This year to save my pumpkins and butternut squash's I tried using some old stackable plastic milk cartons you purchase at home/office supply stores. I put one pumpkin per carton and stacked them in the utility pantry.
Any thoughts on where to find a cool dry place in a wooden house with:
- No garage
- pantry and main storage cupboard both back on to the hot-water cupboard, so are actually good places to sprout potatoes etc. rather than store them
- The garden shed has about a 30° temperature range
??
Richard, we have similar difficulties so my house is strewn with pumpkins through the winter, we have an old piano in the hallway which became my pumpkin shelf, no central heating so the hallway stays VERY cool at times. Maybe there is a place UNDER the house? you would need to keep the rats away though. Otherwise you could use them quickly or process them, and freeze as soup or something. I did hear that you can cut it up and freeze chunks to roast, but the texture probably suffers.
In the past when friends gave us pumpkins we froze serving-sized portions, but they were rather soggy once thawed. (We have a much better freezer now, though). Alas, we no longer have a cat living under our house, and we finally MOVED our piano out of the hallway! I guess cooked mashed pumpkin would freeze quite well, especially in a frostproof container.
Anyhow, our pumpkins are still a-growing, but I'm presuming the advice is also applicable to our bumper crop of kamokamo (some of which will be going to the ooooby stall in Inglewood on March 25th)
firstly make sure you harvest them when they are fully mature, waiting until the foliage dies down is best, then leave in the sun for a week or so to dry the stems and fully develop the sugars. store in a cool dry place, a hammock type arrangement is quite good but a shelf is ok. you can wipe with a bleach solution before putting them away, to kill germs. check regularly and remove any that start to go bad to eat first.
Replies
- No garage
- pantry and main storage cupboard both back on to the hot-water cupboard, so are actually good places to sprout potatoes etc. rather than store them
- The garden shed has about a 30° temperature range
??
Anyhow, our pumpkins are still a-growing, but I'm presuming the advice is also applicable to our bumper crop of kamokamo (some of which will be going to the ooooby stall in Inglewood on March 25th)
Gill Warren