Many housewives complain that they are unable to keep beets fresh for a long time. Just a month after harvesting, the fruits become sluggish or rotten. How to store beets correctly? We will deal with the issue in this article. Readers are presented with recommendations for harvesting this vegetable and preparing it for saving. You will also learn several reliable and proven ways to store beets in the winter.
Autumn harvest
This vegetable is fully ripe by mid-autumn. But how to know exactly the period when you need to harvest? Here you can rely only on weather forecasts and your own intuition. The main thing is to have time to collect beets from the garden before the first frost. In the northern regions of the country, it is advisable to dig out root crops in the early to mid-October. In the south, this work can be done at the end of the same month.
Harvest beets in dry weather. If it so happens that during this period it is damp, then do not rush to take the dug up roots to the basement. Leave them to dry a day in a dry barn.
Before we learn the secrets of how to store beets, let's talk about the method of collecting it. This is a very important point. These fruits should not be pulled out, but scooped up with a shovel or pitchfork. Why so? This plant has a powerful root system, which is located in the ground at a depth of 10-20 centimeters. If you pull the beets by hand, then it is unlikely that you will be able to stretch the whole vegetable whole, the spine can easily break off. Such a fruit will quickly lose moisture and wither. Therefore, the root crop needs to be slightly dug up, and only then gently pulled out of the soil. You should have a whole and unharmed beetroot in your hands. It is such instances of this vegetable that are suitable for long-term storage fresh.
After the beets are dug up, shake off the rest of the earth from it. Remove lumps with your hands. You can not beat one root crop on another. The integrity of the outer shell must be maintained. Then cut the tops on the vegetables, stepping back two to three centimeters from the head itself. Dry the fruits in a dry place.
How to store beets? Learn all the ways
- You can save beets in plastic boxes with large openings or in wicker baskets.
- A wooden shelving unit is an ideal place to preserve these root crops. They are laid out in several tiers on one shelf.
- The most effective way to save this vegetable is the following. A layer of beets is laid in a wooden box and covered with moistened sand. Thus, in one container, several layers of vegetables can be formed. How much can beets harvested in this way be stored? With regular wetting of the sand, the root crops remain fresh until the next harvest, that is, almost a year.
- You can save the beets in a plastic film. To do this, wrap each vegetable in cellophane and lay it on the floor in the cellar. Fill a pile of such blanks with sand or peat from above.
Well, you know how to store beets properly. We hope that now you will not have any problems with preserving the harvest of these root crops until the very summer.