those preserved things
that I feel like we really get achance to kind of savor and
appreciate the work that we put into things throughout the rest
of the gardening season. And I don't know, that's a
little bit of motivation for me to make sure that I do it again
come springtime. Until next time, my gardening
friends, keep on cultivating that dream garden, and we'll
(20:04):
talk again soon.
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