Extension News: October 2006 Archives

A New Hampshire family can eat well and healthfully all winter from a big summer vegetable garden without the fuss and cost of canning or freezing, simply by planting (or purchasing) storage varieties that will keep all winter. Old-timers termed this food-storing strategy “common storage.”

Humble and homely, the underground crops: carrots, beets, rutabagas, parsnips, potatoes, garlic and onions provide the foundation of the stored-food winter diet. Late-season red and green cabbages, kale, and Brussels sprouts offer up salads and cooked vegetable dishes. And the majestic winter squashes, mashable, roastable, stuffable, and suitable for a variety of tasty deserts, shape and round out the vegetable menu.

Most New Hampshire households no longer plant food gardens, but more of us could. And a lot more Granite Staters could pre-order a specified amount of storage crops next spring from a local grower, or join a community-supported agricultural venture (CSA) that offers winter storage crops in bulk.

Whether you grow, buy or trade for your winter vegetables, store only those varieties our grandmothers called “good keepers,” the ones that mature late and contain less water than their summer cousins.

Some tips for common storage:

Brussels sprouts and kale: Late-season varieties store well right in the garden all winter long. Mark the rows or beds with a pole so you can dig ‘em out of a deep snow. Harvest as needed.

Cabbage: Cabbage keeps best under conditions of high humidity with a temperature between 32-40 degrees F. Store only perfect, insect-free, unblemished heads whose leaves show no signs of disease. Keep the cabbages directly off the ground, on pallets or shelves. An old-fashioned root cellar with a dirt floor works best for cabbage and root crops, but inventive gardeners have used insulated bulkheads or outside storage boxes, dug pits in the ground, or built earth berms for the purpose. Humidify the environment with boxes of wet sand, old sawdust, or soil in the storage space.
    
Carrots, beets, turnips, rutabagas and parsnips: Dig root vegetables after the first frost, but before the ground freezes. Dig carefully to avoid damage, selecting only well-formed, mature, disease-free roots for storage. Cut back the foliage to within an inch of the root. Store in a cool (34-40 degrees F.), location in wooden boxes or plastic crates (I use cheap plastic laundry baskets), in single layers sandwiched between layers of fresh, damp fall leaves. Sprinkle the boxes occasionally with water to create the moist environment needed to prevent the roots from drying out.

Garlic and onions: You should have harvested garlic bulbs in late July and air-dried them out of direct sunlight for two or three weeks. Cut off the dry tops an inch from the bulbs and store the bulbs in mesh bags in a cool (below 40 degrees, but above freezing), dry place.

Harvest storage onions when the tops fall over as the “neck” region of the onion plant begins to dry out. Leave the harvested bulbs in the garden a day or two, covered by their tops to prevent sunscald. Then set the onions in a cool, well-ventilated location, preferably on screens, to dry. When the tops have dried, cut them to within an inch of the bulb and store the onions in a mesh bag (old pantyhose work well, too) in a cool, dry location. Reserve “scullions”—onions whose necks don’t seal—for immediate use.

Potatoes: Harvest when soil and air temperatures cool down, taking care not to damage tubers. Cure the potatoes in darkness at 45-60 degrees for a couple of weeks, then store in a cool, damp place at 34-40 degrees, in darkness. Discard any potatoes with green skins. Potatoes stored at higher temperatures or in the same room with apples may sprout early. Remove and discard any sprouts that do form.

Winter squash (including spaghetti squash): Cut squash from the vine with at least an inch of stem when green stems turn tan and woody and the rinds have lost their gloss. As long as the weather remains above freezing, leave harvested squash outdoors a few days to cure; the cut end of the stem will heal and the rind will harden.

Store only perfect, unblemished squash on a pallet or a few layers of old newspaper in a spot with a uniform temperature of 50-60 degrees F. and moderate humidity—under the bed in an unheated guest or utility room, or in a dry, unheated cellar or closet. Check squash often and discard any fruit with soft or moldy spots.

By Peg Boyles Writer, UNH Cooperative Extension

10/25/06

For more information call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Center's Info-line (toll free) at 1-877-398-4769 or send us an email. Volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday 9:00am to 2:00 p.m.

