CANNING, FREEZING, STORING GARDEN PRODUCE TEXT

Never taste the contents of a suspect product. Under certain circumstances, a spoonful of "off" unheated, suspect product has been known to kill. Finally, bring all home-canned vegetables to a rolling boil after opening and before tasting. Heating makes any odor of spoilage more noticeable. Again, if an odor of spoilage is noted, destroy the product with caution. If the product is normal, cover the pan and continue to boil at least 10 minutes before serving. Only after these precautions are taken are home-canned vegetables safe to taste and serve. Home Frozen Foods A plus for home freezing is that slight variations in following directions do not result in a botulism hazard. The bacterium that causes botulism cannot grow in the freezer. Proper freezing prevents the growth of microorganisms that cause spoilage and those that can cause illness. Besides the initial cost of the freezer itself, energy costs are significant. Utilize the freezer fully to keep the energy costs per unit as low as possible. Fill the freezer when foods are least expensive, use the products as needed, and be careful to use the oldest products first. Take care not to overload the freezer. If you pack it too tightly with containers of warm food, the freezer will be unable to remove the heat fast enough and spoilage from bacterial growth can result. To avoid this, freeze foods soon after they have been packed; put no more unfrozen food into a home freezer than will freeze within 24 hours. Usually, this will be about 2 or 3 pounds of food to each cubic foot of capacity. For quickest freezing, place packages against freezing plates or coils and leave a little space between packages so air can circulate. Small excesses of product destined for freezing can be held in the refrigerator until the first load is frozen. If a large excess of product exists, chill and carry it in an insulated box or bag as soon as possible to a locker plant. After freezing, packages may be stored close together. Store them at 0° F or below in order to retain the highest quality for the longest time. Prolonged storage of frozen foods results in slow loss of quality. The rate of this loss differs with various foods. To maintain high quality, obtain information on recommended storage periods for the foods you freeze. This may be obtained from your county Extension office or from USDA Home and Garden Bulletin No. 10, _Home Freezing of Fruits and Vegetables_. Storage periods are recommended to guarantee food quality only. If these periods are exceeded, taste may be affected but as long as the product has been kept at 0° F or below there is no question of safety. The homemaker's greatest concern with a home freezer is mechanical or power failure, which can result in food losses. Some but not all of these can be avoided. Freezers are very dependable mechanical devices yet they do fail. Most failures develop after 5 or more years of use. The homeowner should clean dust from coils of the freezer once or twice each year in strict accordance with the instruction manual for the unit. At this time watch for any changes that have occurred. Have a dealer or repairman check unusual noises or excessive running. Air circulation around the coils should not be covered or blocked in any way. Check the plug itself for a firm fit. If the plug is loose in the receptacle, it may fall or be easily bumped out without notice. Replace loose plugs. Better yet, some hardware stores sell clips that clamp the plug in by means of the screw that holds the receptacle plate onto the outlet. Freezer owners should know where the closest commercial freezer is, in case of an extensive failure. Check your home freezer after thunderstorms or power failures, since freezers have been known to be damaged occasionally when power falls or surges. Don't Open A well packed freezer will hold the product for many hours even if the unit is not operating. Normally, power failures are short in duration and no food thawing results. If the power is off, do not open the freezer as this will hasten thawing. Telephone or otherwise determine when the power will be turned on again. Sometimes freezer failure is discovered only when a homemaker goes to the freezer to get something. If this occurs, condition of the food should be determined immediately. Discard all foods that are thawed and warm, since extensive bacterial growth may have taken place. Foods may be saved if they remain frozen; or if they are thawed but very cold, about 40° F, and have been held no longer than 1 or 2 days at refrigerator temperatures after thawing. Bacteria grow only slowly in thawed but cold foods. Prompt refreezing of thawed cold foods will lower the quality but not result in spoilage or danger. If you have doubt as to whether the foods are cold or warm, throw them out as the safest course. Once condition of the foods is