Every Step in Canning Part 32

Some vegetables such as onions, squashes, sweet potatoes and pumpkins can be stored in the attic in crates which allow free circulation of air. They must be absolutely free from bruises and must be well ripened and cured. To cure the vegetables expose them to the air for a few days in the shade. Remove the tops of onions before storing. The attic is much better for storing onions than the bas.e.m.e.nt. Squashes are susceptible to cold and moisture, so are suitable for the attic.

Be very careful in handling the squashes to prevent breaking the stems off. Watch pumpkins and squash carefully and at the first sign of decay, use immediately or can.

SAND BOX STORAGE

Sand boxes in cellars, pits or caves are desirable for beets, turnips, kohl-rabi, carrots, winter radishes and rutabagas. The sand keeps them cold and prevents evaporation. Kohl-rabi should be tender when stored.

PANTRY STORAGE

Where there is no attic or where it is inconveniently reached, the products that are adapted to a very dry place can be stored on the pantry shelves or in a dry cellar near the furnace. They are onions, squashes, pumpkins and sweet potatoes.

The keeping qualities of all these vegetables, no matter what storage is used, depends chiefly upon their condition when placed in storage.

All products to be stored must be mature, but not overgrown. Root crops should be dry while the ground is in good working condition. All vegetables should be allowed to become surface dry before placing them in storage.

White or Irish potatoes, especially, should not be exposed to bright sunlight any length of time. Only vegetables free from disease or injury should be stored. Any that are damaged can be used immediately, or can be canned or dried.

Further particulars for the storing of fresh vegetables are given in the following tables.

TABLE FOR VEGETABLE STORAGE

VEGETABLES HOW BEST STORED PREPARATION FOR STORAGE AMOUNT FOR FAMILY OF TWO REMARKS Irish Potatoes Must be kept cool with a slight degrees of moisture. Use either cellar or cave methods. No potato should be more than four ft. from air if stored in barrels, boxes, crates or bins.

Potatoes must be dug before the ground is crusted with frost. Frosted potatoes will spoil, one after another.

Impossible to sort out frosted potatoes.

10 to 15 bus.

Remember Irish potatoes are ruined by freezing. Potatoes should be kept absolutely dark to prevent greening by light. Never buy potatoes in sacks that show wet places due to a frosted potato.

Sweet Potatoes Require warmth and dryness. In crates or on shelves in warm dry room. Can be spread on the floor in the room above the kitchen where they will have plenty of heat, especially for the first 2 or 3 weeks after they are dug.

When the sweet potatoes are dug they should be allowed to lie in the sun and wind for 3 or 4 hours so as to become perfectly dry. They must be well ripened and free from bruises. Can be kept on shelves in a very dry place and they need not be kept specially cold. Sweet potatoes keep best when they are showing just a little inclination to sprout. However, if they start growing the quality is greatly injured.

2 to 3 bus.

If you are in doubt as to whether the sweet potatoes are matured enough for storage, cut or break one end and expose it to the air for a few minutes. If the surface of the cut or break dries, the potato is mature. But if moisture remains on the surface, it is not fully ripened. In places where there are early frosts, sweet potatoes should be dug about the time the first frost is expected, without considering maturity.

Carrots Are best stored in sand in cellars, caves or pits; or in tightly covered boxes or crocks. Must be kept cold and evaporation must be prevented, for otherwise they become wilted.

Can remain in the ground until the weather is quite cool; then be pulled, the tops cut off and then stored.

1 to 3 bus.

If you store carrots in the cellar and it is extremely dry cover them with a little moistened sand.

Celery May be rooted in earth in a cellar or cave and if watered occasionally will keep fresh until Christmas. The soil, earth or sand, in which the celery is set should be 2 or 3 inches deep. This soil must not be allowed to become dry.

Can remain in the ground until the weather is quite cool.

5 dozen good plants or bunches.

Another way to store celery is to bank it to the top with earth; cover the tops with boards, straw, or leaves and allow it to remain where it has grown until wanted for use. Another way is to dig a trench 12 inches wide and deep enough to correspond with the height of the celery, then lift the celery and pack it in this trench with some soil about the roots. When the weather becomes colder, cover the trench with boards nailed together in the form of a _V_ shaped trough and over this inverted trough put a layer of soil. The ends of this trough should be left open for ventilation until freezing sets in, then close these openings with straw, old bags or soil.

If the freeze ceases and there is a spell of warmer weather open the ends slightly for ventilation. When the celery is first stored in the trenches the soil about the roots of the celery should be watered and and if the weather is dry after the celery is put in the trenches, pour some water around the roots to keep the celery crisp and fresh.

Cabbage Can be wrapped in paper with the outer leaves left on for immediate use and stored in ventilated barrels or large crates in the cellar. But as few cellars are cool enough to keep cabbage in good condition it is more advisable to store it in a long shallow pit in the garden.

