Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When onion tops turn brown and begin to dry, you know they are ready to harvest.
(Photo courtesy of Tim Sackton)
thOrny MatterS
Apples and some other fruits emit an ethylene gas that can make your other vegetables, such as potatoes,
age faster, cause sprouting or rotting tomatoes, and make carrots bitter. In the small quantities of a
backyard farm, you can probably avoid this by simply keeping the fruits closer to the ventilation so that
the fumes are sucked away from the other food.
Crops can be picky things. The longer you intend to keep them, the more you will need to attend
to their environment. Including a humidity gauge, or
hygrometer,
in your root cellar will help you
optimize the space to accommodate as many of your fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, and grains as
possible.
Storing Root Cellared Foods
There's a return to root cellaring and other homestead arts for a good reason. The savings, self-
sufficiency, and health benefits of fresh eating through the winter months make it easy to try this
for yourself. You can get excess crops for next to nothing at the peak of the season, and then store
these foods in the root cellar for weeks, months, or even longer.
Root vegetables.
I think the image most people are familiar with when it comes to storing in a
cellar or basement is of root crops. Beets, carrots, garlic, onions, and potatoes all store really well.
We've eaten fresh potatoes all the way through winter and into early spring with no loss of flavor or
freshness!
