📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Storing Harvests Without a Root Cellar
- 🥕 No Basement? No Problem: Growers discuss creative ways to store root vegetables (carrots, beets, radishes) and potatoes through the winter when you don’t have a traditional root cellar (погреб).
- 🥫 Canning is Key: When cold storage space is limited, canning vegetables into ready-made soup bases (like borscht or cabbage soup) is a lifesaver.
- ❄️ Fridge Storage: Beets and carrots can be successfully stored for months in the bottom crisper drawers of extra refrigerators.
- 🐔 Feeding the Flock: Excess greens like Swiss chard, mizuna, and outer cabbage leaves make excellent winter feed for backyard chickens and ducks.
Quote from Maria Suvorova:
…still have two patches of radishes growing: half a bed of black radishes and half a bed of green ‘Margelan’ radishes, plus about 12 daikons left. Honestly, it’s a shame the freezing nights are starting… everything is going to freeze.
But why let them freeze? Radishes and kohlrabi store beautifully in a root cellar right up until summer. Daikon doesn’t store quite as long, but still, why leave them in the ground to freeze?
Quote from Elena K:
Please excuse me, I couldn’t resist. He looks exactly like our youngest cat!
They could be brothers!
Quote from Grey:
Radishes and kohlrabi store beautifully in a root cellar…
We don’t have a basement or a root cellar (погреб)… ((((
Edited November 8, 2021 by Maria Suvorova
Quote from Grey:
Brussels sprouts are definitely an acquired taste… mizuna greens also didn’t work for us.
My ducks and chickens devoured the Swiss chard and mizuna with absolute delight! ))) They practically begged me to plant more. And the Brussels sprouts go down very well for us—they are delicious baked with cheese on top.
Quote from Maria Suvorova:
We don’t have a basement or a root cellar…
Wow! How do you manage then? Masha, you are such a hard worker and you grow so much food. I thought you lived in a private house? Where do you store your cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes (which are especially good to eat in winter and early spring), and potatoes (both for eating and for seed stock)? What about pickles and fermented sauerkraut?
I’m not asking out of idle curiosity. We also don’t have a root cellar at our dacha, but there is a magnificent cellar at my father’s dacha 2 km away. It’s a lifesaver for us. But that house belongs to my son, and he lives far away abroad and won’t be coming back here. He’s thinking of selling the house. We fully support it, because we physically can’t take care of a 50-are (1.2 acre) property anymore. But we have absolutely no idea how we will survive without a root cellar. It makes me want to sell our dacha along with it.
Quote from Maria Suvorova:
My ducks and chickens devoured the Swiss chard and mizuna…
Well, yeah, poultry will eat anything. When I tried growing mizuna, I was just a weekend gardener and didn’t have chickens. I did plant Swiss chard specifically for them, but it didn’t do well for me—the leaves were tiny, barely enough for a single bite for the birds. This year I planted about 500 cabbage plants, and that worked out much better. Not only did the chickens eat like kings until slaughter time, but we also canned jars of it for them for the spring.
Quote from Grey:
Where do you store your cabbage, carrots, beets, radishes… What about pickles and fermented sauerkraut?
Natasha, the head cabbage goes on the enclosed porch (though it doesn’t store well there). Carrots and beets go into the bottom crisper drawers of our refrigerators (we currently have 3 of them running). I also made 40 jars of canned borscht base and canned cabbage soup base using recipes from this forum.
The jars of pickles sit in the garage, which has heating. As for potatoes (eating and planting)—I only grow potatoes from seed/slips just to eat fresh during the summer and early fall. For the winter, we just buy potatoes. We keep a large wooden bin in the garage in the absolute coolest spot right by the door. It only fits about 4 sacks of potatoes, and by early spring they start sprouting because it’s still too warm in the garage… I even have to keep the fermented sauerkraut in jars in the fridge.
I tried storing beets, carrots, and cabbage on the 3rd floor (the attic right under the roof, no heating, no lights). My husband built a large storage bin up there, and I put all the vegetables in it. It was a total failure—everything started to rot. It turned out to be too warm; apparently, all the heat from the two floors below rises straight up there…
My plan is to build an underground outdoor root cellar. I saw a design online—stairs leading down into a poured concrete bunker. I priced it out, and people say it costs about 20-25 thousand rubles to build one. I would have to hire someone to dig and pour it. Well, maybe when we get rich, we’ll build it! 😂 It is incredibly inconvenient without one…
But I definitely won’t be planting large fields of potatoes—it’s too hard to take care of it all by myself. I’m the only one plowing away in the vegetable garden. My men at least dig the beds for me in the spring, but that’s where their help ends. )
