Storing in cellars?

[nao57]

Have any of you stored vegetables overwinter in cellars? And maybe in the dirt cellar version? I was curious to ask about this.

At some point you run out of mason jars. So you'd need to be able to do the dirt cellar version. In some dirt cellar versions they'd put layers of dirt over the vegetables. I wondered if you can dirty layer all vegetables, or only certain ones? Could you dirt layer tomatoes? I don't think this is ideal to do tomatoes this way but I wanted to think about what if the power went out. It does look like some metro areas are going to lose their power and utilities, though its unclear for how long. And if we didn't have power we'd want stuff to not spoil and probably wouldn't be able to mason jar can.

Many signals from news articles and decaying infrastructure keep pointing this way.

Edited in later; and where I live the big producing vegetable plants are; tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins. (For this year that's what we have. But in other years squash and zuccini also grow abundantly here.)

So I wanted to basically ask about 'dirt cellars', where you layer and protect the vegetables in dirt instead of shelving them in open air.

Thanks.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Does 'dirt' equate to 'earth'? The only things I would use earth to protect would be root veg. , as in making clamps for swede, turnip, potato, etc., too many things live in it. Sounds like a good way of ruining tomatoes, Not sure that being in a cellar would be any advantage. Sand gets used for storing carrots inside. Traditionally tomatoes are picked full size but green, wrapped individually in newspaper, and stored in a drawer. The gas given off by ripe tomatoes acts as a hormone triggering ripening in others, hence the individual wrapping.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

PS. My missus puts surplus tomatoes, halved on a tray with a verry little olive oil and dries them in a very low oven, then they go in the freezer for use in cooking.

 

[Ruderunner]

Got a basement? Potatoes, onions and hard squash will keep for months.

Carrots can be kept growing for awhile before getting buried in sand. Beets too.

And one doesn't need electricity to can. A campfire can work for many things especially acidic stuff like tomato.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

They're a huge pototoe hole in the middle of my homestead where my parents would store potatoes over winter.
If I'm not mistaken, mamaw and my mother would also store beets underground over winter also.

 

[Meadowlark]

Same here @Heirloom farmer1969 but I would add turnips to your list. They store really well underground.

 

[Ruderunner]

I don't even pick turnips until I need some. They don't mind our cold winters and stay edible until spring.