Storing your vegetable bounty

A veggie bouquet

We’re nearly at the end of summer but the harvest just seems to accelerate.  Green beans, tomatoes, climbing zucchini – the plants just keep pumping out more.  Some crops hold well in the garden.  I’ve learned to leave beets, kale, chard and I suppose carrots – if only I could grow a decent carrot – in place.

Cooling temperatures offer a reprieve which some crops appreciate; sort of the big outdoor crisper of autumn.  Other crops begin to deteriorate if left in the ground or on the vine for too long; radishes go pithy, beans get starchy, lettuce bolts.  These veggies actually store better and last longer if you pick them at their peak and store them under proper conditions inside.  Zucchinis are best stashed in friend’s cars or neighbors front porches…but you knew that.

I found this handy chart put out by the Berkeley Farmers Market with tips for storing fruits and vegetables.    They also have advice for how to package things before you stuff them into the refrigerator. Hint: you’re not supposed to stuff things into the refrigerator.   If you’re like me and trying to reduce your use of plastic in the kitchen (& everywhere else for that matter) there’s great stuff about using open containers, damp toweling and even holding greens in a small vase of water like a pretty vegetal bouquet.  I was astonished how much can actually be held on a cool countertop.

One of my fall projects – and the list is oh-so-long – is to create “live storage” in one of our outdoor garden rooms.  Well, we call them “garden rooms,” because “scary-cobwebby-place-where-the-cat-stashes-his-kill-and-yard-tools-go-to-die” sounds just a bit unpleasant and not necessarily someplace you would want to even go near, let alone store provisions for the coming winter!!!  Here’s an introduction to creating “live storage” – what our grandparents called a root cellar, from my book Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest:

Using “live” storage reduces dependence on electricity, requires little to no equipment, and takes some pressure off kitchen preserving duties.  It is the easiest form of preservation.  Cool, dark, moist conditions arrest enzyme action that leads to overripening, while an appropriate level of air circulation fends off decay.  Under the proper light, temperature, humidity, and air circulation, food can be maintained and stored in a “live” condition.  Requiring nothing in the way of processing or energy, live storage is a straightforward and economical solution to food preservation if you have space and can maintain the appropriate conditions.

Well, we’ll see about that.  I still remember when my efforts to ripen green tomatoes in years past created nothing more than a huge, slimy, gelatinous mess I had to clean off the work table in the basement – just possibly not the “proper conditions” referred to in the text.

Stay tuned to follow my progress.  I’m going to force myself to clean out the aforementioned cat-kills, cobwebs and tool cemetery this weekend – how festive!  But in the meantime I’m going to follow the food storing advice of the good people of the Berkeley Farmers Market.  Ugh, I suppose that means I have to clean out the refrigerator as well.  Is that why it’s called “Labor” day weekend?

Tagged as: Canning & Preserving Your Own Harvest, cool-season vegetables, growing your own food, seasonal bounty, tomatoes, zucchini