Is not injured by moderate frost while in the pit but should not be disturbed while frozen. The pit should be long and narrow. Pull the cabbage, stem, root and all, and then laid with heads down about 3 heads in width can be placed in the pit. Cover lightly with soil and as the weather becomes colder add a little more soil until there is a layer 6 or 7 inches thick over the cabbage.

Keep the ends of the pit partially open for ventilation until the weather becomes very cold.

25 heads.

Late varieties of cabbage are the only ones fit for storage. It is advisable to dig a shallow ditch around the pit so that all surplus water can be carried off.

Chickory or Endive Store in a box or bed of moist sand in the cellar. Put roots in an upright position with the sand coming just to their tops. Water the sand occasionally. Sometimes a covering of straw is added to blanch the tender growth of shoots, which is the part used as food.

Late in the fall lift the roots out and carefully trim off the leaves without injury to the heart.

5 doz. roots.

Chickory or endive is grown the same as carrots or salsify. It is useful in the winter for it furnishes the needed green that is so scarce in winter.

Beets Must not be placed in too large piles in the cellar as they are inclined to mold. Can also be buried in pits in open ground.

Can remain in the ground until very cool weather; then should be pulled, the tops cut off and then stored in the cellar.

1 bushel.

Beets are not so much inclined to shrivel as carrots.

Salsify or Vegetable Oyster Pack roots in box with moist sand in cellar or as they are not injured by remaining in the ground all winter they can be left there. Enough for immediate use may be dug in the autumn and the others dug as desired.

When stored in the cellar after the salsify is pulled, trim off the tops and then stand them in an upright position with the sand even with the tops.

75 to 100 roots.

Is injured by too much freezing and thawing, so should remain frozen.

Parsnips Can be stored just as salsify or be allowed to remain in the ground until wanted.

Those that are to be stored in the cellar can remain in in the garden until the weather is quite cool, then prepare and store like salsify.

1 bushel in the cellar and one in the garden.

Parsnips are best kept frozen or fresh in the cellar as too much freezing and thawing destroys them.

Turnips Must be stored where temperature is low or sprouting will result. Moderate freezing does no harm while in the storage pit but they must not be disturbed while frozen.

Pull; cut tops off and store in sand in cellars or caves, or in pits, or in tightly covered boxes or crocks.

1 to 3 bus.

The object is to keep them cold and prevent evaporation. It is a good plan to store a portion in the cellar so as to be available during the time that those buried in the pit are "frozen in" and not so easily accessible.

Onions Require a cool dry place. Attic excellent.

Before storing, cure them by exposing to the air for a few days in the shade. Dryness is absolutely essential.

A well cured onion should be firm and not readily dented at the base of the tops by the tip of the thumb when held in the hand.

3 bushels.

Onions are best for storage if topped about 1 inches long.

Cauliflower Planted in shallow boxes of soil in light place in the cellar.

Must not be too mature.

Store as many as possible.

If kept well watered they will mature for winter use.

Brussels Sprouts Planted in soil in cellar.

Must not be too mature.

According to family tastes.

Keep watered and will mature.

Ground Cherries or Husk Tomatoes May be stored for some weeks in the husk in their layers in a dry place free from frost.

Kohl-rabi, Winter Radishes, Rutabagas Best stored in sand in cellars, cares or pits.

Must be kept cold to prevent evaporation.

According to the family tastes.

Kohl-rabi must be tender when stored.

Horse-radish May be kept in the ground where grown all winter. Must be kept frozen as thawing injures it.

Pumpkins Best kept on shelves in a very dry place. Can be kept on shelves in furnace room.

Must be ripened and cured and free from bruises.

5 ordinary sized pumpkins.

Need not be kept especially cold.

Squashes Susceptible to cold and moisture, so store in a dry place where temperature will be between 50 and 60 degrees.

Care must be taken that stem is not broken.

10 ordinary sized hubbard squashes.

Whenever squashes or pumpkins in storage show signs of decay, the sound portion should be immediately canned.

Tomatoes Cool cellar or cave; can be wrapped in any absorbent paper preferably without printing upon it, and laid upon shelves to ripen. The paper absorbs the moisture given off by the tomatoes and causes them to ripen uniformly. If cellar is dry or well ventilated, tomatoes can be kept a month or six weeks in this manner.

May be kept until Christmas if vines with the green tomatoes hanging on them are pulled and hung in the cellar. Pull the vines before they are frosted.

All that you can put away.

Most of the tomatoes that are put into storage will ripen and be most acceptable as soon as they color up. If these tomatoes, when cooked, are found to be very acid, the acidity may be overcome by using baking soda.

Parsley Transplant into flower pots late in the fall.

Keep in windows where they will receive plenty of sunshine.