Why Curing Comes Before Storing

There is a moment in late September when the plot gives you more than you can eat, and the temptation is to dig everything at once and bung it in a box. Resist, just for a fortnight. Roots that go into store straight from wet soil sweat, then rot, and you will find the whole box soft by Christmas. Curing simply means letting the skins toughen and the excess moisture dry off before packing. It is the difference between a store that lasts until March and one that turns to mush in six weeks.

The rest is down to clean containers, a frost-free corner and the odd check through the winter.

Curing Carrots, Beetroot and Potatoes

Each root wants slightly different handling, so treat them separately rather than tipping the lot into one box.

• Potatoes. Lift on a dry day, leave the tubers on the surface for a couple of hours to dry, then move them somewhere dark and airy at around 10–15°C for ten days to a fortnight. This sets the skins and heals small grazes. Rub off loose soil and never wash them.
• Carrots. Twist off the foliage rather than cutting it, leaving about a centimetre of stalk. Clean them with your hands, not water, and lay them in a single layer somewhere cool and airy for a few hours.
• Beetroot. Twist the leaves off, leaving 5cm of stalk, and take care not to nick the root itself, as any wound bleeds and rots. Never trim the taproot.

Anything damaged, split or already soft should be eaten within the week rather than stored. One bad beetroot can spoil a whole box.

Sand, Paper or Hessian: Choosing Your Medium

Carrots and beetroot keep best in something slightly moist that stops them shrivelling. Sand is traditional, but spent potting compost, leafmould or sawdust work just as well. It should be just damp: squeezed in your fist it should hold its shape without a single drip. Bone-dry sand pulls moisture out of the roots; sodden sand invites rot.

• Use clean boxes or crates with a few drainage holes.
• Put a 5cm layer of sand in the base, then a layer of roots, not touching.
• Cover with sand and repeat, finishing with a 5cm cap. Label the box with the variety and date.
• For small amounts, roll carrots in newspaper and layer them in a cardboard box.
• Potatoes prefer paper or hessian sacks kept dark. Light turns them green and bitter.

Getting the Conditions Right

Aim for a steady 2–5°C for carrots and beetroot and 4–7°C for potatoes. Potatoes stored colder than about 4°C turn sweet and darken when cooked, so keep them away from the coldest corner. A frost-free garage, a brick shed, an unheated back room or a cellar all work. If you have only a few roots, the salad drawer of the fridge is a perfectly good store for carrots and beetroot.

Darkness matters as much as temperature: light greens potatoes and encourages sprouting. Keep the store ventilated but out of draughts, and raise boxes on slats or bricks so air can move underneath. Never store potatoes with apples or pears — the ethylene they give off brings on sprouting — and keep onions and garlic well away.

Outdoors, a traditional clamp still works. Lay straw on dry ground, pile the roots in a cone, cover with 15cm of straw and then 15cm of soil, leaving a short straw chimney at the top. Open it on a mild day to take what you need.

Checking the Store Through Winter

Every three or four weeks, open the boxes and feel for soft spots. Remove anything going mouldy straight away, and if the sand feels wet, replace it. A faint musty smell means the store is too damp and needs more ventilation. Mice will find a shed or a clamp, so set traps early and keep sacks off the floor.

Use the smallest and least perfect roots first, saving the best for late winter. Carrots and beetroot will hold until February or March in good conditions; maincrop potatoes usually see you through to spring, though they may start to sprout as the weather warms — rub the shoots off and use them up.

Roots That Are Better Left in the Ground

Not everything needs lifting. Parsnips, swedes, turnips, winter radishes and Jerusalem artichokes are hardy enough to stay where they are, and parsnips actually taste sweeter after a frost. Mulch the rows with straw or bracken in November, mark them with a stick so you can find them under snow, and lift only what you need.

Get the curing and packing right this autumn, and a modest row of roots will quietly feed you through the hungriest weeks of the year. There is real satisfaction in digging a carrot from a box of sand in February while the plot outside is bare.