Overwinter veg storage

I'm curious to know if anyone managed to store veg (taters, carrots pumpkins squash etc) in a wooden shed without any form of heating through last winter's sub zero temps ok or not.

Has anyone acually managed to do this and if so how?

Steve...

 

Hey Steve,

Yes, but not even in a shed, it was outside.:OUCH:

Firstly, the potatoes, left in the ground with a 6" layer of woodchip on the top. And 4" of frozen snow on top of that. They were fine except for 1 that got frosted.

Secondly, beetroot, carrots, parsnips & artichokes.

Packed in damp woodchip, inside a polystyrene fish box. Parsnips didn't do too well, but I ate the last beetroot last week.

 

The answer is simple - by turning the spuds into potato products, peeling/chopping/bagging the carrots & pumkins and turning most of my marrows into curries (some are dehydrated to thicken veggie stews), and keeping them in the freezers in my unheated timber shed - I believe that satisfies all the requirements above.

 

Cheers Zig..

Scrungee, I trained and worked as a Chef for many years so know how to preserve food stuffs, hence why my question is quite specific and is intended for produce left over from other storage/preserving methods. When all that is done I will still have a wooden shed to use for storage, with no power even for a frost heater. So I was looking for input from others who may have stored through last winter in a unheated shed.

Steve...

 

Back in the "Good Old Days" my Grandad used to grow fields of Spuds.
They used to pile them high in the field, cover them in straw and then soil.
It looked like a Slag Heap but during the winter there was always Spuds for sale and the tractor and cart was loaded every week for delivery to the villages around.
I'm not sure if the modern family, with their "pre washed", pre peeled, pre cut etc will cope with the idea of preserving produce over winter.
They can always resort to the Pre-cooked, pre-preserved gunk in the £1 Supermarket ready meals!!! - pass the Tomato Sauce please

 

I've considered "clamping" some taters but think our soil stays far too wet for that...but might be worth a trial run at least, I might "buy" some cheap "bargain" or "Value" taters for that trial rather than use our own home grown...

Steve...

 

See if you can blag some cellotex off of freecycle, wouldn't hurt to insulate the shed. Keep it cooler in summer too.

Don't forget mouses when storing things.

 

Adds "Instal catflap" to list (we have 3 cats).

Funnily enough, 3 rolls of loft insulation have just come up on freecycle, which has made me think that going up might be a solution too.

Steve...

 

Check out the local joinery workshop for wood chip, they probably have to pay to put it in landfill so probably will give you dumpy bags of it for nothing.

 

A local stables gets them delivered free of charge so the joinery works don't have to pay disposal/tipping charges.

An ex-PC fan connected to a plug in thermostat (Timeguard ET05 - £19 delivered from eBay) to vent hot air out the shed at high level and a grille low level (or in floor) really helps keep it cool in summer (and cut down on freezer running costs).

 

Thanks Scrungee, but my shed does not have any power...

Steve...