Storing potatoes and beets????

Ok, give me some ideas how best to do this. I do have a back room that runs cooler than the house in the winter and I kept the potatoes in a cupboard in there last year. It worked ok, but I have so many is there a way I can get them to last longer before they get a bit soft? I just put them in boxes with the dirt not washed off last year.

Ok, what is the best way to keep beets? I love them and really want to keep them as nice as possible. Is freezing them an option.

While I am at it, what about carrots? I wasn't happy with how I stored them last year either. Is it better to freeze them to?

I grow all this beautiful stuff, I would really like to have some use of it longer than I did last year. Maybe it is just wishful thinking.

coopslave wrote:Ok, give me some ideas how best to do this. I do have a back room that runs cooler than the house in the winter and I kept the potatoes in a cupboard in there last year. It worked ok, but I have so many is there a way I can get them to last longer before they get a bit soft? I just put them in boxes with the dirt not washed off last year.

Ok, what is the best way to keep beets? I love them and really want to keep them as nice as possible. Is freezing them an option.

While I am at it, what about carrots? I wasn't happy with how I stored them last year either. Is it better to freeze them to?

I grow all this beautiful stuff, I would really like to have some use of it longer than I did last year. Maybe it is just wishful thinking.

You need to keep the temp down and the humidity as high as you can keep it.

I've stored root veggies in damp sand before, which works, but most of the time I'm too lazy for that and just keep them in plastic bins or bags to keep them from going soft. Wooden boxes breath a lot, but I know one other grower that uses large wooden boxes and covers the boxes with plastic, and another that runs a humidifier all winter for his boxed potatoes.

Keeping the temperature as close as possible to 4 Celsius is ideal. I usually manage to keep beets good till January, carrots and potatoes till April or so.

Freezing beets and carrots is great too, but they thaw a bit mushy unless you blanch them first. Do love my pickled veggies too!

I layer wood chips (or shavings) and potatoes in a large wood box.(You could probably use large pails) They last all winter and into the Spring. Just be sure you don't have even ONE potato that is nicked or split as it can rot and affect the ones around it. I have a cold room in the basement with a vent and I don't worry about humidity or temperature.

I haven't done carrots or beets.

I have pickeld canned beats from last fall still sitting in my basement My grandparents used to keep their potatos in a wooden crate under the stairs in the basement. There was a single electric heater down there, kept comfortable enough for Grampa to work down there in the winter and thats it. I think if you have unfinished basements your already at a prime spot to store root veggies.

What Country Thyme Said is something I've read in several books. I've seen pictures of carrots 'planted' in sand in old milking pails to keep them in good conditions. For potatoes and tomatoes I read wrapping them in newspaper individually and checking them every 7-10 days is good, remove the ripening/starting-to-go-bad ones and use those asap/put in the fridge.

I never have had enough potatoes nor carrots to worry about that keeping thing . Too bad though, cause there is nothing better. I think I have a goodly amount of carrots this year though to worry about it. I am a vegetable freezer. I think that freezing is a very efficient way of storage. Any vegetable that I freeze I blanch for 2 minutes and then then they are put in freezer. I have a food saver, which evidently, because of the high amount of air being removed, ensures a longer lasting product. I don't know, I like it, makes them so air free that they take up less room than if I put them in freezer bags and try to squeeze out as much air as possible. I have found with frozen vegetables, that I just mostly thaw and use them, they are already pre-cooked, so no need to cook more. Betts. Always freeze my beets. I firstly cook the beets, whole, with about 2 inches of stems left on. Cut them into the size of pieces that I like. They are perfect beets. I find they taste just like the beets that I would just cook and then eat. They are lovely. Again, with frozen vegetables, I do not recook, just thaw and heat gently. Zucchini cut into rounds and then cut into halves and frozen are simply awesome too. I am a freezer girl. I do not like to process my vegetables by the pressure cooker method in jars. I think that too much nutrient is lost with the high heat and length of time of cooking. Freezer foods all the way. You will hear lots of comments I am sure. Maybe one year I will have enough potatoes to worry about that. My biggest worry right now is the massive banana squash that is about 3 feet long and about 8 inches thick. The vines haven't even began to perish, still green and growing strong. wonder how big this sucker (well, got a good few of them growin' on) is gonna get!! Good luck, hope you can store your veggies well into the cool nights of winter. And..have a most awesome day, CynthiaM.

Gee CynthiaM, potatoes are what grows best up here, so I grow LOTS! I am not really a potato person, but I love the fresh ones from the garden and I always plant enough that I can raid them as baby potatoes!
I will have quite a few boxes of them so I thank everyone that is giving me ideas about what to do with them. Sweetened, to many to individually wrap, way to lazy for that!! No basement, sadly, I imagine they would store very well in there.

I think I may try freezing some of the beets CynthiaM. I love beets and they grow well here too. I have some yellow ones this year, an nice change from the purple and not as messy. I may even get some brussel sprouts this year if the weather keeps holding. I almost made it with them last year, such a long growing season but they handle the little freezes we can get.

I wonder if I could cook up mashed potatoes and then freeze them. Has anyone ever tried that? I like them best roasted but hubbly likes mashed.

Coopslave, if you add some kind of dairy to your mashed potatoes, they will freeze well. Every year for harvest I make, what I call, my 3-cheese potato balls. I mash potatoes, add some cooked bacon and onion, some sour cream, cream cheese and grated cheddar. Mix together, form into balls with a large cookie dough scoop and freeze on cookie sheets. I throw them all in a bag and when you want some, thaw for bit, throw some cheese on top and put into oven until warm. I promise, they will always impress!!

I freeze lots of beets. I cook them first and re-heat in a frying pan with a bit of butter and maple syrup.

It is a miracle I am not 1000 pounds!

Bowkers those potato balls sound great! They are on my to do list.

We leave our beets and carrots in the ground and dig them as needed. If you can put a good layer of straw on your beds it will help keep them. Brush the snow away and pick what you need.
My dad sheeted and insulated under the stair well in his house , he put down pallets on the floor and stores root vegetables in there till spring. He has a hole cut through the wall with a dryer vent that he plugs up if it gets too cold. He keeps the potatoes in burlap sacks same with the carrots.
I bought a book on building root cellars and cold storage, I really need something to keep potatoes.

Debbie, you are a bad girl, you are a Wet Westcoast gal!! (I was too, until two years ago, smiling). The frost line on the coastal areas is 18 inches, up here, and others get colder, the frost line can be four feet deep, smiling. Never in a million years could the root crops be dug up when that hard winter time comes. Solid as a rock down under that thar earth . Teasin' ya. On the coast I would leave my beets and stuff in the ground too, and pick as needed. Most times we ate the garden up before the cold weather in January could set in. Back in Maple Ridge, that was when the hard freezes would come, before that, not much deep freezing, but of course, frosty stuff. I guess they could remain frozen below ground until March here, when the freezing thaws, smiling again. I LOVE the idea of the frozen potato mashed balls, may have to make some and try, sounds so GOOD. Have those wonderful days, CynthiaM.