How To Store Carrots Properly. Part 1

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

Saving carrots throughout the winter is usually much more difficult than any other root vegetable. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of ways to store it: it is stored in apartments, as well as on balconies and in cool cellars, in clay, in sawdust, in sand and even in the beds. Among such an abundance of all kinds of ways, everyone will definitely choose the most suitable option for themselves and all winter will be able to pamper themselves and their family with juicy and crispy carrots

How to prepare carrots for storage

The most important thing in preparing bright and crunchy root crops for their subsequent storage is their timely and correct harvesting. The ripening time of carrots in most cases is indicated on the seed bags and is largely determined by the variety. If you dig up the carrots ahead of time, then they simply will not ripen and will not have time to accumulate sugar in the required volumes, which in turn will negatively affect its taste. And if you overexpose a carrot in the beds, it will be distinguished by an excess content of amino acids and various sugars, which will certainly make it a tasty and desirable morsel for all kinds of pests - rats, mice and voracious larvae of harmful carrot flies.

If there is no information on the seed bag about the ripening time of the carrot crop, or the seeds for planting were taken from friends, then first of all, you should focus on the color of the tops - the carrot can be removed immediately as soon as its lower leaves begin to turn yellow.

On the eve of digging, so that the roots are juicy, they are not watered. And immediately after harvesting the carrots must be cut off the tops, otherwise, during drying, it will certainly draw off some of the life-giving moisture from the roots.

Carrot tops are usually cut in two stages: first, just above the heads of root crops, the leaves are cut off, and then their heads are completely cut off (up to 0.5 - 1 cm). They are always cut along with the growth points, while you need to try to make the cuts as smooth and as even as possible. Such a drastic measure is an excellent obstacle for the winter germination of carrots, and this is very important - if the carrots begin to sprout, then they will waste valuable nutrients. Also, pruning not only ensures better storage of root crops, but also prevents them from withering. As soon as the pruning process is completed, the carrots should first be thoroughly ventilated under a canopy or thoroughly dried in the sun for a couple of hours.

The next step is to keep the carrots for seven to ten days at a temperature of ten to fourteen degrees. This time will be for her the so-called "quarantine", during which spoiled and infected root crops will certainly make themselves felt, and minor mechanical damage and cut sites will be delayed.

Immediately before sending crispy root crops for storage, they are carefully sorted out and thoroughly examined, rejecting all specimens that are unsuitable for storage.

Storage in sawdust

Many summer residents successfully store carrots in this way. To do this, drawers and coniferous sawdust should be prepared in advance. For long-term storage of carrots, high-quality coniferous sawdust is an excellent filler. Phytoncides, which are rich in needles, are a powerful obstacle to the penetration of all kinds of pathogenic bacteria and pathogenic fungi into root crops and prevent their subsequent germination.

In order to keep the carrots in the sawdust, they should be placed in the boxes in layers, alternating with sawdust each subsequent layer.

Storage in moss

This option will require solid boxes and sphagnum moss. By the way, the boxes can be either plastic or ordinary wooden.

Unwashed, but thoroughly dried in the sun, carrots are first kept in cool rooms for 24 hours, and then placed in boxes, alternating each carrot layer with a layer of sphagnum moss, which perfectly keeps carbon dioxide inside in the required volumes, and also has valuable preservative properties. In addition, this lightweight material does not add additional weight to the carrot boxes, which cannot be said about clay and sand.