Top Storage Crops: How to Store Fruits and Vegetables

Learn how to store fruits and vegetables in ways that best extend your harvest, and which crops to grow to keep you and your family fed through the winter.

Here in southwest Virginia, my partner and I take pride in growing and storing most of our fruits and vegetables. Knowing where our food comes from gives us confidence in its goodness, plus we save about $5,000 a year through our gardening and food storage efforts. There is another benefit, which is the utter convenience of having a self-provisioned home. In early winter when our stores are full, I feel like I’m living in a well-stocked organic grocery store.

We bring many years of experience to this quest, and we’re still learning. Measured by weight, stored garden crops make up more than half of our overall harvest, with every onion and potato just about as fresh as it was the day it came from the garden. Our mix of storage vegetables and fruits varies from year to year and we’ve learned that putting by storage crops is something anyone can do — even if your produce comes from the farmers market. By making use of cold storage spots in your basement or garage, and perhaps adding a seasonal second refrigerator, you can use our cool storage and cold storage crop charts for winter eating using simple, time-tested methods.

Sleeping Quarters for Storage Crops

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Success with storage crops hinges on finding methods that convince the crops that they are enjoying a natural period of dormancy in unusually comfortable conditions. This typically involves slowing physiology by controlling respiration (usually by lowering temperature) and/or providing moisture so crisp root vegetables sense they are still in the ground. Some staple storage crops, such as garlic, onions and shallots, need dry conditions to support prolonged dormancy.

Most storage crops need to be cured to enhance their storage potential. During the curing process, potatoes and sweet potatoes heal over small wounds to the skin, garlic and onions form a dry seal over the openings at their necks, and dry beans and grain corn let go of excess moisture that could otherwise cause them to rot. Harvesting, curing and storage requirements vary with each crop — see the cool storage and cold storage crop charts for full details. In my experience, harvesting and curing vegetables properly leads to much more flexibility when it comes to long-term storage conditions.

Root Storage: How Long Do Potatoes Last?

Seeking out good food storage spots in your home or on your property can lead to interesting discoveries. Take storing potatoes, for example. When we asked the MOTHER EARTH NEWS Facebook community to share favorite ways for storing potatoes in winter, we received dozens of great ideas, including these:

• Place cured potatoes in a burlap bag, tuck the bag into a plastic storage bin left open a wee bit, and keep in an unheated basement.
• Line plastic laundry baskets with newspapers, with potatoes arranged in layers between more newspapers. Place the packed, covered baskets in an unheated garage.
• In the basement, make short towers of potatoes by stacking them between layers of open egg cartons. Cover the towers with cloth to protect the potatoes from light.
• Place sorted potatoes in cloth grocery bags that have been lined with black plastic bags, and store in a cold space under the stairs. A similar method: Sort different potatoes into paper bags, then place the bags in milk crates to prevent bruising.
• Use an old dresser in a cool room or basement for storing potatoes in winter. Leave the drawers partially open for ventilation.
• In a shady spot outdoors, place a tarp over the ground and cover it with an inch of loose straw. Pile on potatoes and cover with more straw, a second tarp, and a 10-inch blanket of leaves or straw.
• Bury a garbage can horizontally so that its bottom half is at least 12 inches deep in the soil. Place potatoes in the can with shredded paper or clean straw. Secure the lid with a bungee cord, and cover with an old blanket if needed to shade out sun.

Here in Virginia, we have vole issues that require us to harvest our early spuds promptly, so my buried garbage can gets plenty of use for storing potatoes. Buried coolers or even buried freezer bodies (with machinery removed) can work in the same way.