determined, plan fast for the next step. If the freezer cannot be repaired quickly, make arrangements to move the food to a commercial locker plant or another freezer. To do so, package the products closely together in paper bags. Place these in cardboard cartons lined and covered with newspapers for insulation, and transfer them immediately. Another way to save the freezer load is to use dry ice in the freezer itself. Dry ice must be handled with gloves to prevent burns. Also keep in mind that carbon dioxide gas evolves as dry ice evaporates, and can cause unconsciousness if allowed to concentrate. When transporting dry ice, leave a car window open at least several inches. If you use dry ice in the freezing compartment, make sure a nearby window is cracked open. When packing dry ice into a freezer, figure on 25 to 50 pounds to do the job. Don't break up the ice any more than necessary. To summarize, frozen foods are seldom involved in food spoilage or food poisoning. Even so, mechanical devices occasionally fail, and freezer owners should have prearranged plans for such an emergency. Preventive maintenance will help reduce the likelihood of failure. If a failure results in food becoming thawed and warm, discard it for safety. Storing Fresh Fruit and Vegetables _by Anton S. Horn and Esther H. Wilson_[18] Many fruits and vegetables can be stored fresh. But the home gardener must gather them at proper maturity and observe correct temperature, humidity, ventilation, and cleanliness rules. Basements or outdoor cellars can serve as temporary storage for some produce. A cellar mostly below ground is best for root vegetables. It can be run into a bank and covered with 2½ feet or more of soil. Sometimes outdoor root cellars are made with a door at each end. Combining the outdoor storage cellar with a storm shelter in the event of tornadoes or other needs may be a satisfactory solution. Modern basements are generally too dry and warm for cool moist storage. However, a suitable storage room may be built by insulating walls and ceiling and ventilating through a basement window. You may ventilate by extending a ventilating flue from half of the window down almost to the floor. Cover the other half of the window with wood and the outside openings of the ventilator with a wire screen for protection against animals and insects. Keep the room cool by opening the ventilators on cool nights and closing them on warm days. If properly cooled, the room temperature can be controlled between 32° and 40° F during winter. To maintain the humidity, sprinkle water on the floor when produce begins to wilt. A slatted floor and slatted shelves will provide floor drainage and ventilation. A reliable thermometer is needed for operation of any home storage room. A cool corner in the basement, a back room of a small house with no basement, or a trailer may be suitable. One lady we know uses part of a closet built into the outside corner of a bedroom. It is also possible to adapt storage sheds in carports by insulating and proceeding as outlined earlier. Pits and trenches or mounds may be used for storage if a root cellar is not available or basement storage is impractical. Also, you may bury a barrel, drainage tile, or galvanized garbage can upright, with four inches of the top protruding above ground level. This will keep potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, and apples through winter. For convenience, place the produce in sacks or perforated polyethylene bags of a size to hold enough for a few days. Then you can easily take out fruits and vegetables as needed. Place the barrel on a well drained site, and make a ditch so surface water will be diverted and not run into the container. A garbage can has a good lid, but for a drainage tile or barrel a wooden lid may have to be built. The lid should be covered with straw, and a waterproof cover of canvas or plastic placed over the straw. Requirements of fruits and vegetables differ. Controlled cold storage or refrigerated storage are best. Good references are _Storing Vegetables and Fruits in Basements, Cellars, Outbuildings, and Pits_, USDA Home and Garden Bulletin No. 119, and bulletins on this subject prepared by your State Extension service. Your county Extension office may have the bulletins. This office may also be able to tell you how to obtain plans for a fruit and vegetable storage room, or a storm and storage cellar. Brief notes on specific storage problems follow: With proper care, hard-rind varieties of winter pumpkins and squash will keep for several months. Harvest before frost, and leave on a piece of stem when you cut them from the plants. Store only well-matured fruits that are free of insect damage and mechanical injuries. Pumpkins and squash for long-term storage keep better when cured for 10 days at 80° to 85° F. If these temperatures are impractical, put the pumpkins and squash near your