Storing Roots

Started writing this yesterday! Those in the UK might think it’s a bit late, but you should be looking to bring in the root vegetables if your ground will freeze over winter.

In milder climates a layer of straw over them in the ground can be enough but you can find you are providing an excellent home for various grubs that are also trying to survive the winter!

Storing roots in a cold frost free store is an old tradition. It may take some effort to find an ideal place. It needs to be dry for vegetables (apples need humidity) and somewhere that can resist the frost and will not warm up in the winter sun, is rodent free and not storing items that could taint the food. Dry cellars and brick buildings are better than wooden sheds or petrol smelling garages!

Sand is used to keep the vegetable dry or saw dust. The sand has to have been dried out before you need it for storage. So it needs to be dried in the sun then stored for later use. Oak saw dust works very well (its what I use) but the chain oil used must be vegetable based.

Then it is trying to find sufficient large boxes. Remember to fill the boxes where you are going to store them as sand is heavy!

Trial and error is really the way forward. Keep checking the boxes and use the roots up if they are starting to age too quickly. Obviously large, good quality roots can be stored longer than the imperfect ones.

I find carrots grow hairy roots quite easily so I only store them for Christmas. Beetroots have never kept long for me so I make them into Borscht in September (and freeze it in plastic milk bottles). Swedes keep well but I’ve never had enough to last many months. Parsnips keep until February very well when I make them into parsnip chips and freeze them (the freezer has space by then) and these last me through the hungry gap. This is the first year I have had large celeriac, not sure how they will keep. Also the swedes are very good this year after the extensive late rains so they may help us through the second half of the winter.

An old fridge or chest freezer sunk into the ground is an inexpensive solution to this. Although if you go this route be sure it is lockable and locked so children can not get trapped inside.

Zoe wrote:Beetroots have never kept long for me so I make them into Borscht in September

Not a bad option, but with regard storing them, I notice you are suggesting dry sand in boxes. I find beetroot stores well in plastic tubs with lids (brewing buckets are great) in vermiculite. In dry conditions they go rubbery.

Parsnips keep until February very well when I make them into parsnip chips and freeze them

I just leave them in the ground here. They taste better when frosted, and don't seem to suffer.

This is the first year I have had large celeriac, not sure how they will keep.

Well done I find that if they get too frosted, celeriac develop grey bits inside, if the deer don't eat them first. So they get the same treatment as the beetroot (If I remember - it might be too late now )

Chilli-head wrote: I find that if they get too frosted, celeriac develop grey bits inside, if the deer don't eat them first. So they get the same treatment as the beetroot (If I remember - it might be too late now )

Aye..we had -8degC in the valley last night so I'm a bit worried about the swedes that were due to be harvested today!

Chilli-head wrote: celeriac develop grey bits inside, if the deer don't eat them first.

You grow deer bait? Good man. Nice static target while they are feeding.

If you find muntjac good eating, there's no shortage round here. We are, of course, only a few miles from Woburn estate, who are responsible for introducing them in the first place. You scarcely need bait - when I was out running the other day I passed one on a track in the wood - within about four or five metres, and it hardly bothered to move.

(Sorry to drift BTW)

Thanks guys for the tips. Keep meaning to get over to the garden centre for sand, but don't often go that way but didn't realise I could be using sawdust instead - got loads of that!

Hope I've not left it too late - been neglecting the garden a bit of late and still have loads of roots in the ground. Getting quite frosty now! Aargh!

Mmmm
I hope you don't use treated wood. I even go so far as to ensure that my chainsaw oil is of plant basis (I use Arborol which is mixed 4:1 with water).

If you're going to use sand why not go to a builders merchant, it will be a lot cheaper.

No, the wood has just been left to season with a little wax around the outside. Don't know what the wax is, but most of the sawdust is from the unwaxed portion - I'm wood turning. I guess I could miss out the waxed sawdust and just collect the rest.

Yeah, I used sand from a builders merchant last year, but it was just too wet and I don't think I'm going to get enough sun for drying it out now. I'll give the sawdust a go. Be nice to use it up for something.