Storing Crisp Root Vegetables

Theoretically, root vegetables that grow well below ground can be mulched over in fall and dug as needed in winter. This often works well with parsnips, but most gardeners would risk losing much of an overwintered carrot or beet crop to wireworms, voles or other critters. Repeated freezing and thawing of the surface soil damages shallow-rooted turnips and beets. It’s always safer (and more convenient) to harvest root crops, clean them up and secure them in cold storage. In Zones 7 and warmer, you’ll probably need a second refrigerator, as you won’t have naturally cooled spaces that stay below 40 degrees Fahrenheit in winter. In colder winter climates, you have several options:

Bins, buckets or trugs packed with damp sand or sawdust and stashed in cold spots around your homestead, such as under your basement stairs or in an unheated garage or storage shed. This method works amazingly well if you can find a place with temperatures in the 32- to 40-degree range. Every few weeks, dump out containers and repack them, eating any roots that are showing signs of softening.

The previously described method of storing potatoes in a buried garbage container or other quick outdoor root cellar works well for root vegetables, but you’ll need a second one (or a buried cooler) for roots that need moist conditions. Pack these in damp sand or sawdust to maintain high humidity.

Working outside the fridge, the biggest challenge in storing crisp roots is maintaining high humidity without promoting molds and soft rots. That’s where packing materials, including damp sawdust or damp sand, come in handy. Sawdust is clean and lightweight, and the residue can be shaken out into the garden. Sand weighs more but is reusable — simply dry it in the sun and return it to a bucket or bin until you need it in the fall.

A seasonal second refrigerator is worth considering if you have a lot of carrots or beets to store, live in a climate too warm for underground storage, or want to store root vegetables to sell or trade later.

When preparing to store carrots, beets and other root vegetables in plastic bags in the refrigerator, sprinkle in a few drops of water as you pack each bag. Ideally, a few drops of condensation should form inside the bags after they have been well-chilled in the fridge.

Storing Squash

Now for something really easy: storing winter squash. The hard rinds of winter squash protect them from drying out, so all they need is a cool spot where you can check them from time to time. Look for signs of mold, and promptly consume squash that have developed minor blemishes, such as discoloration or soft spots.

Some types of winter squash store longer than others, so it’s important to eat them in proper order.

Squash and pumpkins classified as Cucurbita pepo tend to keep for only two to three months. These include acorn squash, delicata or sweet potato squash, spaghetti squash and most small pumpkins. Eat these first.

Buttercup and kabocha squash (C. maxima) will keep for four months under good conditions, but after two months the fruits should be watched closely for signs of softening or mold. Many squash pie devotees bake up all questionable buttercups in early winter and stash the mashed squash in the freezer. This is a wise move, because it’s far easier to make a pie or batch of muffins if you have frozen squash purée waiting in your freezer than it is to face down a squash the size of your head.

The smooth, hard rinds of butternut squash (C. moschata) help give them the longest storage life (often six months or more), so butternuts should be eaten last. We grow more butternuts than any other winter squash because they are such a cinch to store.

A Second Fridge for Storing Fruit

As owners of six mature fruit trees, we couldn’t manage our harvest without a second refrigerator for storing apples and pears. Our Asian and D’Anjou pears will last to December, with apples going a bit longer — but only if they are refrigerated in containers that retain moisture. So we plug in an old, semi-retired refrigerator in August, then clean it out and turn it off in January. We don’t mix fruits and veggies in the same fridge, because fruits give off so much ethylene gas that they can cause vegetable crops to deteriorate in wacky ways.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doesn’t exactly approve of second refrigerators, in part because most Americans already maintain more refrigerator space than they need. A more serious issue is the age of many second refrigerators and freezers. Newer models are often three times more efficient than older ones. According to the EPA’s Energy Star statistics, a refrigerator from the 1970s can cost an extra $200 a year to operate, while a 1980s vintage refrigerator may cost $70 more to run compared with a new model.

We will eventually upgrade our elderly, part-time fruit fridge to an efficient Energy Star model, but meanwhile, it earns its keep. Storing apples in a refrigerator often greatly improves their flavor, which is definitely the case with our midseason ‘Enterprise’ apples — three weeks in the fridge changes their flavor from good to spectacular. Sometimes how you store a crop is just as important as how you grow it.

