The white potatoes seem to be storing a teensy bit better than the red ones.
I've found a few eyes starting to sprout on the reds so have been using those up first.The above spuds pictured aren't all we have, but just the top layer of other boxes of them. Looks as though we'll have plenty of taters for a long while yet. (If I can talk the reds into holding off a little on that sprouting.)
Sorted through the box of bagged onions and found them to be in good shape. A couple here and there are trying to send out green shoots but for the most part, they are fine. And as you'll notice, I even found another little bag of red onions. Yippee! I thought I had used the last of them a week or so ago.
I didn't save many fresh beets. I either pickled them or blanched and froze them for quicker and easier use with meals. This is the last bag I didn't process and they are looking almost as good as when I bagged them up.
Oh my, do we have carrots! Who the heck planted so many this past year? I have them all stored in the back of the bottom shelf of my admittedly humongous commercial spare refrigerator and, as you can see by this one bag, once again this seems to be the best way for us to keep them. I've been concentrating on using them the last several weeks and find they've retained a beautiful color, crispness and seem to be growing sweeter in storage.Between these stored root crops and all the veggies I have put by either canned, dried or frozen, we shouldn't be lacking for vegetables on our plates any time soon.
P.S. Just got up a post on my quilting blog if you're interested. Progress on my daughter's winter wall hanging . . .
I'm jealous of those potatoes and onions! I still have a few gallon freezer bags of sliced and diced onions but am now buying potatoes, sigh... ( fixed my font too! :))
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely veggies you still have. We are down to just some potatoes and quite a few tomatoes still left. Ripening the tomotoes on cut vines in the garage worked really well for us.
ReplyDeleteErin - I should have sent some potatoes home with you at holiday time!! Why didn't I think of that?
ReplyDeleteI've already noticed you fixed the font . . . I thank you again.
Signed, PP
2 Tramps - Ooooh, I am so jealous of your tomatoes! How wonderful you found a way of stretching out their season this way. Enjoy!
I still have carrots in the ground. Some of them are rotting, but most are still good. I envy you your potatoes, I have never had luck growing them for some reason. We got enough last year for a small pan of new potatoes and peas. Beautiful pictures!
ReplyDeleteWow! Those look amazing! I gotta figure out a means of doing that...
ReplyDeleteWe run out of potatoes and onions way too fast!
Ruth - Yup, we can never have too many potatoes, can we? They go with just about everything and even make a really yummy, fulfilling soup!
ReplyDeleteAPG - First you have to plant a lot of them. (Ha-ha!) I don't mean to be a smart a$$, but to have anything to preserve or store, you do need a lot. I mean you're trying to have enough to feed yourselves for how many months? At least six months? The thing with potatoes is that the homegrown ones taste SO much better than any you can buy in the store. You'd think a potato is a potato is a potato, but it's just not so!
How many pounds of taters did you harvest???
ReplyDeleteYour potatoes look so good! Mine are sprouting pretty badly. Lesson learned though and next year I will plant the bulk for a fall harvest. Your onions too are envious. I didn't get many and they are long gone. Everything else looks very good too. Like you, we seem to be doing okay for veggies, though much of ours are still in the ground.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to store root crops but I just don't have a place for them that they wouldn't be either too hot or too cold.
ReplyDeleteI even have problems storing a couple of pumpkins for pies so I just end up cooking and freezing them to use later.
This year we are going to concentrate on tomatoes. I'm going to can tomatoes and make salsa cause we eat lots of that.
Wasn't it your potato patch that had some nasty infestation at the end of the season? Will you be able to plant any this year, do you think?
ReplyDeleteI envy you all your fresh veggies. Nothing tastes better than the things you grow yourself!
I bought my first bag of potatoes last week. And they were terrible. I miss mine.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any air holes in the bags you use to store the carrots, or is that just a regular plastic bag? I am planting WAY MORE carrots this year and am wondering the best way to store for the long term.
Beautifully stored produce, Mama Pea! Lately, I've been fixating on beets---yours looked so good.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful veggies!! Carrots are the very first thing we run out of here. I never seem to plant enough. :( How fabulous that you have all this food stored!! You go, girl!!
ReplyDeleteWe've already run out of onion, potatoes and beets. All we have left is a few carrots and some bagas. Your potatoes look great.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed, too, that the carrots get sweeter.
Waaaaaa!!!!!! I ran out of fresh vegetables a month ago. I didn't plant enough onions, pototo didn't do well, and carrots went fast. I have been down to eating things out of the freezer, jars, or dried and I am getting a little sick of it. Can I come over for a cup of root crops?
ReplyDeleteAPG - We harvested 135-1/2# of red potatoes BUT 42-1/2# of that amount had evidence of the wire worms so they went/are going to the chickens this winter. That left us with 93# of reds for our consumption.
ReplyDeleteWe got only 45# (half as many) whites from the same footage as the reds. (Go figure?) But only 8# of those were attacked by the wire worms. Good thing we prefer the reds, huh?
Leigh - Ha! We can only get one crop of taters because our season is so short. And you're lucky to be able to "store" some of your root veggies in the ground!
Sparkless - I'm surprised you can grow enough tomatoes to can. That's a dream of mine (I use a lot of stewed tomatoes in soups, etc.) but I'll have to wait for a greenhouse before that will be possible in our locale.
Jen - The part of the garden I had the potatoes in will lie fallow this year. That seems to be the recommended and surest way to get rid of the wire worms.
Sue - The carrots are in regular plastic bags but I did poke random holes in them for ventilation. We've tried storing carrots all the recommended ways (in sawdust, in sand, etc.) but have found that in the bags like this and in the refrig works the very best for us. I know this isn't practical if you don't have a spare refrig, but it does work well.
ReplyDeleteJJ - Thank you! I've never understood people who don't like beets. You can do so much with them and they are chock full of vitamins and minerals!
Mama Tea - I gotta say carrots are a pain in the patoot to plant and thin but once that's done, I think they're easy. Now that we've figured out how to store them, I'm feeling pretty smug about always having enough. I planted (intensively) our whole huge supply in one 4 x 8' raised bed this year.
odiie - I didn't do rutabagas or turnips last year but, wouldn't ya know it, have been craving them this winter!
Jane - Absolutely! I'll trade you root crops for some of your fresh greens!!
I forgot about those beets! Now I am reminded that I want to plant them -- can you give me/us the type again? And I am so envious of your potato crop - they look so good!
ReplyDeleteSusan - The beets are Forono and they're an old heirloom variety. They've always done very well for me and I'm sure they will for you, too. I plant them intensively in a 4' x 8' raised bed. Four-foot long rows only 6" apart. You can get a LOT of beets in one bed that way! (Plus no weeds!)
ReplyDeleteOh, how awesome! Gives me hope for my onions and potatoes I have in my garden for this next year. Thanks!
ReplyDelete~~Lori
Lori - It's such a good feeling to have basics like your own onions and potatoes on hand through the winter. Hoping you get a bountiful crop from this year's garden!
ReplyDelete