Potatoes, carrots, onions, squash and apples can keep for months with the right treatment. Here's the simple storage playbook.
Created by jflgardens.co.uk
Before fridges and freezers, a well-organised store room carried households through winter. With a few straightforward rules, you can still keep months of produce in good condition — no special equipment required.
Onions, garlic and squash crop best kept if they're 'cured' first — left to dry out in a warm, airy, shaded spot for a couple of weeks so their skins firm up and necks close over. Cure them well and they'll sit on a shelf for months.
Carrots, beetroot, parsnips and potatoes keep best somewhere cool, dark and quite humid — an unheated shed, garage or a box buried in the ground. The dark is essential: light greens potatoes and sprouting onions.
Brush off loose soil but don't wash them, and check regularly, removing any that are starting to soften or sprout before they spoil their neighbours.
Apples and pears give off ethylene gas as they ripen, which speeds up the rotting of nearby veg — especially root crops. Store fruit separately, and keep apples loose in single layers a little apart so a bad one doesn't spread.
Many apples keep for months if picked carefully and stored cool. Wrapping each in a little paper helps them keep even longer.
Eat the quickest-wilting things first — leafy veg and soft fruit — and work your way to the longest-keeping stores at the end of winter. Regular checks, a cool dark spot and a bit of airflow give you home-grown produce on the table well into the new year.
From seasonal garden care to a full preserving-style overhaul, the JFL Gardens team works across Surrey and London.
