cherubic potatoes keep well without a root basement
How do you preserve solid food in a warm mood without a root cellar ?
I nonplus this comment recently on thesweet potato survival plant visibility page :
Being only years in Florida , repositing of intellectual nourishment has been unmanageable … potatoes , onions , squelch and now I have sweet potato growing . Any tips for hive away these guys??-Chris
You bet . Here are three tips for storing green groceries without a root wine cellar .
1. Grow Produce That Keeps Without Refrigeration
This may sound obvious , but by selecting crops that keep easy you may bypass the need to can / uphold / store / refrigerate your harvest time .
Some serious choices are whacky , Seminole Pumpkins and other long - go along squash , dry dome , grain Indian corn and pigeon peas . The reason grain became preeminent in the Western diet is because of their surpassing keeping calibre . Though I generally do n’t urge you grow grains on a home scale , they can keep a long time .
Sweet spud and white murphy will usually keep in bags , baskets or boxes in a larder for a few months . I ’ve had poor luck storing homegrown garlic and Allium cepa in Florida , however . The varieties that grow here just do n’t seem to be made for storage .
Sweet potatoes keep well without a root cellar
2. Grow Produce That Keeps In The Ground
Malanga keeps well in the ground
I grow manioca , arrowroot , ginger , malanga and other source crops that can be harvested somewhat much whenever you feel like pull them . The roots do n’t freeze down during the wintertime so you could grab ’em when you want ’em . I ’ve pulled cassava root from the ground in February .
Though the top of the plant was put down by frost , the roots were dead fine beneath the grease .
Malanga keeps well in the ground
3. Skip The Root Cellar By Preserving
My supporter and fellow blogger Kendra Lynnehas a whole video on home canningthat ’s worth checking out :
I taught myself to can at plate via some trial and erroneousness and shattered mason jars . Some foods are worth canning and some probably aren’t . For instance , lady’s-finger would be disgusting canned , unless you made it into pickle first . Speaking of pickles , one of my favorite direction to maintain green groceries is by alive fermenting them . If you’re able to make sauerkraut , you’re able to make dill mess … pickled garlic … kimchi and all sort of other great hot fermented solid food . Sandor Katz ’s bookWild Fermentationreally got me protrude with the crazy macrocosm of fermented foods . you may read more on how I make sauerkraut in this post . Another way to pack out the harvest is to learn to dry up . you’re able to dehydrate with the sun in some climate ( Florida ’s rainwater in the recent summer REALLY does n’t help me ) as Paul Wheaton evidence off in this awesome picture :
Since it ’s too humid here for me to get away with a peachy solar dehydrator , I usea simple Nesco modelthat works quite well .
you may go crazy and getthe awesome Excalibur dehydrator(believe me … I ’ve been really tempted but my budget wo n’t allow it ! ! ! ) but for the little bit of dehydrating we do on our homestead , my model is beneficial enough for now .
When you dehydrate foods they keep a circle of their nutrition .
I ’ve dehydrate everything from mushrooms to strawberries , Mangifera indica ( perilously addicting ) to calamondins ( horrid when dried ) . I ’ve also made jerky in the dehydrator that ’s been wonderful . you’re able to also pack away a slew of dried food in a small space since water make up so much of the mass of most fruits and vegetables .
I edit produce into lowly sizing , dry them , then pack them in sealed mason jars to keep the moisture in the strain from getting in .
Conclusion
Though we may long for a Florida root word cellar … it ’s better to just be content . Hey – we can garden class - stave here when the kinfolk up Frederick North are shivering .
I ’ll take that over a row of crispy root - cellar turnips any day .
