How to Store Your Harvested Crops

With fall arriving, the harvest season begins, which means that farms of all sizes are reaping what they’ve sown and creating vast piles of fresh crops, including wheat, fruits, vegetables, rice, and legumes. Whatever it is you’ve grown, you’ll want to find a way to store it, especially if you’re a smaller farming operation. Below, you’ll find some suggestions on how to safely store what you’ve harvested so that it lasts a long time.

Choosing the Right Method

Certain crops need to be stored in certain ways to prevent them from withering or rotting until they’re used or sold. Grains are often dried, while fruits and vegetables are stored cold or preserved via cooking. It’s important to know what type of storage your crops need, or if they need anything special at all: certain crops simply need to be kept somewhere dry and well-ventilated to last for months, including many types of squash and root vegetables.

Drying

Crops that dry well include beans, onions, garlic, shallots, and grains. Sometimes you can simply set these out in the sun or hang them up to dry, while other crops are best preserved with freeze-drying.

Canning

This popular means of storage has been used for centuries by many different cultures to preserve fruits and vegetables. Pickling your crops in vinegar and brine can allow them to last for a really long time, while boiling fruits in a sugar solution turns them into jam that keeps well.

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