furnace to cure them. Curing hardens the rinds and heals surface cuts. Bruised areas and pickleworm injuries, however, cannot be healed. After curing pumpkins and squash, store them in a dry place at 55° to 60° F. If stored at 50° or below, pumpkins and squash are subject to damage by chilling. At temperatures above 60°, they gradually lose moisture and become stringy. Acorn squash keep well in a dry place at 45° to 50° F for 35 to 40 days. Do not cure acorn squash before storing them. They turn orange, lose moisture, and become stringy if cured for 10 days at 80° to 85° or if stored at 55° or above for more than 6 to 8 weeks. A dark green rind at harvest indicates succulence and good quality. Do not store pumpkins and squash in outdoor cellars or pits. _Parsnips_, _Salsify_, _Horseradish_ can be left undug (stored) in the ground. These vegetables withstand freezing, but alternate freezing and thawing damages them. If you store them in the ground, mulch lightly at the end of the growing season. Keep them covered until outdoor temperatures are consistently low. Then remove the mulch to permit thorough freezing. After they have frozen, mulch deep enough to keep them frozen. [Illustration: Some fruits and vegetables can be stored outdoors in a partially buried galvanized garbage can or wooden barrel.] waterproof cover straw drainage ditch garbage can or wooden barrel Root Crops Root crops such as beets, carrots, celeriac, kohlrabi, rutabagas, turnips, and winter radishes should not be put in storage until late fall. Root crops keep best between 32° and 40° F. They require high humidity to prevent shriveling. Continued storage at 45° causes them to sprout new tops and become woody. Large and overmature root crops may become tough and stringy in storage. Small and immature root crops probably will shrivel. Dig root crops when the soil is dry and the temperature consistently low. Prepare them immediately for storage. Cut the plant tops about a half inch above the crown. Beets will bleed unless 2 to 3 inches of the top is left. You may wash the roots if you let them dry again before storing. Do not expose them to drying winds, and be sure they are cool when put in storage. Prevent bitterness in carrots by storing them away from fruits such as apples, which give off volatile gases while ripening. Turnips and rutabagas give off odors, so don't store them in your basement. Find a separate spot, or store them with other root crops and vegetables in an outdoor cellar or pit. Turnips may be left in the garden longer than most other crops. They withstand hard frosts, but are damaged by alternate freezing and thawing. All other root crops can be stored together in your basement storage room. [Illustration: VEGETABLE-FRUIT STORAGE GUIDE] Low Humidity 80-85 cure pumpkins, squash 55-60 pumpkins, squash 45-50 acorn squash 32 onions High Humidity 80-85 cure sweet potatoes 70 mature green tomatoes--to ripen 55-60 tomatoes at mature green stage--to store sweet potatoes 45-48 potatoes for highest quality 38-40 potatoes--to prevent sprouting 32-40 beets, celeriac, kohlrabi, turnips, carrots, rutabaga 30-32 apples, pears Root crops keep their crispness longer when bedded in layers of moist sand, peat, or sphagnum moss. However, perforated polyethylene bags and box liners are easier to use than bedding. Root crops can be stored in crates or boxes in moist air, but they gradually lose moisture and quality unless polyethylene liners are used. Carrots and beets may be stored in 10-gallon crocks or any container that will prevent excessive shriveling. Quick dipping of dried and trimmed turnips, rutabagas, or parsnips in wax will prevent shriveling. Float a layer of jelly-type paraffin on top of a kettleful of heated water which is deep enough to cover the vegetable. Dip room temperature vegetables quickly through the layer of wax. For a thinner, harder wax film add a little salt and 10 to 20 percent clean beeswax. Potatoes are the principal root crops you will probably store. Potatoes are eaten from the time they are of sufficient size for early use until storage time, and during storage when the vines have fully ripened. If potatoes are harvested before maturity the skin may flake off easily. They are all right for immediate use, but not for storage. Immature potatoes shrink badly, bruise easily, and will not keep well very long. For storage, potatoes should be allowed to mature and develop a thick skin. When the tops lie down the tubers should be mature enough for storage. Dig potatoes carefully to avoid bruises, for better storage life. Handle newly dug potatoes with care until the surface has dried or cured a few hours or more. You can keep them in baskets or slatted crates in single layers at first. Store sound mature tubers in darkness at a minimum relative humidity of 95 percent and 45° to 48° F for highest quality. For very long storage keep at a