I don’t mean to make self-provisioning sound too easy. Only top-quality produce should be stored, and every season some crop I planned to store either fails or doesn’t make the grade. These losses are soon forgotten as August and September whiz by in a blur, with one food storage project after another. Then October comes and we’re amazed at what we have: a basement brimming with homegrown winter squash, onions and garlic; a well-stocked pantry with organic dried beans, peppers and canned goods; and the fridge and freezer full, save for enough space for two turkeys grown by local farmers. If this is not the good life, I don’t know what is.

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How to Store Fruits and Vegetables: Charts by Temperature

20 Vegetables and Fruits that Store for Two Months or More

Crops for Cool Storage (45-60 degrees F)

These easy-to-store crops are best kept in a cool place, which could be a basement, an unheated bedroom, root cellar, or an attached garage.

• Gather dry bean pods as they dry to tan and plants turn yellow, but before pods shatter. Dry whole pods in a warm, dry place until crisp. Shell beans and continue drying in open containers at room temperature for two weeks. Store in airtight jars in a cool, dark place. Freezing dried beans kills any insects present.
• Gather grain corn ears after the plants and husks dry to tan, but before the weather turns cool and damp. Remove husks. Dry ears in a warm, well-ventilated place for at least a week. Continue to dry until half of the kernels fall when ears are twisted between two hands. Store whole, dry ears in  boxes or bins in a cool, dry place. Bring batches into a warm spot near radiant heat for a few days to lower moisture content, which will make it easier to remove kernels.
• Dig garlic then pull when plant is still 60 percent green. Fewer than six leaves should appear healthy. Cure in a warm (80 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer), well-ventilated place for at least two weeks. Trim back tops to 4 inches, and then cure another week. Trim again before storing. Store in boxes or mesh bags in a cool place with moderate humidity, such as a cool basement.
• Pull onions when at least half of the tops are dead or have fallen over. Avoid harvesting in wet weather. Cure in a warm (80 degrees or warmer), shady, well-ventilated place for a week. Trim back tops, and then cure two weeks more. Trim again before storing. Store in boxes or mesh bags in a cool place with moderate humidity.
• Harvest potatoes before soil temperatures fall below 55 degrees to minimize bruising. Protect from sun. Wash only to remove clods of soil. Cure in a cool, dark, moist place (55 to 60 degrees) for two to three weeks. Store in closed boxes or cloth-covered baskets in a cool place with moderate humidity, or store in buried containers.
• Cut ripe pumpkin fruits from the vine, leaving a short stub of stem attached. Wipe with a damp cloth to  remove soil. Cure in a well-ventilated place with warm room temperatures (70 to 80 degrees) for one to two weeks. Store in bushel baskets or on shelves in a cool place with moderate humidity.
• Pull shallots when the tops are at least half-dead. Avoid harvesting in wet weather. Cure in a warm (80 degrees or warmer), well-ventilated place for a week. Trim back tops, and then cure two weeks more. Store in boxes or mesh bags in a cool place with moderate humidity.
• Dig sweet potatoes while the weather and soil are still warm, at least a month before your first fall frost. Cure in a warm (85 degrees or warmer), humid place for  one to two weeks until all skin wounds have healed. For perfect conditions, place jugs of hot water into a large cooler. Store at cool room temperature (55 to 60 degrees) and moderate humidity.  Avoid chilling.
• Cut ripe winter squash fruits from the vine, leaving a short stub of stem attached. Wipe with a damp cloth to remove soil. Cure in a well-ventilated place with warm room temperatures (70 to 80 degrees) for one to two weeks. Store in bushel baskets, shallow containers or on shelves in a cool place with moderate humidity.

Crops for Cold Storage (32-45 degrees F)

Very low refrigerator temperatures (32 to 35 degrees) prolong the storage life of these fruits and vegetables, but many can also be stored in slightly higher temperatures using time-tested, low-tech methods. According to Iowa State University, these crops can be stored for at least two months when provided proper conditions.

