Winter food storage page

[Zanna]

So I am thinking that I'd like to buy a bunch of potatoes, onions and squash from the farms to store over the winter after the farms close. The produce is very cheap right now. I know cold storage is needed but have no such spaces in my house. Has anyone successfully stored over the winter in less than ideal conditions? I do can lots of tomato sauce and freeze other veggies, but would like to keep potatoes and onions in their natural state. Also would like to store bunches of garlic. I keep garlic that I've roasted in the fridge year-round, but like to use the raw stuff in broths.

Also would love to hear what other foodstuffs people put up for the winter.

[SarahW]

Do you have an enclosed porch?

Growing up in Ohio my mom would sometimes store food during the winter on our enclosed back porch, with the box sitting right up on the other side of glass door. You may want to research that a bit before you do it though - not sure if a hard freeze + thaw would wreck the veggies, but I think that's why mom put them right by the door, the temps would be more stable next to something which consistently leaks warm air from the house.

[sjmc]

I'm sure you're not looking to spend thousands of dollars, but I stumbled across this http://culinarycaves.com/Home_.html the other day and thought it was awesome

[ssn679doc]

Back in the days before refrigeration, people had root cellars specifically for food storage. I believe there are several good books out on the "art" of root cellar storage. If you are in to canning, most of the vegetables that you mentioned can be canned, however, that does put a damper on the "Fresh veggies" concept.

[noodletoy]

i live in a condo, so no cellar, but i keep onions and garlic at "room temp" for quite awhile. spuds keep too, but it seems to vary greatly with those. i do keep them in loose paper, no plastic, in the dark.

i do keep my place on the colder side too, lol.

[Zanna]

I'm sure you're not looking to spend thousands of dollars, but I stumbled across this http://culinarycaves.com/Home_.html the other day and thought it was awesome

That is awesome! I want one

I do can a lot of things but potatoes and onions aren't foodstuffs I want to do that with. Might go the clean, layered garbage pail route on my porch - store layers of potatoes covered with layers of sand.