Home Vegetable Gardening - F. F. Rockwell (nice books to read .txt) 📗

respect, for a great many of the things so neglected may just

as well be carried into winter, and will pay a very handsome dividend

for the slight trouble of gathering and storing them.

 

A good frost-proof, cool cellar is the best and most convenient place

in which to store the surplus product of the home garden. But, lacking

this, a room partitioned off in the furnace cellar and well ventilated,

or a small empty room, preferably on the north side of the house, that

can be kept below forty degrees most of the time, will serve

excellently. Or, some of the most bulky vegetables, such as cabbage and

the root crops, may be stored in a prepared pit made in the garden

itself.

 

As it is essential that such a pit be properly constructed, I shall

describe one with sufficient detail to enable the home gardener readily

to construct it. Select a spot where water will not stand. Put the

vegetables in a triangular-shaped pile, the base three or four feet

wide, and as long as required. Separate the different vegetables in

this pile by stakes about two feet higher than the top of the pile, and

label them. Then cover with a layer of clean straw or bog hay, and over

this four inches of soil, dug up three feet back from the edges of the

pile. This work must be done late in the fall, as nearly as one can

judge just before lasting freezing begins, and preferably on a cold

morning when the ground is just beginning to freeze; the object being

to freeze the partly earth covering at once, so that it will not be

washed or blown off. The vegetables must be perfectly dry when stored;

dig them a week or so previous and keep them in an airy shed. As soon

as this first layer of earth is partly frozen, but before it freezes

through, put on another thick layer of straw or hay and cover with

twelve inches of earth, keeping the pile as steep as possible; a

slightly clayey soil, that may be beaten down firmly into shape with a

spade, being best. The pile should be made where it will be sheltered

from the sun as much as possible, such as on the north side of a

building. The disadvantage of the plan is, of course, that the

vegetables cannot be got at until the pile is opened up, in early

spring, or late if desired. Its two advantages are that the vegetables

stored will be kept in better condition than in any cellar, and that

cellar or house

room will be saved.

 

For storing small quantities of the roots, such as carrots or beets,

they are usually packed in boxes or barrels and covered in with clean

sand. Where an upstairs room has to be used, swamp or sphagnum moss may

replace the sand. It makes an ideal packing medium, as it is much

lighter and cleaner than the sand. In many localities it may be had for

the gathering; in others one may get it from a florist.

 

In storing vegetables of any kind, and by whatever method, see to it

that:

 

(1) They are always clean, dry and sound. The smallest spot or bruise

is a danger center, which may spread destruction to the lot.

 

(2) That the temperature, whatever required—in most cases 33-38

degrees being best—is kept as even as possible.

 

(3) That the storage place is kept clean, dry (by ventilation when

needed) and sweet (by use of whitewash and lime).

 

(4) That no rats or other rodents are playing havoc with your treasures

while you never suspect it.

 

So many of the vegetables can be kept, for either part or all of the

winter, that I shall take them up in order, with brief directions.

Many, such as green beans, rhubarb, tomatoes, etc., which cannot be

kept in the ordinary ways, may be easily and cheaply canned, and where

one has a good cellar, it will certainly pay to get a canning outfit

and make use of this method.

 

Beans:—Almost all the string and snap beans, when dried in the

pods, are excellent for cooking. And any pods which have not been

gathered in the green state should be picked, as soon as dry (as

wet weather is likely to mould or sprout them), and stored in a dry

place, or spread on a bench in the sun. They will keep, either shelled

or in the dry pods, for winter.

 

Beets:—In October, before the first hard frosts, take up and

store in a cool cellar, in clean, perfectly dry sand, or in pits

outside (see Cabbage); do not cut off the long tap roots, nor the tops

close enough to cause any “bleeding.”

 

Brussels sprouts:—These are improved by freezing, and may be

used from the open garden until December. If wanted later, store them

with cabbage, or hang up the stalks in bunches in a cold cellar.

 

Cabbage:—If only a few heads are to be stored, a cool cellar

will do. Even if where they will be slightly frozen, they will not be

injured, so long as they do not freeze and thaw repeatedly. They should

not be taken in until there is danger of severe freezing, as they will

keep better, and a little frost improves the flavor. For storing small

quantities outdoors, dig a trench, a foot or so deep, in a well drained

spot, wide enough to admit two heads side by side. Pull up the

cabbages, without removing either stems or outer leaves, and store side

by side, head down, in the bottom of the trench. Now cover over lightly

with straw, meadow hay, or any refuse which will keep the dirt from

freezing to the cabbages, and then cover over the whole with earth, to

the depth of several inches, but allowing the top of the roots to

remain exposed, which will facilitate digging them up as required. Do

not bury the cabbage until as late as possible before severe freezing,

as a spell of warm weather would rot it.

