Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-10-21
Keeping Vegetable. in winter.

The storage of the bountiful harvests of
autumn for use in winter, is attracting more
and more attention every year, so that our
winter market is now almost always well sup
piled with variety of roots, such as onions,
beets, carrots, turnips, etc., as well as plenty
of fresh cabbages, celery and spinach, and also
squashes.
The requirements of these crops for keep
ing well are very different, aud depend upon
conditions of temperature and moisture,
which are easy to understand, but by no
means easy to control, in our tickle and ever
changing climate. Thus the cool, damp eel
lar is good place to keep roots and apples,
provided they can be kept moist and cold
enough to prevent willing. This is quite out
of the question in the modern dwelling house
cellar, in which the hot air or steam furnace
keeps up a constant disturbance of the air,
and produces dryness and warmth ruinous
to the preservation of roots. Even when
partition separates the furnace from the store
room, the careless neglect to shut the door,
or the cracks that often occur in a board par
tition, are frequently the occasion of q dry
ness and heat in the store room, utterly un-
suited to the preservation of such products as
roots or apples There are other good rea-
sons for not using the house cellar for storing
vegetables; if neglected in spring and sum-
mer, the remnant that remains at this season
disease in the household For these reasons
it is better TO make cellar under some shed
or carriage house, or the barn, for roots and
apples.
The conditions required for keeping spin
ach are very similar namely, low tempera-
ture, near the freezing point, and very slight
circulation of air. A cellar, as ordinarily
built, mostly under ground, is apt to be too
warm, and for this reason a cellar whose
I eli
| The spinach is spread upon shelves, with
spaces between the boards to allow free cir
culation of air; usually two or three shelves
| are built over each other, and the spinach is
| piled upon them about six inches deep; slight
ventilation is needed TO keep the spinach
| WELL but not too much, for it is easily dam
| aged by either freezing hard or by willing 1;
slight freezing does no harm, if it can be
| kept from thawing frequently. A cold frame
covered with sashes and shutters will keep
| spinach pretty well for a month or two after
cutting it, but is TOO subject to frequent
freezing and thawing in ohangeable weather
to answer well for longer time.
Celery keeps well under similar conditions,
except that it should never be allowed TO
freeze at all after blanching. 1t is usually
stored by heeling it in, Quite thickly, in the
bottom of pit which is covered by boards,
and the boards protected from frost by a
heavy coat of leaves, spent tan or eel grass.
1t will not keep well in q common cellar, un-
| less buried up in sand or loan, the air of a
cellar being so dry as to cause it to wilt.
Onions keep well in a cold dry cellar, If
not too early they should be stored in dry
| loft, or on a barn floor, until cold weather
endangers their freezing say about Thanks
giving time, when they may be bRrreled and
put in a cellar. They will also keep well on
the floor of a loft, if allowed to freeze slight
ly, and then covered with hay to prevent fire.
quent and sudden thawing, which Injuries
them; they will endure about as much frost
as apples
To keep other roots such as beets, carrots,
and turnips, from willing, it is a good plan TO
put them up in barrels with heads, or to pile
| them in the cellar about four feet deep, and
cover the pile with little straw or coarse
litter, TO prevent evaporation. If the cellar
is kept cold, they will not sprout and grow ;
but this is not always easy to do, as mild
weather approaches in spring, at which sea
son good pit keeps the roots in better or
der than any cellar can do.
To keep squashes well, very different con-
ditions are essential The squash is a tropi-
cal plant, and will not well endure cold wealth
err; even an approach TO the freezing point
below 40 degrees Injuries them for keeping,
and If the temperature can be kept uniform
ly above 90 degrees from the time they are
harvested, it will be all the better free cir
culation OF air is essential also, especially
when they are first gathered, and for several
weeks afterward. A cellar with furnace in
it, where the temperature is above 80 de-
grees will keep them well. But cellar with.
out fire is too damp and cold, and they will
not keep long in it, One of the best places
to be found in most houses for keeping
squashes, is a closet against the kitchen
chimney. They need looking over every two