Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1917-08-20
Home Storage.

Home Storage.
In order that householders may
utilize spare time during the summer
TO put their cellars in shape for the
winter storage of the surplus vegeta-
bles which will be grown on the home
gardens that have been planted this
year, or that they make plans for 9TH
er methods of natural storage, the
United States Department of Agricul-
ture has prepared the following dis
cussion on the storing of vegetables:
To those persons fortunate enough
to possess land for the growing OF
vegetables sufficient in quantity for
the needs of the family, storage is an
economic necessity. Likewise 1t is an
economic necessity to grow vegetables
to store. A half acre garden should
produce far more vegetables than the
average family can consume during
the maturing period of the crops.
Only a small portion of the garden
should be planted to those vegetables
which must be used as soon as they
reach maturity. The remainder
should be devoted to crops that are to
be canned, dried or stored. 1t is COM
paratively easy to keep by storing
such vegetables as potatoes, beets,
carrots, parsnips, satisfy, turnips,
cabbage, celery, onions, sweet pota-
toes, dry beans and dry Lima beans.
Some of the crops may be stored in
the cellar under the dwelling, in pits
or banks, or in caves or outdoor eel
lars. Others can be kept in any dry
place, such as the pantry or attic.
Many houses are heated by fur /,
mace in the cellar. The pipes are, as
a rule, carried under the joists, thus
warming the cellar to some extent.
For this reason 1t is best to partition
off a small room in one corner of the |
cellar to serve as storage room for
potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, sal
sify and turnips. II possible, this
room should have at least one win
dow for the purpose of regulating the
temperature. The floor should not
he concreted, as the natural earth
makes better conditions for the keep
ing of vegetables Bins may be con-
structed for the various products, or
they may be stored in boxes, baskets
or barrels. This room will also serve
as a storage place for fresh fruits and
canned goods. The vegetables to be
stored should be harvested when the :
ground is dry, allowed to lie on the
surface long enough for the moisture
to dry off before placing them in stor-
age The tops should be removed
from beets, turnips, carrots and sal
sify before placing them in storage.
Outdoor pits or banks are very gen.
orally used for keeping potatoes,
beets, carrots, turnips parsnips, cab /
bage and satisfy. Select a we'll
drained location and make shallow
excavation some six or eight inches
deep, and of suitable size. This is
lined with straw, leaves or similar
material and the vegetables placed
in conical pile on the material. The
vegetables are then covered with
straw or similar material, and final
ly with earth to a depth Of several
inches The depth of the earth cover
ing is determined by the severity Of
the winters in the particular locality.
1t is well to cover the pits with straw,
corn fodder or manure during severe
weather. Such pits keep the above
vegetables very well but have the OBJ
lection that it is hard to get the ma
terial out in cold weather, and when
the pit is once opened it is desirable
to remove the entire contents For
this reason several small pits rather
than one large one should be con-
structed, so that the entire contents
may be removed at one time. Instead
of storing each crop in a pit by itself,
II is better to place several vegetables
of similar keeping quality and re-
quirements in the same pit, so that II
will only be necessary to open one pit
10 get supply Of all Of them. In
storing several crops in the same pit
II is good plan to separate them
with straw. leaves or other material.
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