When it comes to storing vegetables for wintertime, many people probably imagine preserving the vegetables with some sort of canning or pickling method. However, one member of the r/preppers subreddit recently made an incredibly detailed and helpful post about how you can store fresh vegetables as well.
"Yes, produce can be canned, dried, pickled, frozen and freeze-dried for longer term storage," the poster wrote. "But no reason not to have fresh produce in short term storage of 3-4 months: Cabbage, squash, onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, beets, apples, pears, oranges, grapefruit: All these will last a long time, properly stored in a dark, cool, ventilated space."
The post continued, going into even more detail about the correct storage methods to maximize your produce's shelf life through the cold months.
🗣️ What's the most common reason you end up throwing away food?
🔘 Bought more than I could eat 🛒
🔘 Went bad sooner than I expected 👎
🔘 Forgot it was in the fridge 😞
🔘 Didn't want leftovers 🥡
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
As many people are becoming aware, growing your own vegetables is a great way of eating healthier, getting more outdoor activity, and decreasing your personal reliance on the heavily polluting food industry.
The packaging- and shipping-related impacts of the food industry contribute majorly to the air pollution currently overheating our planet and the plastic pollution filling our oceans. Those numbers get even higher in months when all types of produce need to be shipped in from far-flung locations.
And that's to say nothing of the food waste that nearly every grocery store creates on a daily basis, sending tons of perfectly edible food to landfills.
All of those reasons explain why growing your own produce is a wonderful activity to engage in — but it's all for nothing if the food goes bad before you can eat it, which is where all the helpful tips from the Reddit thread come in.
"I've eaten butternut squash that was over a year old. It wasn't great, but it was edible," one commenter chimed in. "My neighbor told me they store carrots for 6+ months by keeping them in a box of moist sand. And despite the fact that onion-and-potato bins are a thing, don't store onions and potatoes near each other. Onions will give off ethylene gas just like apples do and it'll rot the potatoes."
"You can also grow a variety of sprouts, microgreens, and lettuce inside during the winter. I've even grown bok choi in a pot that gets a good amount of sun," another contributed.
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