Sauk County Gardener: Properly storing fruits, vegetables for winter

“This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes, these onions ... will soon become me. Such a tasty fact!” ~Mike Garofalo

This past weekend offered up some incredibly warm weather especially for October. My husband and I drove around a bit in search of fall color, but the warm weather has really delayed its arrival. It’s really been hard to remember it’s actually fall and that we will have to deal with storing the remainder of our garden produce, especially our root vegetables. This is the first year in a long time that I have successfully grown carrots that need storage. I also have some beets that need to be stored as well as I don’t want to can them. We also have a tree full of pears. I’m not the only one who wants to store their vegetables or fruits without canning, dehydrating, or freezing them. A fellow master gardener approached me the other day asking me how to properly store carrots for the winter.

The hardest thing I believe is finding the right place to store your vegetables and fruits. It can’t be too hot or too cold. It also can’t be too wet or too dry. Now I understand Goldilocks’ predicament. It wasn’t uncommon years ago for people to have root cellars but with so many finished basements in today’s homes, they are not so common anymore. In general, your vegetables and fruits should be stored in a cool, dry, dark, and well-ventilated location, in a container up and off the ground. Try to find a location that stays below 60 degrees (F) but won’t freeze. Consider a cool closet, an unheated mudroom, or even a cooler in an unheated garage or shed. I store our vegetables in our unheated garage just outside the entry door to our house. Typically, it doesn’t get too cold in there, but I have had things freeze when we’ve left the garage door open in the winter. Moisture within the container is also important to monitor. Try to create storage areas for your vegetables and fruits that meet these four different categories – moist and cold (33-40 degrees F), dry and cold (33-40 degrees F), dry and cool (40-50 degrees), and dry and warmer (50-60 degrees F).

Category 1 – Moist and cold is for root crops such as beets, carrots, turnips and radishes. Brush off the soil, clip their tops to ½ - 1 inch high and leave any roots intact. Place them in moist, not wet, packing material such as sand, sawdust, coir, or peat moss. Make sure they are not touching and cover them.

Throughout the winter, check the moisture of the soil and dampen it with a spray bottle of water if needed. They can also be placed in a plastic bag with several holes to prevent them from collecting too much moisture. Celery can be simply pulled up and placed upright with its roots in the damp medium.

Category 2 – Dry and cold is for crops such as potatoes, cabbage, Brussel sprouts, apples and pears. They can be store by your beets and carrots, but they need extra air circulation to keep them dry. Some people like to wrap apples and pears individually in paper to help keep them a little longer. Also, store apples in their own container as the ethylene gas they give off will make the other fruits and vegetables ripen sooner. If you have room, cabbages and Brussels sprouts can also be pulled up by the roots and planted in a container of moist soil. Remember, potatoes need the location to be dark to prevent them from turning green.

Category 3 – Dry and cool is for onions, garlic, and shallots. Make sure they have been dried first in a well-ventilated place before storing. Then hang them in a mesh bag, braid them, or store in a shallow box or crate no more than two layers deep.

Category 4 – Dry and warmer is for winter squash, pumpkins and sweet potatoes. They do need to be cured for about two weeks before storing. Leave the stem intact for squash and pumpkins. When storing, don’t stack them too high and give them plenty of air circulation.

If you’d like to learn more about storing vegetables at home and alternative methods, visit nchfp.uga.edu/how/store/wisc_vegetables.pdf. It also has plans for building a basement storage room if you are so inclined. While you wait for peak fall colors, use the time to store up any of your remaining root vegetables and fruits to enjoy this winter.

Jeannie Manis is a Wisconsin-certified Sauk County Master Gardener volunteer. If you have any gardening questions, please contact the Extension Sauk County by emailing to trripp@wisc.edu or calling the University of Wisconsin Madison Division of Extension Sauk County office at 608-355-3250.