This is my pantry that doubles as a root cellar. I store my jars and vegetables here at a cool room temperature. Vegetables I have here are shell beans, popcorn, coriander, garlic, potatoes, and winter squashes.
I spend a lot of time in the pantry. It has a little work shelf. Also storage shelves with garden books and garden supplies. In the middle are plant shelves with lights that I can wheel around. The room is off the garage, well vented, and has its own temperature control. It's a tight space but it does the job.
Other things I've stored this year are,
Freezer: green beans, basil pesto, roasted chiles, pizza sauce, raspberries, and dried pears
Refrigerator: carrots, beets, cabbage, and winter radishes
Kitchen: dried beans and dried chiles
Boiler room: honey
do you wash your potatoes before storing them??
ReplyDeleteWow. I was at a talk by Roger Swain of the PBS Victory Garden TV show this afternoon and I can relate how he answered this question. You should either rinse them gently or store without washing. Freshly dug potatoes have delicate skin so you don’t want to scrub them. Personally, I rinse mine. I use the outdoor hose, fill and drain the bucket a couple times, then spread them to dry on the patio table.
ReplyDeleteWe ate a couple of my potatoes tonight. I roasted them in a pan with chicken. They were delicious. I washed them well and removed those little spots before roasting with skins on.
Are you harvesting honey yet?
ReplyDeleteso i'm wondering if you can answer a random question for me... it's about growing carrots... ever have issues with damage caused by root nematodes? does that even happen in backyard growing in massachusetts? wondering if i have some light damage due to this on my carrots this year... this is only my second year growing them since i never had enough room before and i'm not sure if what i pulled is edible or not. (other then that, they're pretty perfect.) i had soil imported into some of my raised beds this past season by the landscapers who were doing work for us and then had all sorts of issues with diseases i've never confronted before in those same beds. so, so disappointing! anyway- long story short- either i'm just hyper concerned because i now don't trust the soil and am imagining things or i might have an issue with this... i know you've grown tons of carrots and even in several different gardens... do carrots ever just naturally have tiny "ball" type growths on the roots? (not on the carrot itself) i cannot for the life of me remember what the roots looked like when i pulled them last year (i grew in a different, problem free soil)... when i look up photos of nematode damage on carrots the photos offered are so extreme that it's really unhelpful in assessing what i have happening... and lastly, any thoughts on whether they are still edible if it is indeed light damage? the thought grosses me out but maybe i'm just suffering from internet sensationalism! i just don't know any more. lol! help!
ReplyDeleteHow big is the pantry?
ReplyDeleteAre you harvesting honey?
ReplyDeleteHoney. That’s my sad story. I harvested about 18 lbs in late August. In early October both of my hives died. One day I had healthy hives, a week later all bees dead on the ground in front of the hive. I think it’s due to high moisture levels as the hives were right next to a big pond and we get a lot of mist in the fall. But I don’t really know for sure. The same think happened last year, though later in the season, December I think. Next year I plan to move my hives away from the pond and see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteMy pantry is about 10 x 15 ft I think. I’ll measure and check on this.
ReplyDeleteso sad about the bees
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about my bees - their hives were full of honey but it was all robbed before I got to it. Within a day or two. I had checked the hives recently prior to loosing the bees and I could only lift one box at a time. 80 lbs or so of honey was there. In the past when I’ve lost bees I can still collect the honey.
ReplyDeleteI’ve talked with people at our bee club and I hear that robbing is rampant this year. My neighbor also lost a weak hive this week to robbing.
I think the robbing is due to our crazy weather. It’s so warm that the bees are out and active. But the sun is low so all our flowers are gone. There’s no food out there for the bees. The native wasps are terrible now. Worse than Ive seen them anytime we try to eat outside. I was feeding my bees before I lost them, but I suppose not everyone is.
So, I have no bees and no honey.
About those carrots. Yes, it sounds like carrot root nematodes to me. These cause small galls on the roots of carrots and twisted roots. Are they safe to eat? I don’t know for sure but I assume so. I’ve never heard of a carrot problem that made them inedible. The bugs just make them look ugly. You’re situation sounds pretty mild. I would peel and eat them, but I can’t tell you for sure that this is fine. I think you’d need to contact a university extension program for a definitive answer on that.
ReplyDeleteNematodes are hard to control I have read. It sounds like once you have them you need to be careful to rotate your crops with plants that do not host them. That’s not so easy as the carrot nematode infects many vegetables and weeds. Good rotations plants are corn and French marigolds. Also you can solarize the beds with black plastic in mid summer. I’ve never had nematode problems. I hope this helps.
No, I think my bees died from too much moisture inside their hive. Then after they died I think honey bees from someone else’s hive came and robbed all the honey. I don’t know for sure, but that’s what I think happened.
ReplyDeleteMy neighbor lost a hive and she thinks other honeybees came in and killed her bees and robbed all their honey. She saw it happening, but didn’t realize what was going on. It was a big active cloud of honey bees at her hive.
There’s a dead hive I noticed up the street. I want to stop by and ask them what happened to their hive.