How To Store Carrots Properly. Part 3

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

Returning to the topic of storing carrots, one cannot fail to mention several more ways of storing it. After all, not only beginners face difficulties sometimes. However, if you carefully read all the possible storage options for the underground beauty and choose the most suitable one for yourself, the harvest will be preserved in the best possible way. Moreover, all storage methods are quite simple and completely inexpensive

Storage in polyethylene bags

For such storage, you will need to prepare polyethylene bags, the capacity of which should be in the range from five to thirty kilograms. Place such bags in cool and secluded corners, while keeping them open. With this storage option, juicy carrots, as a rule, do not wither at all, since the air humidity in polyethylene bags itself is at a fairly acceptable level of 96 - 98%.

What else is this method good for? Not everyone knows that crispy carrots give off carbon dioxide during storage. And open bags are good because carbon dioxide accumulates in them in a rather small volume, which will be just enough to prevent all kinds of carrot ailments. If the bags are tied, then the carrots will deteriorate pretty soon, since the volume of carbon dioxide will significantly exceed the concentration of vital oxygen. So when storing carrots in closed bags, ventilation holes will need to be done in such bags.

Often, condensation appears from the inside in plastic bags with stored root crops - such a nuisance is evidence of high humidity in the storage area. If this happens, it is recommended to scatter some fluffy lime near the bags - it will quickly absorb all the moisture.

Storage in pans

To preserve the carrots this way, you will need enamel saucepans. The harvested carrot crop is thoroughly washed, the tails and tops are cut off and the carrots are dried in the sun. Dried roots are placed vertically in saucepans, after which they are covered with a napkin on top. Then the saucepans must be covered with lids. And so that the carrots are perfectly preserved until the next harvest, it is best to keep such saucepans in cool cellars.

Storage in the garden

You can leave part of the carrot harvest for the winter right in the beds - in the spring it can be dug up and used until the next harvest. For all root crops that remain in storage in the beds, the tops must be cut off entirely. After that, the beds need to be covered with coarse-grained and slightly moistened sand, and then thoroughly cover them with foil. But that's not all. Humus, peat, fallen leaves or sawdust are also laid on top of the film, after which the beds are again covered with another layer of film or roofing material. Such an unusual shelter will allow the carrot to perfectly endure the winter cold. Moreover, the root vegetables will remain tasty and fresh.

How else are carrots stored

Root crops are stored well enough if they are sprinkled with onion peel infusion or coniferous infusion in advance. To prepare this composition, 100 g of raw materials are diluted in a liter of water and insisted for five days. By the way, you can not just spray the carrots - it is quite acceptable to immerse the root vegetables directly in the infusion. The carrots are kept in this infusion for about ten minutes, after which they are dried and placed in storage.

Some summer residents dust bright root vegetables with chalk - ten kilograms of crispy root vegetables will require about one hundred and fifty or two hundred grams of chalk. Alternatively, you can dip the carrots in a chalk suspension (30%), and then dry them properly. A thin chalky layer forms a weak alkaline environment that prevents carrots from decaying.

Sometimes well-washed and cut root crops are wrapped with food stretch film. Moreover, it is important to try to do this in such a way that each carrot turns out to be wrapped in a film entirely and does not come into contact with its “comrades”. You can also wrap the root vegetables individually in newspaper or paper.

There is also a rather unusual folk way of storing carrots: clean and well-dried carrots are dipped in hot paraffin. And for greater elasticity of the composition, a little beeswax is added to it. In this form, you can store root crops for about four to five months, while maintaining a temperature regime from zero to two degrees. Carrots will definitely be very fresh and tasty.