Keeping vegetables in winter

Only store or freeze good quality produce. Use inferior but still edible leftovers as soon as possible. There are many different ways to keep your own vegetables over winter. Storing them is the obvious one to start with. Potatoes, onions, garlic and shallots are relatively straightforward in this respect. Good quality unblemished examples of the above can all be kept over winter in a frost-free, dry, darkened outbuilding or garage.

Potatoes are usually stored in paper or string sacks, for six months or more. Check them periodically for early signs of rot and decay. Only store dry, undamaged tubers, checking carefully for signs of blight or other damage. When harvesting, grade the tubers, according to their condition. Use imperfect ones, straight away, rather than risk storing. Unwittingly storing blighted tubers will cause rot and the whole bag will end up a smelly, rotten stinky mess. If lots of small flies appear in the vicinity of the storage area, it is likely that something is rotting and this should be a sign to investigate further.

Onions of course are traditionally strung up or tied and again, only store long term, good quality specimens. Make sure the onions are thoroughly dry and I always like to peel the outer layer off as soon as I’ve harvested. Moisture in the neck or near the basal plate is potentially damaging and needs to be avoided at all costs. Store your onions in an airy, dry and preferably dark location. Shallots and garlic are similarly treated. Garlic is easiest of all to store, far less fussy, though even this will rot if not dried out properly before storing.

Young broad beans and peas freeze really well for months on end once they are blanched. They still taste very good when they come out of the freezer.

• Salting

Although runner beans are touted as being suitable for freezing, I’ve always felt they lose their flavour and can taste rather bland. One traditional preserving method for runner beans is to salt them. This is an old method, used by women in the early 1900’s and long since afterwards. It is making a gradual comeback in popularity, partly due perhaps to the simplicity of the process.

• Simply top and tail and slice the freshly picked tender young beans, checking for any stringy bits as you go. Avoid the tough older beans.
• Put a layer of coarse salt in your container, then beans, then salt and beans and so on.
• Tamp each layer down gently as you go. The key point is to finish with a layer of salt.
• The container should be non-porous. Plastic is ideal as are glass jars. Keep the light away from the beans or they will go brown. Glass can be covered with brown paper to exclude light. Cover the container with a lid. The salt draws the moisture from the beans, turning into a saline solution, thus preserving them.
• Give a good wash and soak in clean water for no more than several hours before cooking as per fresh beans. Beans treated this way should keep for several months and you’ll be surprised how good they taste.

• Making A Clamp

In years gone by a classic way of storing potatoes, carrot and beetroot in larger quantities was in a circular-shaped clamp outdoors.

Today, some gardeners still use this method but it is not as popular as it once was. Clamps are easy to make, if a little labour intensive and they work very well.

• To begin with, find an old corner or spare patch of land and dig out a circular base, the size of which is up to you. A typical average size is a base of 3ft (a metre) in diameter with a depth of around 1ft (30cm).
• Then line the base with straw until it is above ground level. Place the potatoes or roots onto the straw base, making sure they are dry and damage free. Once all the produce is in place, cover the entire heap with a further 1ft (30cm) of straw.
• Then 1ft (30cm) away from the base dig out a spade’s depth of soil and put it all the way round the bottom edge of the straw, patting it down as you go. Do this three to four times, covering an even higher portion of the heap each time, until the straw is completely covered with soil and you reach the top.
• Finally, insert a small pipe at the top of the heap. This allows the clamp to breathe by letting stagnant air out. In extreme weather, cover the pipe to prevent frost penetrating the clamp. Also, do remember to re-seal the clamp properly when you have used it or else its effectiveness will be greatly reduced.

Next time, we look at options for storing fruit over the winter season.