Photo isn't working. I blanch mine for 5 minutes and freeze. Man, nothing like fresh carrots!

Hi Tommyr - Yes - we do the same thing (blanch & freeze) - we also bottle some of our carrots. The sand buckets are for fresh carrots - crisp & sweet! Hope the photo will show up this time??

I do the same, with turnips and beets and half the carrots. I wait until 2 weeks after first frost of course, and the other half carrots will overwinter under a light mulch. It gets in the mid 20 in my garage, but if you cover the buckets with a tarp, and keep them on the floor and against the house, they don't freeze. I also add buckets of water under the tarp on the coldest nights (when it is 0F outside), it takes them a few days to freeze and the root cellar makes it without freezing.

Hudson...WY,
Ahhhh, see the photos now! Nice! Have to try that next year! Going to grow a lot more carrots. Onions too!

- our water line has to be buried 6' deep to be safe from freezing. (hudson)
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O! my goodness ! 6 foot deep water line.
Good thing you built a greenhouse. So when do you start getting in there for the next season ?

Seysonn - our winter temps get as low as minus 40 degrees - that's cold. We usually open the green house in late March and close it down in late October. We use frost blankets in the garden to protect from freezing in early spring and late fall. Wonderful place to live but the high elevation complicates gardening!

Hudson .... I know how it is . I have live in a place where the last frost date was like in late June - early July.

Clever ! Portable root cellars ! The pictures make me want a crisp, cool carrot !

Hudson:

Neat idea. Not new but it still works. My grandmother told
me about doing this over 40 years ago as she did carrots and beets that way. As a youth, we used to store our carrots in buckets of sand in the garage until at least December until our garage got too cold.

I have never tried it on beets personally. My garden is too
small so I just bag the beets into one gallon ziplock bags and put in the refrigerator. They have kept well until March
that way although they seem to have the best flavor if used by January.

Spartan-apple
I agree - not a new idea - just one that a lot of gardeners may overlook and one that is an option for gardeners who live in a cold zone where storing them in the ground covered with mulch etc - is not a good option.

I hadn't considered storing beets in sand - we never prepare them for meals - fresh - we may be missing out? We do love them pickled though and every fall - dig them all up and bottle them - getting the mess over with all at one time - then enjoying them all winter long!

we used to store our green beans in pails of sand in the spare room area until Dec our garage area got too cold in it.

This post was edited by ZaraMorant on Wed, Oct 30, 13 at 9:18

I stuff as many carrots and beets as I can into the vegetable bin in the fridge. They keep for months in there.

Edit: I posted this message in the wrong place. Sorry. lol

This post was edited by theforgottenone1013 on Sat, Nov 9, 13 at 19:33