To provide yourself and your family with vitamins for the whole winter, you need to worry beforehand and stock up these very vitamins in the summer and fall. And one of the very useful and rich in useful substances of vegetables is carrots. But in order to keep it in a maximum of vitamins, you need to know how best to store carrots in winter.
The key to the successful storage of carrots is a properly harvested crop. Perhaps, with this we will begin.
How to harvest carrots?
- Prepare for collection of carrots begin in advance. About a week before the expected date of harvest, you need to start to water abundantly carrots. This will ensure the juiciness of root crops.
- For a day or two before harvesting, squash the beds (so it will be easier to harvest), and trim the tops of the carrot, leaving about 5 centimeters of the tail above the ground. This is done so that carrots do not lose moisture through the tops.
- Dig up (pull out) carrots from the ground.
- We spread the roots on the litter, and let them lie down and dry for 2-3 days.
Preparing for storage
In order to not find out in the winter that all your carrot stock has deteriorated, you need to carefully select the root vegetables for storage. No matter how hard you try, storing damaged carrots for the winter simply does not make sense.
Therefore, after your harvest dries well, sit down at the bulkhead. Inspect each carrot for mechanical damage (shovel, for example), damage by animals or insects, rot, etc. Also it should be said that those fruits that during the two or three days, while the carrots dried up, a little wilted, for storage in the winter are not suitable. Such carrots are best taken in a separate package, and used for the purpose immediately, rather than wait for the winter. Otherwise, such vegetables will start to rot, and you risk ruining the entire harvested crop.
In addition, never wash carrots if you want to store it in winter. Both carrots and beets, potatoes and any other root vegetables are washed just before consumption!
How to store carrots in winter?
- The simplest, however, is not the most reliable method. Carrots are packed in polyethylene bags, or in cardboard boxes. And then they lower them into the cellar. The temperature in the cellar should be about zero degrees, humidity should be high, but the walls should not be moldy and fungus. The disadvantage of this method is that vegetables do not breathe in this way, and the probability of damage to products is high. But you can improve this method a little. For example, you can cut holes in a bag or box. Or fill the carrot with sand.
- The following method also implies the presence of sand. You can pour it on the floor with a slide, and bury the carrots in it. Either build a wooden box, and lay the carrots in layers, pouring it with sand.
- Another variation of storing carrots in boxes (wooden and cardboard). You can put root vegetables in a box, shifting them in newspapers so that they do not touch each other.
- You can store carrots on the shelves. But this requires a lot of them. Carrots in this case is decomposed at some distance from each other.
- If you are wondering how to store carrots in the refrigerator in winter, then our next tip is useful. You can wrap it in a food film, and put it in the vegetable compartment. The disadvantage is the limited space of the vegetable department, and in fact there will lie not only carrots, but also other vegetables. Therefore, this method will help you to save only a small amount of carrots.
We gave you some recommendations on how to store carrots in winter. Which way to choose is up to you. But do not forget that in the winter from time to time you need to reconsider your stocks, and throw out spoiled vegetables so that they do not cause damage to the whole crop.