Food storage and farmer's markets

[darwinslair]

Well, I know that some of you ave laid in large stores of dried goods, but there are a lot of things other than that and canned items you can store quite well.

I have been visiting the local farmers market and the prices fianlly got where I wanted for squash and potatoes.  If I had not grown so many I would ave bought onions, cabbage and carrots as well.

Just about anyone can create micro-climates in their own home adequate for long term storage of any of these.  C. Maxima squash will keep, if the right types, for up to 4 months if warm and dry.  C. Moschata can keep for up to a year in the same conditions.  Check them regularily and process any down that start to go.  Maximas will get a soft spot, while moschatas will start to weep a sap looking liquid from old bruises.  Potatoes, especially russets, will keep in wet sand or peat moss in a cool damp environment for quite a long time.  The same for carrots and beets.  Apples like it cold but dont keep wtih the others unless you have great ventilation as they apples give off a gas which will get your other vegetables sprouting. (btw, an apple in a paper bag with unripe tomatoes will get them red faster)

Also, for the backyard gardeners, Burpees carries a bushing C. Moschata (butternut) and Bakers Creek has a bushing buttercup (C. Maxima) if you are looking to maximize small space production and can pay a lot of attention to your plants. C. Pepo are common in bushing varietes but no where near the storage capability of the other two.

As far as gardening goes, look to your local extention offices for agriculture historically and find shelling dry beans. (store practially forecver, and aclimated to your area)  I grew two Hidatsa/Mandan varieieties this year and fewer than 100 seeds of each produced in excess of 4# of each.  They taste great too.  The only bean that outproduced them was scarlet runner which will give me about 3# of seeds from 12 plants.

If you have the room, try an old regional indian variety of corn.  Figure a minimum of 200 plants with 400 (op) being better for optimal pollination and genetic variation.  No grains produce close to what they do for area required, and threshing is simple, and like beans, just have to dry them and store them.

[opsec]

Exactly the kind of info I'm looking for right now.

What specific kinds of C. Moschata are you growing that has a 1 year shelf life?

[darwinslair]

Most C. Moschatas store well.  Seminole Pumpkin seems to last forever apparently (exagerated but several years is not unheard of) and even regular butternuts will keep 6-12 months.  Pennsilvania crooknecks and long island cheese are going to give you comperable storage lifespans if properly cured, not frosted, and carefully kept warm and dry.  I suppose the important thing is that in best cases they last until the first of your C. Pepo summer squash the next year.

[darwinslair]

OPSEC_ I sent an email to Victory Seeds regarding listing of their regionally grown seeds.  Some of them they obviously grow themselves, but others, like the tenesse sweet potato squash they apparently procure out of tennesee.  They list some maxima varieties they claim to store into the following planting season so they might be something you would be interested if you can grow them there.  Optimal storage temps are 50-55 degrees and low humidity.  A good dry basement works well.

Anything they are getting seeds from elsewhere I would be wary of if you are going to be in a specialized growing area.  You will have a long season there, but not a hot one, and it will be a wet one for much of the time.

I really like their bean selection.  They have quite a few I had not seen before.  Atash has a good listing somewhere of runner beans, I am happy to donate enough for you to do a grow-out of them.  Happy to give you anything I grow for you to try, but I want it to work for you too.

tom

[Atash Hagmahani]

Anything they are getting seeds from elsewhere I would be wary of if you are going to be in a specialized growing area.

This one looks fantastic for our area:

http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1124/221

It is well-rated on Dave's Garden, and it matches the hybrids for earliness (85 days!). That is important for us, because anything much over 100 days and you might be pushing your luck due to the cool summers. I did an internet search, and it seems to get a lot of praise for earliness, productivity, and quality. (aside--the farm where it was bred is now a golf course  )

I have gotten neck pumpkins (rated 120 days) to bear, but yield was poor and they didn't quite develop right. Butternuts are similar but a little smaller.

You know, since it's a moschata, it could be grown with a maxima for a little variety. That Potimarron from France looks good, and it's rated 85-95 days, and it's beautiful.

Beware of bush winter squashes in our climate. I don't think they produce enough leaf area to feed the fruit this far north. One possible exception is one called "Golden Nugget" which despite being a maxima produces quite small fruit; it is reputedly a very early winter squash, rated to 85 days.

[darwinslair]

You can shorten maturity by starting them in tear-away pots or anything you can transplant them from without disturbing the roots.  Two weeks from sprouting is really the maximum, but when you look at days to maturity from direct planting that is about 20 days you are eliminating from growing time.  They do not do well if allowed to grow too far in the pots which is why I say two weeks from first sprouting.  If they get much past the second true leaf you are going to be doing more damage than help. 

OPSEC- in reference to an earlier question of yours, it looks like the average high-yield vine varieties under optimal conditions are going to give you 20-30 pounds per plant unless you are growing the oversized ones where you get one 40-80 pound fruit.

[opsec]

Have you tried those pots that are made out of recycled cow dung? Supposedly you don't need to remove the plant from the pot, you just drop the pot in the ground and let the pot itself incorporate into the soil as the roots push through it.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Supposedly you don't need to remove the plant from the pot, you just drop the pot in the ground and let the pot itself incorporate into the soil as the roots push through it.

No I haven't used those, but with Cucurbits you can ONLY use pots that you plant out the whole thing and let it disintegrate. Members of that family--including Squashes, Cucumbers, Melons, Gourds, etc, all have rather fine, brittle roots that do NOT transplant well. You could easily set them back or even kill them being rough with those roots.

So whatever you use, it has to be a pot-and-all operation, and even so you need to take care with those delicate roots.

The last type I used were made from coir (coconut husk fiber). Similar idea.

[darwinslair]

Atash, I disagree on it ONLY being pots you can plant.  I have started them in regular pots and done fine.  Just that you have to take it out whole.  I have used the ultrathin plastic pots which you can tear off like paper and they have worked fine.  The root/dirt portion stays whole and you just have to be careful.  I do agree though that disturbing the roots is detrimental.  But the idea of the cow crap pots is a good idea.  I have not seen them here yet but any manure is a good thing when planting heavy feeding plants.  A little extra is going to only help.

[opsec]

They are odorless too. I only know of them because I saw them on "Dirty Jobs".

[darwinslair]

bump