Preserving the harvest without spending a lot

[puglogic]

I've always kept my storage potatoes and garlic and onions in cardboard boxes in the basement. I get a little bit of rot, but not much.

I'd like to improve on them a little bit, somehow. But I don't want to spend a mint on something like this: http://www.gardeners.com/harvest-storage-rack/20729,38-221,default,cp.html

How do you store your winter things like potatoes and apples?

[Marianne]

That is a pretty fancy system.

I have a few plastic bread trays that were given to me. They're what the breadmen use on a rack when they're delivering bread to the stores. The trays stack on top of each other, leaving a few inches of space. But I don't have a cold room, so I have to process everything at some point by freezing or canning.
A friend of mine has wooden shelving in a large closet in her basement and uses beer flats - probably similar to what you're doing now. She told me that eventually she'd like to have adjustable wire racks.

[razz]

We deliberately did not include a cold room when we built our house as each cold room that we had seen before was moldy, wet and stank. We do store some produce in a dark area near the cold air intake of the air exchanger and last years' garlic, for example, has kept beautifully all year. I am going to try some potatoes there this year as well as some squash.

I like the idea of the trays in the example.

[puglogic]

I'm wondering....you know those modular storage systems they sell, the ones where you can mix n' match shelves, hanging rods, and drawer units? (not Elfa, but the cheapie ones) I wonder if I kept my eye out on craigslist or super-duper-sale for a wire mesh drawer unit if that would work? Hmmmm.

[goldensmom]

I've used homemade wooden crates for years with good success. I put newspaper in the bottom to catch any dirt from potatoes and to avoid bruising from the wood on apples and pears. I put onions in mesh orange bags and hang from a rod hanging from the ceiling. Carrots are kept in sand in a galvanized metal wash tube. Cider is frozen in gallon, plastic milk containers and kept in the freezer.