Storing vegetables and fruits.

Most people today, comfortable in the knowledge that the supermarket is just five minutes away, and all food can be safely stored in refrigerator or pantry shelf, never give a thought to the perils of storing seasonal produce. In the pre-industrial world most country people stored and preserved their kitchen garden produce for use out of season. Preserving is not discussed here (that article will come at a later date) but below we discuss some of the traditional means of storing the garden produce.

Clamping

Clamping is an age-old means of storing root crops - potatoes are particularly suited to this. In the autumn a patch of ground was dug out, perhaps a metre (or a yard) square, and about 50 centimeters of dry straw laid on the ground. The potatoes, which had been left on the surface of the ground to dry for a few days so that their skin might 'harden' (or dry out a little, it didn't do the crop any good if it sweated once placed into the clamp), were then piled in a pyramidical shape on the straw to perhaps a metre in height (this shape enabled water runoff). The gardener then covered them thickly with straw, then shovelled earth over the entire lot, packing it in tightly to exclude any light. There was always a little bit of straw left poking out at the very top of this rough pyramid, plus some more at its foot to provide aeration into the potato stack, but not enough room for the rats and mice to get in. it was better, in the small household, to build smaller clamps rather than large ones, as once they were opened the potatoes needed to be used.

In larger houses the potatoes could be clamped in long rectangular ridges rather than pyramids, the ridge being sharp enough to provide the runoff needed for rain. Potatoes would also be sorted in the ridge according to how well they kept, those that lasted the longest being at the far end of the ridge.

Storage in the ground

Many root crops could be safely left in the ground. In areas where there was not too much winter frost, root vegetables like parsnips and sometimes carrots could be left in the ground until needed. The tops might be cut off to prevent them growing.

'Heeling in'

Some vegetables might be 'heeled in', leeks can be stored well this way until they are required. The leeks are dug up and have their tops cut off. Then they are placed back in the soil, tightly bunches, their roots loosely covered with earth and then firmed in with the heel. They keep perfectly well this way and do not continue to grow.

Stringing and Hanging

Garlic and onions would be dug from the ground when fine weather was expected, then left in rows on the ground to dry. They could then be string together using their leaves and hung in a cool dry place until needed.

Gourds, pumpkins and the like would also be hung, strung in nets to keep their skins unbruised, and out of the reach of rats and mice.

Storing in sand

Some root vegetables, like beet, carrots, turnips, parsnips, scorzonera and salsify, could also be stored packed carefully in dry sand in barrels as well as in earth-covered clamps.

The Root Cellar

Of course, there was always the root cellar where produce could be stored using some of the means discussed above. the cellar bhad to be kept cool and dark, and not too humid. It generally had various bays or storage bins.

 

Storing Fruit

Fruits such as grapes, cherries, currants and gooseberries could be stored 'on the branch' in a fruit or grape room. The fruit would be picked with a length of stem or branch attached, and this then would be placed into special bottles on shelves in the fruit room. Each bunch had its own bottle (which can be described only as being rather like flattened hospital urinals, or bottles, in shape). The water in these bottles was regularly topped up, and fruit could last an entire year this way, enabling the big house to enjoy grapes or other branched fruit year round.

Grapes could also be left on the vine, or they could be hung in smoky rooms and preserved that way.

Other fruit, such as apples and pears, would be stored on boards in darkened, cool storage rooms. Fruit rooms, as they were known, were particularly popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were kept cool and dark and, as much as possible, at a constant humidity. The fruit was cleaned carefully before it was placed on an equally clean shelf, usually composed of wooden slats, and no one piece fruit was allowed to touch another (unless it was cooking apples or pears, rather than table fruit, in which case they might be stored in wicker baskets under the lowest shelves). In ancient times fruit was often wrapped in moss, or straw, or some other soft cushioning material, but this tended to encourage mould, and so by the eighteenth century careful storage on wooden airy shelves predominated.