• Harvest apples when seeds are dark brown and fruits come away with a moderate tug. Choose mid- and late-season apples for storage. Sort carefully to remove blemished fruits. Wrap best fruits individually in paper. Promptly refrigerate to slow the ripening process. Store in refrigerator or another very cold place, in perforated plastic bags or waxed boxes to maintain high humidity. Check weekly.
• Harvest beets before hard freeze. Trim tops to one quarter-inch, but do not trim roots. Wash in cool water. Pat dry. Refrigerate beets in plastic bags or pack in damp sand in a sealed container and store in a cold basement, garage or root cellar.
• Harvest cabbage before outermost leaves start losing color, or before hard freeze. Remove outer leaves. Refrigerate in plastic bags or plant trimmed cabbage heads with roots attached in buckets of damp sand in a root cellar or cold greenhouse.
• Harvest carrots before hard freeze. Trim tops to one half-inch. Wash gently in cool water. Pat dry. Refrigerate in plastic bags. Refrigerate or pack in damp sand in a sealed container and store in a cold basement, garage or root cellar. Sensitive to ethylene gases given off by apples and other fruits.
• Harvest celeriac before hard freeze. Trim tops to one quarter- inch and cut off long roots. Shake off soil but do not wash. Refrigerate in plastic bags. Refrigerate or pack in damp sand in a sealed container and store in a cold basement, garage or root cellar. Sensitive to ethylene gases given off by apples and other fruits.
• Before hard freeze, lift celery plants with soil attached to roots. Transplant to a shallow bin or bucket, or a bed in a cold greenhouse. Keep celery roots moist to wet, but keep foliage dry. Harvest stalks as needed by cutting them with a sharp knife. Store celery in a cool garage or greenhouse and harvest stalks until only small hearts remain. Plants that make it through winter can be replanted outdoors in spring. Established plants are often hardy to Zone 7 and do not require lifting.
• Dig, and then pull leeks before hard freeze. Transplant to a shallow bin or bucket, or a bed in a cold greenhouse. Trim back tops by half their length after transplanting. Move to a cold place where the roots will not freeze. Store leeks in a cool garage or greenhouse and harvest as needed until they are gone. Replant trimmed-off roots to a tray of lightly moist soil. Most will grow into new plants.
• Leave some parsnips in the ground to dig in early spring. Harvest most before hard freeze. Trim tops to one half-inch, wash in cool water. Pat dry. Refrigerate in plastic bags. Parsnips can be kept refrigerated in plastic bags, or packed in damp sand in a sealed container and stored in a cold basement, garage or root cellar. Sensitive to ethylene gases given off by apples and other fruits.
• Pick pears as green fruits turn a lighter shade of green. Seeds should be medium to dark green, with fruits quite hard. Cure in a cool, 40- to 50-degree place for a week to promote even ripening. Sort carefully to remove blemished fruits. Wrap best fruits individually in paper. Store in refrigerator or very cold place, below 40 degrees, in perforated plastic bags or waxed boxes to maintain high humidity. Check weekly.
• Harvest rutabaga before hard freeze. Trim tops to one half-inch; also cut off taproot. Wash in cool water. Pat dry. Refrigerate in plastic bags in the refrigerator. Rutabagas can be kept refrigerated, or packed in damp sand in a sealed container and stored in a cold basement, garage or root cellar. Sensitive to ethylene gases given off by apples and other fruits.
• Harvest turnips before hard freeze. Trim tops to one half-inch, but do not trim roots. Wash in cool water. Pat dry. Refrigerate in plastic bags. Refrigerate or pack in damp sand in a sealed container and store in a cold basement, garage or root cellar. Sensitive to ethylene gases given off by apples and other fruits.

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Contributing editor Barbara Pleasant gardens in southwest Virginia, where she grows vegetables, herbs, fruits, flowers and a few lucky chickens.