WITH A LITTLE CARE YOU CAN HAVE GOODIES IN STORE

If stored correctly, home-grown fruit will last for weeks

Tuesday March 13,2007

By Alan Titchmarsh

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NOW, this will come as a shock to all those people who think fruit and veg grow in hygienic little plastic trays covered with shrink wrap at supermarkets, but there are still plenty of us who grow our own, and even more people without veg patches who delight in stocking up on bargain bulk buys of carrots, onions, fruit or spuds - still with their patina of soil - from farm shops.

A few bags stashed away for safekeeping are all it takes to bring on a self-sufficient glow.
But how many people find that - when they go to use them, weeks later - their once-pristine produce is a mass of oozing sticky brown goo?

The solution is proper storage. Medieval farmhouses had their butteries in the coldest corner to keep provisions in good condition, old cottages had pantries with marble shelves, and in Victorian and Edwardian times, no walled kitchen garden was complete without a north-facing apple store with slatted shelves where apples and pears could be spaced out and kept at a steady 40F with just the right humidity.

They'd also have a well insulated brick veg store with storage bins for keeping spuds, storing carrots in sand, and airing onions and shallots up on slatted racks - all within the potting shed complex where the gardeners could keep a watchful eye on the contents.

Today's homes and gardens simply don't have the facilities, so you have to make the best of what's available. The very best place to keep most fresh fruit and veg for a week or so is the salad drawer at the bottom of the fridge. Apples will keep there for several weeks, as long as they are clean, dry and perfectly sound, and if you have a spare fridge in the garage or utility room for cold drinks, use the lowest shelves of that as well.

If you've bulkbought apples in single-layer boxes with the fruit individually packed in a paper "honeycomb" inside, you can stack them in the garage where it's cool - but big boxes of loose fruit are best picked over, so bruised ones can be cooked straight away and sound fruits laid out in trays, on shelves or worktops.

Use the garage for storing sacks of spuds, onions, carrots, swedes or parsnips. If you'll be keeping them for more than a couple of weeks it's worth making an insulated "storage bay" by placing a couple of large cardboard boxes one inside each other and lining the inside with newspapers, then tip your veg carefully out into it.

Check them over as you do and remove any bruised or damaged ones to use straight away - they'll only rot and take the rest with them otherwise.

Cover the top with more newspaper on cold nights - don't be tempted to use bubble wrap as it just makes them sweat, and an old blanket simply absorbs the damp. Take precautions against rodents, and you'll be dipping into homegrown or home stored produce happily till Christmas or beyond.