From the south-facing windows of my house I can see two apple trees. They sit on the northern slope of a small mountain in central New Hampshire, closely surrounded on three sides by oaks, maples, black birches, poplars, pines and all sorts of undergrowth busily filling up the mountain. The only open space for sunlight and air movement is between the trees and the house, an area of about half an acre. The apple trees stand as vanguards between the cleared, civilized world and the dark, mysterious forest stretching out behind them.

The house was built circa 1790 when George Washington was in politics and apple trees were planted as part of a homestead. My apples could have known the virgin chestnut trees that are built into the house. Maybe they were planted during the Civil War when the land parcel was 80 acres, not 10 as now. The mountain was cleared of forest then and the apple trees shared the acres with blueberries and sheep.

The apple trees are grafted; their trunks sport a distinct line about 12 inches up from the ground that looks like a soft blouse on a person whose belt is too tight. Above the graft, the trunks are textured with worm and flicker holes and the scars of lost branches.

When we arrived here 23 years ago, the trees were completely buried in the woods. We cleared a small area for a back yard but gave the old trees little attention. We kept assuming they would die or fall over from leaning towards the sun. Fifteen years ago, after we hired a professional who pruned them and cut away a few surrounding trees, the apple trees began to produce fruit.

Throughout the years these trees have offered us continual entertainment and wonderment. The ground beneath them is covered with mosses and lichens. The shadows cast upon the soft patches of greens, russets and snow can almost lull away the blues of winter. When the branches glaze over with ice from some bitter onslaught of weather, they shine silver in the morning sun, and in the evening they can become pink and purple, reflecting the sun through the mature forest that protects them from wind.

The apple trees seem to bloom best in the meanest years. When they bloom, they brighten the entire back yard. Then the petals drop to the ground, and it looks as if someone sprinkled pink rings around the trees. The sweet smell and bright pinks of the blossoms arrive as gifts after a long, sterile winter.

The shade of these trees makes a good place to sit from a dog’s point of view. The area is soft and shaded, and you can watch the house and yard, and see all the way down the driveway to the road. All kinds of critters take advantage of these trees. Bees especially like the flowers of the apple trees. You can hear their excited rumble from the middle of the yard on a spring day. Over the years we have watched horses, turkeys, deer and grouse graze on the apples that have fallen to the ground. Birds court, nest, eat bugs and buds. Orioles, scarlet tanagers, blue birds and cardinals visit in the early spring, attracted because we have these grand old trees. Chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, blue jays and titmouses that stay all year, frolic through them.

There was a good crop of small apples this year, russet globes suspended among the branches and leaves. One morning we saw a lot of small branches on the ground around the larger apple tree. The next day the first branches were turning brown on the ground and there were more added to the debris. We also saw broken branches all though the tree and the apples were gone!

Investigation revealed bear scat on the ground. A small bear had come to feast on the apple crop. I would have loved to watch the bear climb up into the tree and snuggle in its cradle of branches, pulling those sweet red treats to its mouth. Those large paws snapping branches inward perform a sort of natural pruning.

My UNH Cooperative Extension Master Gardener training manual reminds me to prune them, but I feel that would hurt these mature ladies who know better than I what they need to face more decades. During Master Gardener training, when I asked the Cooperative Extension fruit specialist what I could do to help my apple trees, he suggested, in the interest of maximizing home fruit production, cutting them down and planting new trees.

I prefer the assisted-living approach. These trees have been providing for the inhabitants of this slope for more than three times my time on this earth. They’ve survived droughts, floods, blizzards, and the hurricane of 1936, which took most of the trees of the state. They survived the barn burning down some 100 years ago.

To whoever planted them and all those who’ve lived here since then, thank you for not eliminating these apple trees. I’d lose a lot from the days in my office, back porch, dining room and kitchen without those trees in my back yard.

By Stephania Pearce, Master Gardener

10/04/06

For more information call the UNH Cooperative Extension's Family, Home & Garden Center's Info-line (toll free) at 1-877-398-4769 or send us an email. Volunteers are available to answer your questions Monday through Friday 9:00am to 2:00 p.m.