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Thanksgiving

First, tomatoes. My grandfather used to pick all his green tomatoes before a heavy frost, wrap them individually in newspaper, and place them in single layer in low cardboard boxes in a cool place, on. He would check them regularly, perhaps even every day, using those that started to rot before they passed into the realm of slush. He regularly ate his own tomatoes on Christmas day. Once, that's right, once, I was able to duplicate his feat. It wasn't worth the trouble. Yes, it was a tomato. Yes, I had grown it. But no, it wasn't tasty. Cello-pack tomatoes from the grocery store would have tasted better. So now I just ripen them on the window sill and eat my last one around Halloween, not Thanksgiving.

Potatoes, on the other hand, keep wonderfully. We always eat them on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and nearly to the time we plant them again in spring. They keep well in the vegetable drawer of the fridge, but since I store about 100 lbs each fall, I don't keep them in the fridge. I store them in our basement, which stays between 35 and 50 degrees. I built a cement block box with a plywood top, and store them in 5-gallon plastic buckets in that box. They do best with high humidity, but since I also keep cabbage, carrots and leeks in the box, the humidity is normally adequate. If you have a warm basement, you can store potatoes in your bulkhead if you insulate the exterior doors. A bucket of moist sand will provide adequate humidity.

Apples, however, should not go in the same confined space as potatoes and other crops, as they emit a gas that accelerates the ripening of things. I remember the prohibition against apples on the banana barges plying the Niger River, carrying green bananas to Bamako, Mali: the boatmen were adamant that no apples be brought on board. They believed that even a single apple would turn 50 tons of green bananas ripe overnight. Probably not so, but they figured it better to err on the safe side.

Mice love apples, so they need to be protected in storage. Nelia Sargent of Claremont, NH has a good solution: instead of putting them in her mouse-proof cold cellar, she keeps them in wooden apple crates that have quarter-inch wire mesh on top and bottom so that mice can not get in. The mesh, known as hardware cloth, is tacked to strips of strapping to make a lid- the mesh can have very sharp edges. She keeps the crates in an unheated room where the apples stay cool, but won't freeze.

Years ago Wes Cate of East Montpelier taught me the best method for storing winter squash: Store them under the bed. He said that a cool upstairs bedroom is ideal. Unlike root crops, squash need low humidity, which is not a problem in winter. Fifty degrees is ideal, but up to 60 is fine. Perhaps you can close off a guest room and open a window a little to keep it cool enough.

Pumpkins never last much past Christmas for me, so I try to process them before the go mushy. I steam them in the oven until soft, cool, and scoop out. I run them through the food processor, and freeze the mush in zipper bags, just enough in each bag for one winter pie - 2 cups.

Carrots I generally keep in the cold cellar or in the fridge, but you can also keep them in the garden. If I have a lot of carrots at the end of the season I sometimes cover them -still growing - with leaves and hay to keep the soil from freezing. It's wonderful, on a snowy January day, to go to the garden and harvest fresh veggies. The cold gives the carrots some extra sweetness, too. If you try this technique spread 6 inches of leaves over the carrots first, then add thick layer of hay. Do it now, before the ground freezes, and place a stake at each end of the row of carrots so you can find them if we get 2 feet of snow before you want to harvest them.

Garlic we hang from a pipe in the basement in clusters, with the stems on. By spring the unused garlic is usually starting to sprout. Last year I cleaned and sliced some garlic, and dehydrated it with our electric dehydrator, and it kept well. I prefer fresh garlic, but there are limits to how long it - or anything - will keep. So enjoy your Thanksgiving feast, and use up some of your vegetables from the garden.

Henry Homeyer is the VT/NH associate editor of "People, Places and Plants" magazine. Write him at gardening.guy@valley.net or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, N.H. 03746.