Too many Turnips!!

[BLEUXDOG]

OK, back in October when the price of hay was approaching the price of gold, one of the folks at the barn where I keep my horses decided since the rye grass he had planted was not doing so well he would seed his pasture with a deer plot mix.

It did well. Really, really well!...Too well. He now has about 2.5 acres of turnips and his horses won't touch them. There are turnips the size of baseballs just sitting there waiting.

So, here is the dilima... how do you store turnips long term? There are mustard greens out there too! Any suggestions?

[crashdive123]

Got a root cellar? Several months that way I would think. Blanch and freeze them (need a biiiiiiiig freezer for 2-1/2 acres worth). Cubed and dehydrated.

[Winnie]

The two ways I can think of are Clamping and cellaring.
An article in the Telgraph gives a brief how to, but you could always do more googling.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening...-the-cold.html

odent population moves inside for a cosy winter home.
Root store

The simplest root vegetable store is made from open plastic boxes such as old milk or fish crates. Large animal feed buckets also work well. Store the roots in layers with washed, dry sand, peat or compost in between and to cover.

Making a vegetable clamp

A clamp is a pyramid made from layered roots and sand and covered with soil.

* Create a base with a layer of polythene.
* Add a thick layer of straw.
* Layer your vegetables in dry sand or more straw.
* Add a thick layer of soil to keep off the frost.
* Finally, cover with another piece of polythene to keep out the wet.

This is the cheapest, least time-consuming way of storing veg. Try to use separate clamps for each type of veg so you can pick out what you want.

Making a vegetable cellar

Beth Chatto uses this system to store most of her root vegetables through the winter. She says: "It's much more pleasant to collect your vegetables from a pit in the winter, rather than having to dig them from frosty or muddy soil."

The advantages to a cellar are

* Your veg are safe from pests.
* They stay cooler than in boxes in an outhouse, so taste good for longer and are protected from frost.
* You don't need another building.
* Vegetables are arranged in their own section, so they are easy to get at.

How to do it

1. Dig a hole about 2ft (60cm) deep, as large as you need. Beth Chatto's is 4ft by 18in.
2. Line the floor and sides with whatever you have around. You can use a sheet of hardboard, or hollow concrete blocks, which are light, inexpensive and widely available from builders' yards. Place a few planks on their sides to create subdivisions, so you have separate areas for each type of root.
3. Stabilise the blocks by knocking wooden pegs through into the soil beneath. These need to be about one third to one half times the depth of the blocks.
4. Create a wooden sill from four planks arranged around the edge of the pit.
5. This creates a rim for a lid. Make this from wood covered with roofing felt and it will keep out the rain.
6. With any of these systems, place the roots in layers, trying to make sure no root touches its next-door neighbour.
7. In-fill between each root with compost or sand. Avoid salty sand - it makes the skins dry out and wrinkle. Use washed sand or, better still, sieved compost. Whatever you use, it must be dry.

[oldtrap59]

Years ago I had a large patch of sugar beets that I had to store for feed. ( not even close to 2 1/2 acres) I buried mine in the hay in the loft of the old barn I had on the place. Worked fairly well. Should work for turnips too.

Oldtrap

[Wildthang]

I have the same problem with apples. The guy that built this place planted 6 apple trees, and with only 3 of us living here, I never know what to do with all of those apples. The girls dont know how to can, and we cant eat them all or even give them away. I guess if times ever got hard, we would learn to can them, but until then, we will just have too many apples!
Back to the OP, I wonder if those turnips will come back year after year? He may never get rid of all of those turnips!

[BLEUXDOG]

We are going to try and freeze as many as we can.

Wildthang: I like to make Crock Pot Apple Butter. We put it on toast occasionally but mostly we use it as a glaze for ham steaks, pork chops... It was taking me 30 minutes to peel and puree a dozen apples, put them in the crock pot and let them cook for 8 hours. The canning is the easy part. We gave the canned apple butter as gifts for Christmas.

[Chris]

I have the same problem with apples. The guy that built this place planted 6 apple trees, and with only 3 of us living here, I never know what to do with all of those apples. The girls dont know how to can, and we cant eat them all or even give them away. I guess if times ever got hard, we would learn to can them, but until then, we will just have too many apples!
Back to the OP, I wonder if those turnips will come back year after year? He may never get rid of all of those turnips!

http://www.amazon.com/Weston-Apple-a...7464858&sr=8-1

Cider.