9 vegetables that keep tasty and fresh the longest
Vegetables can “live” until spring (photo: Pixabay.com)
If the harvest has already been harvested, you need to plan how long different vegetables will be stored. Accordingly, you can create your winter menu from your food. Which vegetables are the champions of long-term storage?
RBC-Ukraine dwells on which vegetables, if stored properly, can delight you with their taste for many months.
Carrots
Storing carrots is a rather complicated process, but they can last up to a year without damage under ideal conditions.
What do you need to preserve the root vegetable? For example, dip it in a clay solution. The consistency of the solution should be the thickness of the sour cream. Each carrot is dipped in the mixture and dried. After that, put them in a storage container on the balcony.
Another way is to sprinkle carrots with coniferous sawdust—alternate sawdust and carrots in layers. The top is also covered with sawdust. After that, the box is closed with a lid and placed on a cold balcony or in a pantry. The optimum storage temperature is from 0 to +2°C.
Cabbage
White cabbage can stay in the apartment for up to three months if stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of 0 to +1°C. The vegetable is wrapped in foil and a bag and then placed on a shelf. If the top leaves begin to deteriorate or wilt, they can be removed, then re-wrapped and stored further.
Cabbage stored in the refrigerator (photo: Freepik)
Garlic
Garlic can be winter or spring, depending on the time of planting. This is important for understanding the storage conditions: winter garlic is harvested in July and stored for a maximum of six months, so it can dry out or sprout before the New Year.
There are several storage options: you can place it in a cool, dark place at a temperature of 15-21°C, but it won't last long, in the refrigerator at +1-5°C, or a jar with peeled cloves covered with oil.
Spring garlic harvested in August will keep for up to 12 months. It's easy to store - just choose a place in a dark cupboard away from heating appliances (recommended temperature is 15-21°C).
Potatoes
Potatoes should be stored in a cool, dark place, ideally in the basement, so that they do not freeze. If the potatoes freeze, they will turn pink and sweet, green in the sun, and quickly rot next to onions or in a very humid place.
Potatoes need a humidity of up to 90% and a temperature of no higher than 5 degrees, otherwise, the tubers will sprout. You can put a box with it on the balcony if it is not heated. You can store the crop there until the frost, but first, you need to cover the tubers with something warm to stabilize the temperature.
Beetroot
It is very important to store beets without tops so that the root crop does not wilt prematurely. Another very important storage condition is coolness. Beets do not tolerate high temperatures, so it is best to store them in the basement or the refrigerator.
When stored in the refrigerator, beets should be placed in a bag and placed on the vegetable shelf at a temperature of +4°C.
Beetroot must be cut off the tail (photo: Freepik)
Onions
Onions do not tolerate excessive cold or moisture, so the basement is not a good place to store them. Yellow onions are best stored for up to six months, while red onions begin to deteriorate a little earlier.
No special conditions need to be observed; you can simply pour the onions on a newspaper and place them under any furniture. Or fill a box with bulbs so that they are ventilated from all sides and do not rot. The required temperature is from +18 to +22°C.
Pumpkin and zucchini
The storage conditions for these fruits are identical. They, like onions, can be safely stored in a dark closet. Pumpkin is stored with the stalks up. Place the fruits at a small distance from each other to ensure better air circulation.
In this form, pumpkin and zucchini can last for six months or more. The best temperature for storage is +5-15°C.
Pumpkin is easily stored for a long time (photo: Freepik)
Tomatoes
If you want to keep your harvest longer, remove green tomatoes from the branch. In this form, they will gradually ripen in your home and can be stored for up to three months.
Put the tomatoes in boxes or baskets and place them in a dark place, preferably cool, up to +15°C. You can pre-wrap each of the fruits with paper, but this is not necessary. Do not put a lot of tomatoes in one box so that they do not get crushed.
