[fatbelly]

I have had my Lottie for three seasons now and I can't believe how much I have learnt over this period of time. One of the main things that I have learnt is that growing the produce is only half the battle and effectively storing it for the winter is crucial.

Last season I put a lot of effort into correctly drying my Onions and Spuds before I put them into storage and my work has paid dividends because I still have Onions and Spuds in great condition.

My failures have been the storage of my Butternut squashes, I put them next to some Bramley apples in my Brick garage which is separate from the house so it does get really cold. Little did I know that ripening Bramleys give off a gas that hasten the BNS's decline.

Plus because the garage was so cold in that cold snap we had in November they started to rot. Next season they will be going into our loft room which has a heater in it which keeps the temp above 7c so it never freezes.

Each year I learn more and more..............so if I can do it I guarantee you can.

[mumofstig]

That's a lovely thought.

We all have to learn and sometimes we learn the hard way 

[Trillium]

Yes, sadly we could all write books on how NOT to do something, including gardening. But they're lessons we never forget.

[bigben]

I have had my Lottie for three seasons now and I can't believe how much I have learnt over this period of time. One of the main things that I have learnt is that growing the produce is only half the battle and effectively storing it for the winter is crucial.

So true - so much of my stuff was wasted this year because of bad management on my part. I grew french beans picked a few - went camping for a few weeks and of course by the time I got back they were past it. I got a glut of peas that I wasted and loads of my sweetcorn ended up hard and not very sweet because I left it to late. My squash have been a success but quite a few of my spuds got wirewormed and I stored them - of course whatever had tunneled into some of them carried on and did the others - Well this year I plan on doing a lot of things very differently - as you say - learn every year.

[Sue33]

we stored our bns in the shed at the lottie our first year and lost all of them, it was far too cold 

[Jono]

Nice post.

We store our squashes in a basket in the dining room, as we don't have much space. I thought it would be too warm initially, but for the past two years they've been fine, and some of the crown princes have kept well into the next spring.

It might be because they're next to a single glazed wooden framed window. Sometimes having a draughty old house is useful!

[shokkyy]

And there's a lot to be said for having a spare bedroom

[JohnB47]

Lost some butternut in the last freeze and now the last two crown prince are on the way out (all stored in a brick shed, but with very thin roofing). The onions that I hung up in my kitchen lasted longer than those in the shed.

Next year things will be different.

Also, it's not just better storage, it's learning how to cook all this stuff. No point growing it if it sits around, with an ever increasing risk of going off because it's not being eaten.

[Patch]

Good post.

Same here - live and learn.  I had a few late potatoes and carrots in pots coming up to Christmas and I thought that, with being in pots, covered by compost, they'll be fine, especially as, when the cold weather moved in, I also covered the pots in bubble wrap.  How wrong I was!

The compost still went rock hard in the pots and by the time the thaw came along you could literally squeeze the water out of them.  So sadly I didn't have any home grown potatoes or carrots on my Christmas dinner plate.

But I'll be storing them this year, hopefully taking advice from this site on the best way to store them, and hopefully, hopefully, I'll have home grown potatoes and/or carrots this year for Christmas!