Vegetable And Fruit Storage

Vegetables

Cool & moist (32° to 40° F.) Humidity 90-95% Carrots, Beets, Parsnips, Salsify, rutabagas, Turnips, Celery.

Cool & moderately moist, with humidity 80-90% Potatoes, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Chinese Cabbage.

Dry & cool (see text below) Onions, Beans, Peas, Soybeans.

Dry & warm (see text below) Pumpkins, Squash.

The vegetables that need to be kept in cool & moist air, can be stored in moist sand or leaves in the basement or root cellar or even in the ground all winter (with a thick mulch of leaves, straw or newspapers over them) I’ve had much success with carrots being left in the ground until spring–and they are still perfect. If you are using a basement with adequate humidity for the second group above, then the moist sand or leaves will probably not be necessary.

For the third group, dry & cool: a moist root cellar or basement storage is not a good place to store onions. Try your attic, but don’t let them freeze. Do not place them in deep layers or closed containers.

Dry & warm vegetables can be stored at about 40-50° in a dry room. They keep best if placed on shelves so that they do not touch each other. (I’ve had winter butternut and spaghetti squash last 6 mos. stored in my pantry). You can keep green, mature tomatoes from 6 to 8 weeks stored at about 55-65° on shelves. They will ripen in about 2 mos.

Fruits

Apples and pears (some varieties keep better than others) should be kept as close to 32° as possible and the humidity at 80-85%. Most other kinds of fruit will not keep very well beyond a couple of weeks or so.

About the drums in the ground, my book talks about barrels but I it think could still apply. Since it talks about drainage, you might want to think about drilling a few small holes around the sides and bottom, as I believe it will need some air circulating. Put the container in the ground at about a 45 ° angle with some stones in the bottom to facilitate drainage. Cover it all around with about 6 inches of dirt then 6 inches of straw or leaves and finally with about 2 inches of dirt to hold the mulch in place. After the fruits and vegetables are packed, place the cover over the top and then pile about a foot of mulch on the cover with a board and a rock to keep in place. Experimenting with this in winter will help, especially if you keep records of what works and what doesn’t work.