Fresh radishes all winter: how to keep at home

Radish - one of the few vegetables that cannot be heat treated. Keeping it fresh for a long time is not easy, and sometimes you really want to. How to keep radishes for the winter at home? Thanks to the ingenuity of the hostesses and many years of experience in this matter, we now have several quite successful methods.

Radish harvest time

To keep the radishes as long as possible, landing choose late ripening varieties... Early ripening radishes and mid-season varieties do not last long. This is due to the fact that summer and spring radishes are more often exposed to pests. Vegetables grown in September grow healthy and intact.

Sowing of late varieties is done in the middle August... The varieties Dungansky, Zenith, Red giant, Autumn giant showed good results during storage. Late-ripening varieties ripen in 55-60 days, so the harvest begins in October.

Important! To achieve maximum juiciness of root crops, the plants are watered abundantly 14-20 days before harvesting.

Harvesting is carried out in the morning. The tops are removed immediately so that they do not drain the juice from the roots, or they are left, depending on the intended storage method.

Some farmers leave crops in the ground until night temperatures drop to –5 ° C. It is a natural mechanism that prolongs the freshness of the radish.

Features of radish storage

Juicy, crispy radishes can be stored for a long time if certain conditions are met - in the refrigerator, cellar and freezer. The radishes are stored dry, wet and frozen. Before storage, the fruits are cleaned from the ground. Healthy, undamaged vegetables are placed in storage.

Dry method

How to store radishes dry?Vegetables keep well in a bag in the refrigerator. For this, the greens are removed from the root crops, leaving 2-3 cm. The roots are left. The radishes are washed with running water, blotted with a towel and placed in a plastic bag. It is not recommended to tie the bag to ensure air access. Small holes are made in several places so that the roots do not suffocate. This method keeps radishes crisp and juicy for 10-14 days.

You can store vegetables in a plastic container or saucepan. To do this, remove the tops of root crops and place them in prepared containers in layers, sprinkling each layer with wet clean sand or sawdust. A container with radishes is placed in the vegetable compartment in the refrigerator. This method allows radishes to be stored for up to four months. Dungan and Red Giant varieties can be stored until spring.

Let us now tell you how radish is stored with tops. The radishes are tied in a bunch, cleaned from the ground, without washing, then placed in a bag. To prevent the roots from wilting, the tops are periodically moistened. Such radishes are stored for 7-9 days on the vegetable shelf of the refrigerator.

Radishes are well stored in the cellar, where there is always high humidity and low air temperature. In the cellar, the roots do not spoil until the end of winter.

Vegetables are placed in layers in a wooden or plastic box. The collected radish is not washed, only cleaned from the ground, the tops are removed, leaving 2-3 cm of greenery. Slightly moistened sand or sawdust is poured at the bottom of the container, radishes are laid out on top. Then the radish is completely covered with a layer of sand or sawdust. So the layers are alternated to the top of the box.

Important! The top layer should be sand or sawdust.

During storage, make sure that the sand layer does not dry out, it must be periodically moistened.

Wet storage

Wet storage of the harvested crop is provided in several ways:

1. Pour some cold water into a bowl and put the radishes so that the roots are in the water. The bowl is placed in the refrigerator, the tops are periodically moistened. In a bowl, the radish will stay fresh for 7-9 days. With this storage method, you can remove the tops, leaving small tails. It is important that the roots remain in the water.
2. A little water is poured into the bottom of the can. The radishes are washed, the tops are cut. The vegetables are placed in a jar and covered with a lid. In this case, moisture will not evaporate, and the fruits will remain elastic. This method allows you to store radishes for a week.
3. Washed vegetables with cut tops are placed in a jar and poured completely with water. A jar of vegetables is stored in the refrigerator. The water is changed every 3 days. This method allows you to store radishes for 30-40 days.
4. The radishes are washed and the tops are cut. Wet vegetables are folded into a plastic bag and tied. The radish bag is placed in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. Through a transparent bag, make sure that the vegetables do not spoil. The radish in the package is stored for 7-10 days.

