How to store beets?

Beetroot is a valuable root vegetable rich in vitamins and minerals. Therefore, harvesting in the fall, gardeners try to preserve the ripe fruits for the winter. If you do everything right, the beets will lie for many months without losing their taste.

Under normal conditions, beets are stored for a very short time. In a warm room, a vegetable can only lie for a couple of days. After that, it will certainly start to deteriorate. You can increase the shelf life of the root crop by placing it in the cold. Beets can stay in the refrigerator or cellar for one and a half to two months.

To avoid problems with storing root crops, they must be properly prepared immediately after harvesting the site. It is recommended to pick vegetables on a warm, windless day. This should be done before frost. Otherwise, the fruits will freeze. Because of this, they will be stored much worse. Don't dig up the beets the day after rain. In this case, it will be too dirty.

The dug up beets must be immediately cleaned of dry soil and dried. Usually it is laid out right in the garden. There it dries for three hours. It is impossible to dry the beets longer, otherwise it will begin to wither. If the beets are being dried indoors, they should be left there for a few days. The room in which the root vegetables are stored must be well ventilated.

After drying the beets, you need to peel them off using a sharp knife or garden shears. It is not completely cut off. A small tail should remain on each root crop. The root can also be trimmed. But you should only do this if it is too large. All side roots are removed completely. This should be done, being careful not to damage the skin.

In order for the beets to lie down until spring, they need to provide the correct storage conditions. It is worth paying attention to the following points.

1. Temperature. Root vegetables are best stored at low temperatures. It should be within 3-4 degrees. If the temperature is higher, the beets may start sprouting. If it drops below, the root vegetable may freeze and become tasteless.
2. Humidity. To prevent the beets from withering, they must be stored in a room with a humidity level of at least 85-90%. You can improve storage conditions by using bags, sawdust or sand boxes.
3. Lighting. The place where the beets are stored should be dark. If the root crop is constantly exposed to light, this will negatively affect both its appearance and taste. In addition, beets in this case may begin to sprout. And this always negatively affects the keeping quality of the fruit.

Private home owners usually store vegetables in basements or cellars. Before placing vegetables in such a room, you need to prepare it. First of all, all surfaces in the cellar need to be disinfected. This is usually done a few weeks before laying the vegetables.

The room must be cleaned of mold and mildew, and then treated with antiseptic compounds. The walls and ceiling should be whitewashed with a simple lime solution, to which a small amount of copper sulfate is added. Next, the cellar needs to be ventilated. It is very important to check the premises for rats and other pests. After all, even a few rodents can spoil the harvested crop.

You can store root vegetables in the basement in bulk. This is the easiest way to store vegetables. Beets are simply sprinkled on the floor or sprinkled on a pile of potatoes. In this form, the products lie for a long time without spoiling.

A small portion of the crop can be refrigerated after harvest. The vegetables are stored in the lower compartment. To increase shelf life, it is better to pack products in separate bags or wrap each vegetable in parchment. When choosing this storage method, it is worth remembering that not very many products are placed in the refrigerator. Indeed, not only beets are usually put in the vegetable compartment, but also potatoes, onions, cabbage and other products.

In the refrigerator, you can store not only fresh beets, but also cooked ones. A boiled vegetable can be stored for 2-3 weeks. If you put it in the freezer, the shelf life will increase to almost two months. Prepare vegetables before freezing. They do it as follows.

1. First you need to sort out all the fruits, wash them and boil them.
2. Next, the beets must be quickly cooled with cold water. In this case, you do not need to pour vegetables with it.
3. The cooled beets must be carefully peeled and then chopped. Each fruit can be simply cut in two or diced.
4. Properly prepared vegetables should be placed in plastic containers or small bags. It is best to put in each of them a portion of the product that is needed to prepare this dish. In this case, the vegetables do not have to be re-frozen all the time.
5. Each portion should be marked with a sticker with the date of freezing written on it. This will make it much easier to control the quality of stored products.

If the balcony in the apartment is glazed and the temperature on it does not drop below zero, it can be used to store various supplies. Beets in such conditions will not spoil. It is most convenient to store beets in special caskets with a soft lid. They can be used not only as a container for storing root vegetables, but also for sitting.

Instead, the beets can be simply placed in bags. Several small cuts must be made on the surface of each of them. In this case, the beets will not grow moldy. If the winters in the region are too cold, beetroot bags can be additionally covered with blankets.

There are other ways to store beets at home.

If the room is too dry, the beets quickly become lethargic or start to rot. To prevent this from happening, root crops can be shifted with dry sawdust. Usually beets are simply mixed with them. After that, the roots are placed in wooden boxes or plastic bags. In this form, beets are perfectly stored both in the house and in the apartment.

You can also save beets by placing them in a container with sand. Before this, the roots must be well dried in the sun. This will protect it from pests and various diseases. The sand should also be dried well or baked in the oven. This is done in order to disinfect it.

The sand should be placed on the bottom of the box. Next, you need to put the fruits in the container. They should be at a short distance from each other. From above, the fruits should be covered with another layer of sand. It should be no thinner than 2-3 centimeters.

The beet storage technology in such packages is suitable for both apartment residents and owners of private houses. You can store vegetables in plastic bags in any cool place. The main thing is to make several holes in each of them, and pour dry sawdust or mustard powder on the bottom. Beetroot bags can not only be placed on the floor, but also hung up.

Vegetables harvested in the fall can be used to prepare various preparations. You can save beets for the winter in the following ways.

1. Dry. Drying beets is most convenient in special electric dryers. But if such a device is not at hand, you can also use an ordinary oven to prepare vegetables. Beets are pre-peeled and cut into thin slices. The resulting slices are laid out on a baking sheet covered with parchment or foil. Beets are dried in an oven preheated to 80-90 degrees for several hours. Vegetables prepared in this way can be used for making soups or eaten like regular dried fruits.
2. Pickle. Another easy way to preserve beets is to pickle them. To do this, the vegetable is washed, blanched in hot water for 20 minutes, and then peeled. After that, it is cut and put into pre-prepared jars. Next, the boiling brine is poured into the container. Having rolled up the cans, they are turned over and left to cool. In this form, the products are perfectly stored for many months.
3. Ferment. Thus, vegetables have been harvested for a long time. For fermentation, it is best to use late varieties of beets. They contain the most sugar. Before sourdough, vegetables are washed and peeled. After that, it is cut and placed in jars or any other suitable container. Next, the product is poured with brine. The container must be pressed down with oppression. This is done so that the fruits do not float. In this form, the beets should be sent to a warm place for one to two weeks. After the end of fermentation, the container should be taken out to a cold room. The finished product is very tasty. It is quite possible to add it to borscht or various salads.

To protect their crops, the gardener needs to know in advance about the problems he may face when storing beets.

1. Infection of root crops with a fungus. If the beets turn black on the inside, then they have been infected with a fungal disease called phomosis. This happens if the beets grew on acidic soil or were watered too abundantly. To protect the fruit, it must be grown in the right conditions.
2. Defeat with white rot. This is another common disease. White mold appears on fruits that have been stored in a warm room with high humidity. If you notice such a bloom on the beets, discard the spoiled vegetables. If this is not done, rot will affect the rest of the fruits. You cannot eat infected beets.
3. Improper drying. If vegetables are not dried before laying, they quickly start to deteriorate. Beets become soft, wither and rot. The spoiled food can only be thrown away.
4. Storage next to carrots. To increase the keeping quality of these root vegetables, they must be stored separately. If they lie side by side, the gardener will quickly notice that both the beets and carrots have wilted and become unusable.