temperature of 38° to 40° to prevent sprouting. The starch changes to sugar if potatoes are held below 45°. Potatoes may not show any external effect from exposure to these lower temperatures, but sometimes darkened tissue will be seen if the potato is cut and exposed to air. Light causes considerable "greening" in potatoes. The green portion contains an undesirable substance that gives a bitter flavor. Sweet potatoes that are well matured, carefully handled, properly cured, and stored at 55° to 60° F can be kept until April or May. Sweet potatoes are easily bruised and cut. Handle them carefully and as little as possible. Put them directly in storage containers at harvest. Cure freshly dug sweet potatoes by holding them about 10 days under moist conditions at 80° to 85° F. In the absence of better facilities, sweet potatoes can be cured near your furnace. To maintain high humidity during curing, stack storage crates and cover them with paper or heavy cloth. If the temperature near your furnace is between 65° and 75°, the curing period should last 2 to 3 weeks. After curing, move the crates to a cooler part of your basement or house where a temperature of about 55° to 60° can be maintained. In houses without central heating, sweet potatoes can be kept behind a cookstove or around a warm chimney. If you keep sweet potatoes this way, wrap them in fireproof paper (to slow down temperature changes) and store them in boxes or barrels. Sweet potatoes are subject to damage by chilling. Do not store them at 50° F or below. Outdoor pits are not recommended for storing sweet potatoes, because dampness of the pits encourages decay. Tomatoes Even though the home canner has canned plenty of tomatoes, it may be desirable to keep some of the fresh fruit. Keep tomatoes in the garden as long as possible. You can protect against early fall frosts by covering the plants with burlap or old carpets in the evening when frost is predicted. Polyethylene may also be used but injury will occur wherever it touches the plant. In the summer, tomatoes should be harvested when fully vine-ripened for best quality. Pick when the color is a dark red in red varieties. During fall when frost is likely, mature green fruit can be picked and it will develop a red color when kept in a fairly warm place. The fruit is in the "mature-green" state if the tissues are gelatinous or sticky when the tomato is cut and the tomato interior is yellowish. Immature green tomatoes don't ripen satisfactorily. To check your judgment, cut a tomato in half that you feel is mature green. If the pulp that fills the compartments is jelly-like, it is mature green. The seeds are dragged aside easily by the knife and not cut through. In immature green tomatoes, seeds are easily cut through and the jelly-like pulp has not yet developed. Usually you can recognize the mature green ones by their glossiness, less hairiness, and more whitish green color. You can pick mature-green fruits and bury them in deep straw or place in a room where the temperature is 60° to 70° F. The tomatoes will ripen over a period of 3 or 4 weeks. Sunlight is not needed to ripen green-ripe tomatoes, so don't bother to put them on window sills. They ripen satisfactorily in the dark. Generally, tomatoes store best at 55° to 60° and ripen at 70° or room temperature. You can wash the mature green fruits in a weak solution of household bleach and then wrap in paper to store and ripen. Some people pull up the vines just before frost and hang them in the basement or garage to ripen their fruit. Onions Harvest onions for storage when the neck of the plant dries down, the tops have fallen over, and the roots are dry and have stopped growing from the stem plate. At that time the outer scales of the bulb are drying out and do not cling tightly (outer scales of yellow-skinned varieties change to a darker color). Pull the onions by hand and lay in a windrow to cure with the tops placed over the bulbs to prevent sun-scald. Onions may also be cured in an open shed. Remove onions with thick neck (seeders) before storage and discard all diseased bulbs. After curing, place onions in open-slatted crates or burlap bags for further field curing or drying. Then place in storage. You may use either common storage or refrigerated storage. Low temperatures in storage reduce shrinkage due to moisture loss and stop disease development. Keep the humidity as low as possible. Good management of ventilation is important. Ventilate storage early in the morning. Onions held in cold storage should be placed there immediately after curing. A temperature of 32° F is ideal and will keep onions dormant and relatively free of rot. If sprouts grow it indicates too high a temperature, poor curing, or immature bulbs. If you have root growth the humidity is too high. The humidity should be 65 to 70 percent. Do not store onions with produce that is likely to absorb the odor.