It really works! Storing carrots in the garden was again successful this year. Around the first snowfall at the end of October, I placed garbage bags filled with leaves on top of my carrots, making sure that there were no obvious gaps.

The bags were soon covered with snow and as it happened this year, we received around 30 cm of snow in November. My carrots were well covered and I decided I would leave them in the ground longer than last year. I was away in Cuba for the International Permaculture Convergence until December 7. I arrived back home to very cold weather and the overnight temperatures had been as low as -30 degrees C. I was a bit concerned that I had left my veggies in the ground too late…

I kept an eye on the daytime highs and on December 16, the temperature was 2 degrees C above freezing. I seized the opportunity to dig up my carrots. I could not have been more pleased as not a single carrot was spoiled! My December harvest was fresh and beautiful.

I’d love to hear if you have experiences with leaving veggies in the ground in our cold climate. What are your strategies?

On November 27, I dug two rows of sweet and crunchy carrots out of my garden. I’m not sure what was colder - my fingers in stiff gardening gloves or the carrots! It was -4°C after all.

The idea to leave carrots in the ground into winter came from Denise and Fred Radford. This lovely couple has a front yard and backyard vegetable and flower garden in the Belgravia neighbourhood and we had the fortune of visiting them as part of the Edible Garden Tour in August.

Denise explained to our wide-eyed group that she found a way to keep rows of carrots in her raised beds until late November. She makes a nice, thick duvet for her veggies by covering them with large bags of dried leaves and piling snow on top. When she needs more carrots, she lifts some of the bags, digs up a row, and then replaces the protective covering. Parsnips are even hardier and the Radfords have left them over Christmas.

I was keen to try this method, although I thought it was a rather risky! However, out of necessity, I decided to experiment. We had a warm fall and in October, my basement “cold” storage remained above 10°C; the fridge was full of other vegetables, and I ran out of time to find other solutions before going overseas for a trip. On October 13, I covered 3 short rows of Nantes and Chantenay carrots with 2 overlapping layers of leaves in large garbage bags. Two weeks later, we had almost a foot of snow, and that was great for extra insulation.

The minimum temperatures in November were fluctuating, but it was definitely below zero Celsius. Below is a graph showing minimum temperatures in November.

When I was digging, the soil near the edge of the raised bed was frozen and not easy to pry up. Toward the middle of the bed, the soil was fairly soft and moist. The carrots came out in clumps that seemed frozen, but after some time in the house, they were beautiful, fresh and sweet. Only one or two rotted after a few days. They were likely growing near edge of the bed where they had less protection.

Around December 10, the average minimum temperature was -16°C. I called the Radfords and they still had some carrots and parsnips in the ground – they were waiting for warmer weather to dig some up and see how they were doing. Maybe I’ll leave some carrots in the ground even longer next year…

In the fall of 2011, we enjoyed a good harvest of purple cabbage, turnips, potatoes, carrots, leeks and beets. The freezer was quickly filled and still I had more veggies to deal with. I needed to figure out how to store them fresh in my “root cellar”.

How did we build the root cellar? When we finished the basement, the most important planning went into Kevin’s music studio called “The Cave”. Kevin designed thick walls to insulate his studio from the furnace room noise. I wanted a small area of the basement for food and other storage. The most practical place, considering his space needs for the studio, was the corner with an existing utility sink and window. We insulated and finished all outside walls and had to build two super insulated walls and set in a door. Kevin also built a type of baffle that can be placed in the window frames to keep out bitterly cold air or hot summer heat.

How does it work? The root cellar is not heated and the window can be opened to cool it down. In -20 degree weather, the inside temperature with windows closed (but without the baffle) is around 6 degrees Celsius. Recommended long-term storage temperature for potatoes is 7-10 degrees Celsius. Below 7 degrees, potato starch can convert to sugar.

What are the challenges? Our root cellar is located on the south side of the house and we have not yet insulated the door. This made it very difficult to cool the room down enough in fall and this past month with the warm weather. I have had to open and close the window quite frequently and keep an eye on the temperature. Fortunately, I have a digital thermometer that I can monitor from the kitchen. Once we insulate the door, the temperature should be more stable. Ideally, the root cellar would be located on the north side of the house.

How do I store vegetables in the root cellar? In previous years, I kept my potatoes in buckets of garden soil. However, when my community garden potatoes were affected with late blight, I did not want to bring infected soil to my home and garden. Since then, I have been storing my potatoes in cardboard boxes between layers of newspaper. If any of the tubers start to rot, they newspaper layers will prevent the spread of disease somewhat.

I also stored some carrots in soil last year, but this winter I wanted to try storing veggies in buckets of sand. I got some play sand from a landscaper and layered my carrots, tops cut off and soil rubbed off, with sand in a bucket. I did the same with beets and turnips. I moistened the sand very lightly and to retain the moisture, I placed newspaper on top of the sand. Once in a while, I remoisten the top of the bucket. The veggies have fared very well, although some carrots have tried to sprout, likely because of warmer temperatures. The sand can make quite a mess and I have to rub it off carefully before taking the veggies to my sink for rinsing.

2016 Update: Carrots and beets stored in plastic bags with a large piece of paper towel seems to work best, as long as the root cellar is about 5 degrees C. Veggies that are caked with soil don't do well, so in a wet fall, it's important to cut off the tops, wash the produce, let it dry and then store it in plastic bags with paper towel to absorb excess moisture. Check the bags once in a while to catch any produce that may have spoiled or wants to grow.

Kevin Kossowan also experimented with this and found that his carrots and beets lasted longer washed and stored in plastic bags. Check out Kevin’s website for great info on root cellaring and more.