Achieving a great harvest when you’re growing your own food can be a proud and exciting time. However, if you don’t have a great place to store it, your hard work could end up being for nothing.
Here, you’ll discover some great tips for storing your harvest. The earlier you plan your storage, the better.
Cleaning the Harvest
Before you store your freshly-picked produce, you’re going to want to clean it. You won’t necessarily need to do this step if you’ve chosen to preserve it for later use. However, for produce you plan on eating within the week, you’ll want to clean it in cold water.
If you are preserving it for later use, cleaning it now would allow moisture into the produce, causing it to start rotting.
Understanding Your Storage Options
There are a number of ways to store your harvest. For produce that you’ll be consuming within the week, you can simply store it in the refrigerator. Herbs are a great example here. You can place them in a sealed plastic bag after wrapping them in a paper towel. The towel will absorb any moisture, keeping them fresh for up to seven days.
Produce such as potatoes needs to be stored in a cool, dark place. They can usually last a couple of months when stored using this method. Other storage options include dehydrating, canning and pickling the foods. You’ll want to research these methods before choosing the right option.
Know which Produce You Can Leave in the Ground
Did you know you can leave some produce in the ground until you’re ready to eat it? Root vegetables are extremely hardy, and they can last in the ground for quite some time if it’s done correctly.
You’ll need to apply an additional layer of mulch if you plan on leaving them in the ground a while. Then, simply dig them up when you want to use them. You can do this for carrots, potatoes and parsnips.
The Importance of Doing Your Research
You’ll find that different types of fruits and vegetables require slightly different storage techniques. Tomatoes, for example, will need to be picked when they are green before the first frost of the year begins. They can then be left to ripen in the home.
Apples, on the other hand, need to be stored separately. They also need to be kept in dark, cool areas that are slightly moist. You may need to wrap each individual apple to store it, ensuring it doesn’t touch the others. The reason apples need to be stored so they don’t touch each other is because they can bruise very easily. Also, if one starts to rot, it can quickly spread to the others. So, wrapping them protects the harvest.
Researching how to store the different types of produce you grow is important. If you don’t follow the correct storage guidelines, you could end up losing your entire harvest and all of your hard work will have been for nothing.
