SELF-SUFFICIENCY FOOD STORAGE:

ROOT CROPS:
One way that root crops can be stored during winter is in the ground. This is true for potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and turnips. At the end of the growing season, bend over the tops so that root energy will not continue to be sent to them. Do not cut the tops off as this will provide entry for bacteria and insects which may destroy the root before you come back for it. Cover the rows with a mulch of straw, hay, or cut weeds and long grass so that the ground is less likely to freeze.

If there is a possibility of temperatures fluctuating --- not remaining cold, near freezing, and/or that rain or meltwater are likely to saturate the soil, it will be better to remove these crops, clean them of soil and dry package them until you need them.

OUT-OF-GROUND-STORAGE requires a dry, cool, dark location.
Moisture will encourage fungus and mould growth. Heat and/or light will encourage sprouting. After tuberous crops sprout the nutritional value in the root is converted into growing a head (plant) which is unhealthy because it has insufficient light and inadequate moisture and soil nutrients.

Once harvested, concentrate on preserving the root until you wish to use it. Clean, dry sand or vermiculite loose fill insulation in a wooden bushel basket or crate, or, large covered plastic container have proven beneficial. It is often best to tightly close containers storing vegetables so that the vapors released from one kind of product do not influence another one.

GREEN SPOTS on potatoes should be understood so as not to result in needless waste nor provoke a hypersensitive reaction. The green marks that may form are in response to the potato growing partly uncovered out of the soil. The sun's radiation stimulates the development of an organic form of phenol which acts as a natural insecticide and pesticide. If you have developed a hypersensitivity to chemical phenol, that hypersensitivity will likely expand to include organic phenol as produced under certain conditions in some vegetables ... potatoes are one. You can try removing the greenish flesh areas before cooking and see if that is enough. If not, avoid potatoes until you have recovered.

BROWN RINGS in the flesh just under the skin of potatoes are also appearing much more readily than in the past. These are the result of some of the starch within the potato turning into sugar. That's right, sugar ... not quite a poison. The short of it is that you can safely eat the cooked potato. Diabetics may have to eat a lesser quantity than they have been used to because of the added sugar.

FRUITS:
Fruits require their own special considerations.
To begin with, when you harvest the crop, DO NOT remove the stems.
By removing the stems you break the protective skin layer and provide an opening through which bacteria, mould spores, and air will enter. Choice of harvest time is very particular for some fruits so check a good reference for specifics on each and ensure that the advice is relevant for your location.

Each fruit has an optimum period for dry storage.
Beyond that you have probably lost good fruit. This may vary from several days (peaches) to almost a year (apples). Pumpkins, winter squash, and tomatoes grow from blooms so they are rightfully considered fruits.

DO NOT store fruits with or near vegetables.
This is because the gases released from fruits during respiration can cause some vegetables to sprout and some vegetables (cabbage and turnips) can transfer their odor to fruits such as pears and apples. With fruits, unlike vegetables, free air circulation is essential to remove gases such as ethylene and volatile esters --- which can speed up ripening ... and eventual fermentation and decay.

STRUCTURES:
Constructed underground or covered storage take many forms: mounds, cellars, cold rooms, pits, and sheds have been devised over the years. Plans and examples are provided in both Organic Gardening and Farming magazine and in Stocking Up, a book by the staff of the magazine, edited by Carol Stoner.

A STORAGE CAVITY, in general, ... truck body, culvert, drum, concrete shell, wooden box, wooden barrel, earthen pit, or large garbage pail is insulated by natural and common materials ... straw, earth, peat, hay, wood shavings, leaves, sand. It may be further improved by the addition of tar or asphalt paper and a vent (moisture control), gravel or crushed stone (drainage), and hydrated lime (vermin and rodent control).

A BASIC PRINCIPLE of food storage of raw crops is darkness and coolness to retard growth and dryness and ventilation to prevent fungal spore development and growth stimulation by scent. Many options provide a solution for almost any need and circumstance.

COLD ROOM AND PANTRIES:
An Indoor form of food storage is the cold room or pantry.
Cold cereals, hot cereal processed grains, flours, cookies, crackers and biscuits should all be stored in tight lidded wide-mouthed jars. Leaving them in paper and cardboard boxes or in bins is an invitation to pests. Air circulation and humidity will also encourage mould spore growth. This is one of three non-toxic pest eradication approaches: food containment.

PEST PREVENTION.
Another approach is simple general cleanliness of the kitchen, eating and storage areas. A crumb of food to a human is like a basketball sized piece of food to a cockroach. A function of rodents, insects and parasites is the elimination of waste food. An absence of food equals an absence of pests.

BORACIC (also called boric) ACID POWDER provides us with a third strategy in areas where cockroaches and other pests are endemic. You must insist, however, on a brand which is powder and NOT crystal. Only the powder is effective since the boracic acid works when it is picked up by the sticky pads on the bottom of the feet of the cockroach. Since these pads must be kept clean for the roach to be able to climb walls and walk across ceilings, they are licked clean by the roach. Doing this results in the ingestion of the acid ... which kills the roach.

BHP is a current (1997-1999) brand of the powder form.
About $15 to $20 worth is enough to permanently do a large house or 3 one-bedroom apartments. Other brands have been or may become best over time for a variety of political and marketing reasons. There is little profit in this product for the pharmaceutical and chemical companies. There is a risk of potential restriction by the government. Higher cost and repeat use of high toxic chemical pesticides presents a positive environment for business to spend huge sums promoting the products to an ignorant and concerned public.

Pesticide manufacturers have lobbied the government in Canada to restrict the use of Borasic acid powder on the grounds that it CAN be harmful to children. This is a bit like the rich white collar criminal telling the police to warn the public against the horrors of the homeless. What parent allows their infant to lick the floors behind their appliances to ingest several teaspoons of the powder an get an unpset stomach.

Toxic chemical insecticides, which outgas toxic chemicals for months and are many hundreds of times more toxic than boracic acid --- are given free sanction. They are freely available in many plazas, hardware stores, dollar and discount stores. They are frequently sprayed throughout houses as if being used to wash down or paint the premises! These toxic chemicals last only for a few months and serve to mutate hardier forms of pest.

The reality is that their infant simply being in a room (kitchen) where the pesticide has been liberally sprayed WILL be influenced negatively by the gasing off fumes of the pesticide. Should they put their fingers in their mouth after wetly touching a sprayed counter, or, put a toy in their mouth after it has been "disinfected" by a common phenol based spray, they WILL react and act out -- being a "bad" child. If they were to ingest a teaspoon of the pesticide liquid, it WOULD often be fatal. Just because the government sanctions a product by allowing it to be advertised with no cautions and many declarations of how you NEED it does not make it SAFE, Economical, or Practical.