 

Carrots:—Treat in the same way as beets. They will not be hurt

by a slight freezing of the tops, before being dug, but care must be

taken not to let the roots become touched by frost.

 

Celery:—That which is to be used early is blanched outside, by

banking, as described in Chapter XI, and as celery will stand a little

freezing, will be used directly from the garden. For the portion to be

kept over winter, provide boxes about a foot wide, and nearly as deep

as the celery is high. Cover the bottoms of these boxes with two or

three inches of sand, and wet thoroughly. Upon this stand the celery

upright, and packed close together. In taking up the celery for storing

in this way, the roots and whatever earth adheres to them are kept on,

not cut, as it is bought in the stores. The boxes are then stored in a

cellar, or other dark, dry, cold place where the temperature will not

go more than five degrees below freezing. The celery will be ready for

use after Christmas. If a long succession is wanted, store from the

open two or three different times, say at the end of October, first

part of November and the latter part of November.

 

Cucumbers, Melons, Eggplant:—While there is no way of storing

these for any great length of time without recourse to artificial cold,

they may be had for some time by storing just before the first frosts

in a cool, dark cellar, care being taken in handling the fruits to give

them no bruises.

 

Onions:—If the onions got a good early start in the spring, the

tops will begin to die down by the middle of August. As soon as the

tops have turned yellow and withered they should be pulled, on the

first clear dry day, and laid in windrows (three or four rows in one),

but not heaped up. They should be turned over frequently, by hand or

with a wooden rake, and removed to a shed or barn floor as soon as dry,

where the tops can be cut off. Keep them spread out as much as

possible, and give them open ventilation until danger of frost. Then

store in a dry place and keep as cool as possible without freezing. A

few barrels, with holes knocked in the sides, will do well for a small

quantity.

 

Parsley:—Take up a few plants and keep in a flower-pot or small

box, in the kitchen window.

 

Parsnips:—These will stay in the ground without injury all

winter, but part of the crop may be taken up late in the fall and

stored with beets, carrots and turnips, to use while the ground is

frozen.

 

Potatoes:—When the vines have died down and the skin of the new

potatoes has become somewhat hardened, they can be dug and stored in a

cool, dry cellar at once. Be sure to give plenty of ventilation until

danger of frost. Keep from the light, as this has the effect of making

the potatoes bitter. If there is any sign of rot among the tubers, do

not dig them up until it has stopped.

 

Squash and Pumpkins:—The proper conditions for storing for

winter will be indicated by the drying and shrinking of the stem.

Cut them from the vines, being careful never to break off the

stem, turn over, rub off the dirt and leave the under side exposed to a

few days’ sunlight. Then carry in a spring wagon, or spring

wheelbarrow, covered with old bags or hay to keep from any bruises.

Store in the dryest part of the cellar, and if possible where the

temperature will not go below forty degrees. Leave them on the vines in

the field as late as possible, while escaping frosts.

 

Tomatoes:—Just before the first frosts are likely to begin,

pick all of the best of the unripened fruits. Place part of these on

clean straw in a coldframe, giving protection, where they will

gradually ripen up. Place others, that are fully developed but not

ripe, in straw in the cellar. In this way fresh tomatoes may frequently

be had as late as Christmas.

 

Turnip:—These roots, if desired, can be stored as are beets or

carrots.

 

It is hard to retain our interest in a thing when most of its

usefulness has gone by. It is for that reason, I suppose, that one sees

so many forsaken and weed-grown gardens every autumn, where in the

spring everything was neat and clean. But there are two very excellent

reasons why the vegetable garden should not be so abandoned—to say

nothing of appearances! The first is that many vegetables continue to

grow until the heavy frosts come; and the second, that the careless

gardener who thus forsakes his post is sowing no end of trouble for

himself for the coming year. For weeds left to themselves, even late in

the fall, grow in the cool moist weather with astonishing rapidity,

and, almost before one realizes it, transform the well kept garden into

a ragged wilderness, where the intruders have taken such a strong

foothold that they cannot be pulled up without tearing everything else

with them. So we let them go—and, left to themselves, they accomplish

their purpose in life, and leave upon the ground an evenly distributed

supply of plump ripe seeds, which next spring will cause the perennial

exclamation, “Mercy, John, where did all these weeds come from?” And

John replies, “I don’t know; we kept the garden clean last summer. I

think there must be weed seeds in the fertilizer.”

 

Do not let up