Storing the Surplus - Storing Potatoes and Root Vegetables

Although a freezer is great for keeping many vegetables in good condition from harvest to when they are needed, they are not really suitable for crops such as potatoes, onions etc.

As we've become a culture used to 24 hour shopping and anything we want available all year round, the skills of storing are becoming almost rare. Root crops particularly are ideal for storing. After all, nature designed them for this purpose!

Parsnips and carrots can be left in the soil over winter if your soil is well drained but you may find increased insect damage and problems digging them up when the ground is frozen. You can try a covering of straw or even horticultural fleece in cold weather.

Those parsnips left in the ground should be dug up and used or stored in March.

Storing Root Vegetables

When storing vegetables you need to sort out the damaged or any showing signs of rot and use these first as if they rot, the rot will spread and ruin your whole crop. We suffer quite a lot of slug damage on our potatoes and the ‘slugged’ are always in our ‘use first’ bag.

Prepare carrots by removing any thick soil and cutting off the foliage about an inch from the top of the root. With beetroot you should twist of the foliage about an inch from the top rather than cut it, although I do not know the reason for this. You should not need to wash crops before storing.

Storing Root Vegetable Crops in a Clamp

In the days when people had large families and often survived by what they grew it was common to store root crops such as potatoes, carrots, Swedes, beetroot and celeriac in clamps. Clamps are probably not the best method for storing the smaller amounts required by a small family or couple.

The first thing to ensure is that the crop will be kept out of standing water. Choose a dry spot in the plot and then dig a trench around the storage area. This will help drain any water and provides soil you will need later.

Next place a layer of straw, bracken or even shredded paper on the ground and then place a layer of your crop down. With carrots, you could try a circular pattern, thick end to the outside, then place another layer of your packing material or sand to level up. Carry on adding layers to form a cone shape. On the outside of the clamp, place six to eight inches of straw and make a little straw spike at the top. This will allow excess moisture to escape,

The soil you removed from your drainage trench can then be used to cover the clamp. I’ve not actually made or used a clamp and would be interested to hear from anyone who has.

Storing Potatoes

When you first harvest your potatoes, you should leave them out in the sun for a few hours to dry off and allow the skin to harden a little. After this, brush off any excess soil and check for damage. Sometimes it is hard to tell as a little hole on the surface can indicate a network of tunnels and even a live slug hiding in the potato so check as carefully as you can.

Any forked, slugged or suspect potatoes should be put to one side and used as quickly as possible.

Unlike other root crops, potatoes should preferably be stored above 5deg C as below that the starch turns into sugars, which can give them a sweet taste. The optimum temperature range is between 5 and 10° C.

The most important point when storing potatoes is to exclude light. Prolonged exposure to light will cause greening of the potato. Green potatoes are poisonous as it indicates that solanine, an alkaloid, has been formed. Partially green potatoes are still edible – just cut off the affected parts. Remember that potatoes are part of the same family, solanaceae, as Deadly Nightshade!

You can store potatoes in paper sacks but leave the neck slightly open to allow excess moisture to escape. For this reason, do not use plastic bags under any circumstances. The best container is a Hessian sack. You can buy these quite easily and many potato suppliers sell them as well.

After you have had the potatoes in store for a month or so, wait for a fine day and empty the bags out. Re-check for developing rots and don’t be surprised if you find the odd slug or two you missed first time. I have heard of people popping a few slug pellets in the sack as well.

If storing in a shed or garage, keep an eye on the weather. You do not want the potatoes to freeze so through some cover over the sacks or consider some heating in really cold weather.

Storing other root crops

You can store other root crops including:

• Carrots
• Parsnips
• Celeriac
• Beetroot
• Turnip
• Swede
• Kholrabi

In the following way:

Remove foliage close to the crown. Place in layers in boxes, crates etc separated with a damp, but not wet, packing material. You can use sand, coir or even leafmould but probably the best is peat.

Before the fundamentalist wing of the organic movement issue a fatwah against me, I would point out that the packing material can be re-used year after year and you can buy peat filtered from water, which is totally sound ecologically .

The best type of box we have found is the banana box. Most supermarkets throw them away and will give you some if you ask. Actually great when you move house as well!

The ideal temperature for your root crops is between 0 and 4 degrees C, lower than potatoes.

Since you probably don’t have a refrigerated storage facility, like me you will just have to settle for the coolest place you have. Don't store in the loft of your house because, if it is properly insulated, the temperature will be highly variable and could drop too low as well as being too high.

With some care, you can enjoy your own produce year round using no technology or electricity at all.