Storage cabbage
Keeping storage
vegetables fresh
through the winter is an art as much as a science, and I generally have
to learn the idiosyncracies of each species to get the best
result. We seem to have worked the kinks out of sweet potatoes,
garlic, and butternut squash, which carry us through until spring, and
the carrots in the fridge
root cellar are
currently crisp and delectable and seem likely to last just as long.
We've got a bit of a
learning curve left with our cabbage, though. I pulled the
second-to-last head out of the fridge root cellar on Christmas, and the
outer leaves were slimey and rotten (although the center was still
good). I suspect the issue there was harvest time --- I wasn't
quite sure what to do with all of our cabbages before we resurrected
the fridge root cellar, so I left them out in the garden during a hard
freeze. The cabbage I 
harvested
just before that freeze was top notch, but the one I cut into a few
days later was not quite so crisp or sweet. Next year, I'll be
more careful to take in the cabbages before temperatures drop into the
20s (and to plant more of them since they've made a great addition to
the uncooked veggie side of our winter meals).
We still haven't eaten
much of our preserved produce because the garden is churning out plenty
of lettuce, arugula, kale, Asian greens, Swiss chard, and Brussels
sprouts, in addition to the contents of our fridge root cellar and
kitchen shelves. I can envision a time in the future when we
won't preserve anything at all and will subsist entirely on fresh food
all winter. I'd miss my tomato-based soups though....
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.