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| Michael Rand: allotment gardener
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London allotment gardener, Michael Rand, has tips on storing veg for those without a larder
'Not that I mean to knock refrigerators, but let's face it – the average fridge is nowhere near big enough to accommodate a crop of spuds &ndash let alone those carrots, beets and parsnips, all of which need similar protection.'
(January on the allotment). Let's face it, it's a bit grime outside. A bit 'taters in the mould' – that's rhyming slang for cold in my neck of the woods.
Not that any self-respecting vegetable gardener will have left their own 'taters in the mould' at this time of year. Far from it. Hopefully, they were unearthed weeks ago and any remaining spuds will be sitting somewhere safely under cover by now.
No more larders
Precisely
where under cover can be a vexing question, especially for gardeners such as myself, lacking the old-fashioned luxury of a larder. The disappearance of larders from British culture is, strangely, never mentioned by those knowledgeable souls who queue up in the media to discuss our decadent society. This is a pity, since a larder-less society is surely one that's judged incapable of producing home grown food – now that's what I call decadence!
Not that I mean to knock refrigerators, but let's face it, the average fridge is nowhere near big enough to accommodate a crop of spuds. Let alone those carrots, beets and parsnips, all of which need similar protection from the ravages of frost, slugs and/or ravenous rodents.
While personally larder-less, I am an allotment gardener and do at least have the consolation of a shed, which serves – among many other things – in loco lardarium. Allotment gardeners can be a quarrelsome bunch, at times, but a quick consultation, conducted on my own North London plots, produced an amazing degree of unanimity on the subject of how best to shed-store your winter veg. Here are some of the findings:
Potatoes
Store potatoes in hessian or paper sacks – maybe with an old rug thrown on top, as extra protection from the deeper kind of shed-penetrating frost. If your shed has also been penetrated by mice, you'll require a clean tin box or dustbin, something the miniature beasts can't access, and put your sacks in there.
Carrots, parsnips and beetroot
Pack these in a stout box with some damp sand to stop them drying out. Unlike spuds, carrots are fairly frostproof, but left outside, the slugs will get them. And no, unlike snails, which glue themselves to a hard, hidden surface and lie doggo for the dead months, most slugs don't hibernate. The scientific explanation, presumably, is that they're far too thick ever to have thought of it. You can store parsnips and beetroot in the same way.
Pumpkins and squashes
In one respect, at least, these vegetables are like proper grownups, i.e. to survive for long they need to develop a thick skin. They need drying off before storing and then stored uncovered to keep them dry. The shed is okay, but back home in the warm is better.
The dreary fact is – notwithstanding a few formidable leeks – stored food is about all the vegetable gardener has during the winter season. The wonderful fresh stuff of the previous summer and autumn has long since been scoffed, and the glorious jungle of last year's tomatoes, peppers, aubergines is a dim-and-distant memory.
It's often been remarked, there's nothing like a garden to bring home to a person the yearly cycle of the seasons. So I hope, like me, you're currently looking forward to better growing days ahead.
About the author
Michael Rand tends an allotment in North London and is the author of
Close to the Veg: a book of allotment tales, price £10.99, published by Marlin Press.
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