Can radishes be stored in the freezer

If you freeze radishes in the freezer, the vegetables will lose their crispiness and flavor when thawed. This is due to the fact that the juice that is in the root vegetables turns into ice in the freezer and breaks the pulp.

The best way to keep radishes in the freezer is to cut or grate them into small strips. In the future, frozen vegetables can be used to make vegetable soups, sauces, side dishes.

Freezing rules in the freezer

For storage in the freezer, a little unripe radish is taken, collected 7 days before the entire harvest.

Root crops are thoroughly washed with cold water, roots, tops, damaged areas are cut off. After that, it is crushed in any way and dried a little.

The ideal option for freezing vegetables is shock freezing. The temperature in such a freezer reaches −30 ... −35 ° С. The quality of vegetables with this method depends on the speed of freezing: the faster it is, the better the vegetable is preserved.

After freezing, the radishes are taken out, laid out in transparent bags and placed in the freezer of the refrigerator for long-term storage.

How to freeze at home

Powerful freezers are generally not available for home use. Therefore, vegetables are stored at home in other ways.

In the package

Whole roots are selected without damage, the tops and roots are removed, leaving 2 cm of the root. Vegetables are thoroughly washed, dried and placed in bags, which are placed in the freezer. In this state, radishes can be stored for 60-80 days.

You can also store shredded vegetables in the bag. To do this, wash the radish, completely remove the tops and roots. Then cut into strips or tinder on a coarse grater. The slices are placed in a plastic bag and placed in the freezer.

With water in a jar

The vegetables are peeled from the ground, the leaves are completely removed and placed in a jar. Then the radish in a jar is poured with cold boiled water. The jar is closed with a lid and placed in the freezer. In this form, vegetables are stored for 30-60 days.

When stored under the freezer, it is required to regularly, once a week, change the water in the jar and monitor the condition of the root crops.

With tops

Radishes can be stored with their tops. After harvesting, whole, undamaged root crops are selected, the greens are not cut off, the soil is shaken off them, and tied into a bunch. After that, a bunch of radishes is placed in a slightly damp bag or container with water. The workpiece is placed in a freezer. A whole frozen radish will last 2-3 months or more.

Dried

For storage in a dried form, selected ripe roots are cut into slices or circles.Then the vegetables are boiled in salted water for 10-15 minutes. After that, the workpiece is removed from the water and dried on a baking sheet in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Dried slices are placed in cloth bags or wrapped with cling film. The workpiece is stored in the freezer for 3-4 months.

How much radish is stored

Depending on the method and place, the storage periods for radishes at home differ.

Early ripe root crops are stored for no more than a week, therefore, for use during the winter grow varieties with a late ripening period.

Medium-sized root vegetables retain their qualities much longer, since a porous fibrous pulp is formed in large overripe vegetables. In addition, their taste is reduced.

Important! Vegetables grown on your site last much longer than store-bought vegetables.

With the dry method, the roots in plastic bags are not tightly closed so that condensation does not form and the decay process does not begin. Packages placed in the vegetable compartment at a temperature of + 4 ... + 5 ° C are stored for 2 weeks.

When stored in a dry way, roots with tops, placed in a plastic bag, will lie for 10-15 days, provided that the greens are constantly moistened.

Radishes are stored for the longest time in the cellar or basement in boxes with moistened sand or sawdust. The conditions of a cool room with an air temperature of + 1 ... + 3 ° C and constant high humidity allow you to keep root crops until the end of winter.

With the wet method of storage, in a bowl with a little water and preserving the greens, the radish lies for 7-9 days without losing its taste and remaining crispy.

Peeled from greens and roots and placed in a jar of water, root crops are stored for 30-40 days. In this case, the water must be changed every 3 days.

When kept in a freezer, shredded vegetables are stored in a plastic bag for the whole winter.

The dried fruits can be eaten for 3-4 months.

Conclusion

Radish - useful a healthy vegetable that contains a lot of vitamins and nutrients. Many housewives are interested in the question of how to keep this product longer. If you follow the recommended rules, you can maintain a vegetable in such a state in which it does not lose a significant part of trace elements, vitamins and its inherent taste for a long time.