Page 180 - The Lost Ways

Cull the Crops

Harvest time is a time of plenty.

It’s a time to truly be thankful,
no matter what the outside
circumstances are. While you
are harvesting, curing, and
packing up the fruits of your
labor, take a close look at each
one. If there are any blemishes
at all, cull them from the rest.

Don’t throw them out though!
Trim them and prepare them for
dinner. Alternately, you can
freeze, can, or dry them for later
use. They just can’t stay in the
root cellar to spoil. This is the
perfect time to invest in a make-

ahead cookbook. These plan-
ahead meal plans are gems at
harvest time.

Put everything you need, including whatever blemished produce you culled, into
individual meal bags, so it’s all right there together when you need it.

Preparing Vegetables for Root Cellar Storage

Now that you have your harvest in front of you, you need to prepare it all for storage. You
might be happy to learn that you do not have to wash it all before storage.

In fact, you really don’t want to. No, really—unstop your sink. Do not, I repeat, do not
wash those roots! If, by chance, you dug them up in wet weather and now they are all

muddy, just let them sit out until they dry before putting them in the cellar. You can even
pull them and leave them right there on the ground for a day or two. This will stimulate
dormancy and lessen the likelihood of them sprouting.

Do not trim the roots off your tubers. You don’t want any broken skin, because that’s
where the rot will start. Do trim the greens off of all of your root crops. Scrape the leaf

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