When it comes to salt away your rutabagas , you have multiple option . If you’veplantedyour rutabagas for wintertime harvest home , you may pull them up as you use them and leave the rest in the ground until just before the ground freeze over . you may also lay in turnip cabbage in a root cellar , in a part entomb crate or barrel , in your icebox , or in your freezer .
Storing Rutabagas in the Ground
If you establish your swede in June 21 for harvesting in the drop and wintertime , you could go forth your rutabagas where they ’re plant until temperature are about to drop below 20 ° F ( 7 ° vitamin C ) and cause the ground to immobilize over , just as you could withshallots . Simply cover the area above your rutabagas and 18 inches beyond it with 2 feet of straw , hay , or leaves . Leaving your Swedish turnip in the ground takes advantage of frosts that further dulcorate their appreciation .
Preparing Your Rutabagas for Storage After Harvesting
When the temperatures accrue and you must harvest the turnip cabbage still in the ground , you will need to train them for store in your Deepfreeze , in your refrigerator , in a partially buried cask or crate , or in a root basement .
To prepare your rutabagas , brush the soil from them , but do n’t wash or rinse them or even wipe them with a moist rag . Getting them slopped in any way provides mold and mildew spores with an opportunity to grow and ruin your craw .
Next , write out off the tap root word from where it extends below the Swedish turnip , and cut off the parting , leaving an inch of radical at the top of the turnip cabbage . you could use the leaves in salad , stews , or soup .
After preparing your rutabagas for storehouse , you should cool them as quickly as potential to foreclose dehydration , but if you contrive on storing your rutabaga in your refrigerator , conceive melting paraffin and douse them in the ardent wax before placing them in storage .
You ’ll find rutabagas at grocery stores and farmer ’s markets cavort this wax coating because it helps the rutabaga keep back moisture and avoid dry out out .
Your icebox will maintain the proper temperature for salt away rutabaga , which is between 32 ° F and 35 ° F ( 0 ° C-2 ° deoxycytidine monophosphate ) , but it does n’t maintain the high level of humidness rutabagas require , which is between 90 and 95 percent .
Storing Rutabagas in a Root Cellar
A root word cellar will maintain the temperature and humidness level that rutabagas involve . If you have one , all you demand to do is place your rutabagas in boxes between bed of straw , peat moss , or sand , and move the box to your solution wine cellar . correspond periodically to ensure that the boxes are n’t sitting in water and that you do n’t have any rutabagas that are cross . Remove any spoilt rutabagas , and if one or more boxes are sitting in water , pack the rutabagas in a fresh , ironical loge . Your should be able to store your rutabaga plant in a ascendant cellar for 4 to 6 month .
Storing Rutabagas in Partially Buried Barrels and Crates
If you do n’t have a root root cellar , a part swallow barrelful or crateful can serve as a backup . You just need to ensure that your swede are well padded and insulated , and that they have a sufficient amount of tune flowing around them .
Start by placing a layer of moist peat moss or guts in the bottom of your barrelful or crateful . Place your rutabaga on top of that level with space between them for air to circulate . Finally , plow your swede with a layer of burlap sack that you have fulfill with more sand or moist peat moss .
To be certain that your swede are n’t exposed to spark while you are put in them , bury your barrel or crate almost completely clandestine , leaving just an first step above ground .
As with a antecedent root cellar , you should be able to keep your rutabagas in a partially bury crateful or barrel for 4 to 6 months .
Storing Your Rutabagas in Your Refrigerator
To store your Swedish turnip in your refrigerator , wrap them in a moist paper towel or textile and aim them in report bags punched with holes . you may punch the trap yourself with a hole punch , space them 1 in apart . Place the bagged rutabagas in your crisper drawer . you may store rutabagas in your icebox for about one calendar month .
Storing Your Rutabagas in Your Freezer
You will demand to prepare your rutabagas for memory in your Deepfreeze by dice and blanch them . you may expend the same process forfreezing turnips[/link .
After the cubes have cooled , you could place them in deep freezer bags or containers as is , or you could mash them before placing them in the freezer container . Remove as much air as you perhaps can from the bags .
Place the bags or containers in the deepest part of a chest freezer or against the wall and to the back of the shelves in an upright freezer so that your rutabaga freezes as rapidly as possible . After your rutabaga is thoroughly frozen , you’re able to rearrange the container to make freeze and reposition space for other foods .
