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| I read somewhere onions, beets, and carrots should be dried in the sun for almost a day before curing/storing. No washing, just brush off the soil and trim off the greens (optional with onions) because they could suck up moisture. Last night I harvested some of each of these, and did as I stated above except for trimming the greens off of the onions. This morning they all feel very soft, which doesn't seem right to me. I am used to them feeling firm. It wasn't very sunny in the evening and I checked them around 7 am this morning. What am I doing wrong? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| There's no "curing" for beets and carrots, they're supposed to be eaten fresh, and the sun will just dry them out. |
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| Yeah what you read is good for onions but beets and carrots go into the fridge if not used right away. Dave |
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- Posted by farmerdill (My Page) on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 9:21
| concur: even onions need to be mature. Green onions will also shrivel. |
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| I didn't word that well in the initial post. Sorry. I should have been more clear. I read drying the onions, carrots, and beets for about a day. Carrots and beets should then go in the refrigerator. The onions should be cured. However, upon drying them in the sun, they all seem to get soft. |
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- Posted by theforgottenone1013 5b/6a MI (My Page) on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 11:50
| Carrots and beets shouldn't be dried at all. Not in the sun, not in the shade, not on the kitchen counter. If you leave them sitting out for a day, even for several hours depending on the temp, they will go limp. After harvesting keep them cool (the cooler the better) and don't allow them to dry out. Plastic bags in the fridge, in a root cellar buried in damp sand, etc. Rodney |
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| And onions shouldn't be dried all that long in the direct sun either. If your onions weren't finished (matured), were harvested early - which in PA I would think it is too early to be harvesting them - then they will go soft no matter what you do. Onions are left in the dry ground until the tops fall over and the necks turn dry and brown. Then harvested and dried out briefly in partial sun or even shade as it is the air circulation not heat you are after. Now what to do to try to save them. Soak the carrots and beets in ice water for several hours - a cooler full of heavily iced water will help firm them back up some. Then either can or freeze them as they won't store for long as is. The onions can be chopped and then either dehydrated and stored in jars or frozen in pre-measured amounts in freezer bags and used for cooking. Dave |
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- Posted by sleevendog 5-6 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 27, 14 at 12:29
| If you post where you read that it might be more clear... Lots of thing can be pulled early but needs to be in the fridge and used quickly. Onions and garlic can be pulled and used before fully formed, but should not be dried/cured as what you may have read until the tops brown and dry while still in soil as Dave pointed out. Carrots and beets need cool storage asap...i've used the ice water bath method after forgetting a harvest but it was in shade. I don't pull much of that until much cooler september weather...carrots lasted through the holidays in cool storage...anything i pull early in summer heat goes right in the fridge... Maybe you were reading about a completely different growing zone....but the carrots and beets does not compute for anywhere. |
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