Health & Safety

The Layaway Plan

Keep harvest goodies fresh, crisp and safe all winter long

By Tricia Radison

A meal from the garden is one of life’s sensual delights. Freshly-picked and newly-dug vegetables have a taste like none other, whether you harvest them yourself or buy them from one of Alberta’s many growers.

Many of us store a portion of autumn’s bounty in an attempt to hold onto summer’s bright flavours through the winter months. Storing vegetables and other harvest products also allows us to take advantage of end-of-season prices.

Improper storage, however, can leave you with more than rubbery potatoes. Mould, decay, and even illness can result when vegetables and items such as flour aren’t stored properly. Following best practices used by the experts will keep your garden produce fresh and safe to eat for months to come.

Tiny terrors

When storing produce, your first goal is to prevent food-borne illness. “Vegetables are organic so a lot of different life forms will survive on them, and most of them are microscopic,” says Norm Carlson, manager of environmental health, Calgary Health Region. “You get your little moulds and yeasts and bacteria, and some of these are pathogenic (cause disease) to humans.”

Offending microbes can come from the soil, contact with humans or other plants. Contamination can occur during canning due to improper hygiene or processing. Microscopic pathogens can be found on the surface - and occasionally even inside - the vegetable. Consuming them can result in symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea and fever.

Carlson recommends following proper storage procedures and visually inspecting stored food. Before you use vegetables you’ve kept in cold storage, scrub and rinse them carefully with clean water, paying particular attention to crevices that may harbour microorganisms.

Cold storage

“Home construction today doesn’t lend itself to the storage of produce,” laments Dieter Kuhlmann. One of the owners of Kuhlmann’s Market Gardens and Greenhouses Ltd. in Edmonton, he’s been growing, selling and storing fresh vegetables for 45 years. He advises the careful control of temperature and humidity to keep root vegetables such as potatoes, cabbage and carrots fresh.

Kuhlmann stores large amounts of product in huge bins piled three and a half metres high; his root cellar will hold around 91,000 kilograms (200,000 pounds) of cabbage alone this fall. He keeps his storage rooms at a high humidity level to maintain the crispness of the vegetables.

Kuhlmann stores potatoes at around 5°C (40°F) and a computerized system circulates air throughout the bins. He keeps cabbages and carrots at a temperature just above the freezing point.

If you’re lucky enough to have a cold room in your home - a slightly moist area with no heat - you can store root vegetables such as potatoes, onions, cabbage, turnips and beets for several months. Store your garden vegetables unwashed. Remove store-bought items from plastic bags and store in boxes, paper bags or burlap sacks.

There are two methods of storing carrots. One is to cover them with sand, place them in a cold room, and keep them moist. However, Kuhlmann says the best way to store carrots and parsnips is to seal clean vegetables in serving-size packages, and place them in a second refrigerator at a temperature close to freezing. The vegetables may have a few ice crystals clinging to them, but they shouldn’t freeze.

A can-do attitude

Some of the biggest health hazards percolate in home canned goods. Botulism, a sometimes fatal form of food poisoning, is the most serious. The toxin associated with botulism can’t be seen or smelled; following proper canning procedures is the best way to avoid it.

The Food Safety Information Society recommends starting with very fresh produce and getting it into sterilized jars within 24 hours. Resist the urge to follow old recipes or directions; recipes written before 1988 won’t reflect updated canning guidelines.

Heat processing is mandatory when canning at home. Always follow the recipe exactly; note that the length of time you’ll need to boil jars depends on the size of the vegetable you’re canning, the size of the jar and how far you are above sea level.

Freeze tag

The Calgary Health Region supports freezing as an effective way to store most garden products. Unlike canning, freezing is a simple process with limited opportunity for errors that could lead to food-borne illness. Watch out for freezer burn, which leads to loss of flavour and nutritive quality, a possible consequence of food that is frozen improperly or for too long.

Most vegetables can be frozen. Submerge in boiling water for a few minutes, then cool in ice water prior to freezing to prevent a loss of colour, flavour and nutrients. Package in containers or bags specifically made for freezer storage. Mark the contents with tags or an indelible marker.

Carlson warns that fully thawed veggies shouldn’t be refrozen. Contaminants can survive the freezing process and return to haunt the consumer. If the package has thawed completely, use it immediately or throw it away.

Flour bouquet

Buying large quantities of flour at the end of the harvest season can make economical sense as long as it doesn’t go rancid or become a breeding ground for bugs.

Freezing is the best solution for long-term storage, keeping flour fresh for up to a year. If you can’t spare the freezer space, you can store some types of flour in a cool, dark, dry spot for seven or eight months. Freeze flour for a few days to kill anything already living in it, package it in airtight plastic bags and place in a sealed container.

Don’t store flour in paper packaging as it may absorb odours and moisture. Wrap in plastic and place in a sealed container, or, if freezing, a layer of aluminum foil. Some flours, such as whole wheat, millet, amaranth, soy and rye, go rancid quickly due to their high oil content. Buy in smaller quantities and keep refrigerated or frozen.

Fresh year-round

If you want to eat the freshest produce year-round, use your garden or local growers for summer meals and - to extend the season - rely on greenhouses, such as Red Hat Cooperative Ltd. in Redcliffe and Pik-N-Pak in Lacombe, to fill your plate with fresh, produce throughout the winter. Kuhl-mann adds that root vegetables are easy to store on a commercial basis and plentiful in the province in every season. “You can always buy tremendous, flavourful root vegetables, such as potatoes, onions, parsnips and rutabaga, all winter long in Alberta.”

More information on food safety

• Alberta Agriculture and Food: www.agric.gov.ab.ca
• Alberta Health and Wellness: www.health.gov.ab.ca
  (Navigate to “common food borne illnesses”)
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency: www.inspection.gc.ca
• Health Canada’s food safety page: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/securit/index_e.html
• Food Safety Information Society: 1-800-892-8333