Fresh radishes all winter: how to preserve them at home

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

Radish harvest time

To preserve radishes for as long as possible, landing late ripening ones are chosen varieties. Radishes with early ripening and mid-ripening varieties do not last long. This is explained by the fact that summer and spring radishes are more often attacked by pests. Vegetables grown in September grow healthy and undamaged.

Late varieties are sown in the middle August. The varieties Dungansky, Zenit, Red Giant, and Autumn Giant showed good results during storage. Late-ripening varieties ripen in 55-60 days, so harvesting begins in October.

Important! To achieve maximum juiciness of root crops, 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 draw juice from the root vegetables, or they are left, depending on the intended storage method.

Some farmers leave their crops in the ground until nighttime temperatures drop to -5°C. This is a natural mechanism that extends the freshness of radishes.

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. Radishes are stored dry, wet and by freezing. Before storing, the fruits are cleared of soil. Healthy, undamaged vegetables are placed for storage.

Dry method

How to store radishes dry? Vegetables keep well in a bag in the refrigerator. To do this, remove the greens 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. To ensure air access, it is not recommended to tie the bag. Small holes are made in several places so that the root vegetables do not suffocate. This method keeps radishes crisp and juicy for 10-14 days.

You can store vegetables in a plastic container or pan. 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. The container with radishes is placed in the vegetable storage compartment in the refrigerator. This method allows you to store radishes for four months. The Dungan and Red Giant varieties can be stored until spring.

Let us now tell you how radishes with tops are stored. The radishes are tied into a bunch, cleared of soil without washing them, and then placed in a bag. To prevent root crops from wilting, the tops are periodically moistened. These radishes can be 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, root vegetables do not spoil until the end of winter.

Vegetables are placed in layers in a wooden or plastic box.The collected radishes are not washed, only cleaned of soil, the tops are removed, leaving 2-3 cm of greenery. Slightly moistened sand or sawdust is poured into the bottom of the container, and radishes are laid on top. Then the radishes are completely covered with a layer of sand or sawdust. So the layers alternate until 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 place 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, radishes will keep 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. Pour some water into the bottom of the jar. The radishes are washed and the tops are cut off. Vegetables are placed in a jar and covered with a lid. In this case, the 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 filled completely with water. The 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 trimmed. Wet vegetables are placed in a plastic bag and tied. The bag of radishes is placed in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator. Use a transparent bag to ensure that the vegetables do not spoil. Radishes are stored in a bag for 7-10 days.

Can radishes be stored in the freezer?

If you freeze radishes in the freezer, when defrosted, the vegetables will lose their crunchiness and taste.This happens because the juice found in root vegetables turns into ice in the freezer and breaks the pulp.

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

Rules for freezing in the freezer

For storage in the freezer, slightly underripe radishes are selected, collected 7 days before the entire harvest.

Root vegetables are thoroughly washed with cold water, roots, tops, and damaged areas are cut off. After this, grind it in any way and dry it a little.

The ideal option for freezing vegetables is blast freezing. The temperature in such a freezer reaches −30…−35°C. 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, placed in transparent bags and placed in the freezer of the refrigerator for long-term storage.

How to freeze at home

Powerful freezing units are generally not available for home use. Therefore, vegetables are preserved at home in other ways.

In the package

Select whole root crops without damage, remove tops and roots, leaving 2 cm of root. Vegetables are thoroughly washed, dried and placed in bags that are placed in the freezer. In this condition, radishes can be stored for 60-80 days.

You can also store chopped vegetables in the bag. To do this, wash the radishes and 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

Vegetables are cleared of soil, leaves are completely removed and placed in a jar.Then the radishes in the jar are poured with cold boiled water. Cover the jar with a lid and place it in the freezer. In this form, vegetables are stored for 30-60 days.

When storing under the freezer, it is necessary to regularly, once a week, change the water in the jar and monitor the condition of the root vegetables.

With tops

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

Dried

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

How long do radishes last?

Depending on the method and place, the shelf life of radishes at home varies.

Early ripening root vegetables are stored for no more than a week, so for the purpose of using them during the winter grow late ripening varieties.

Medium-sized root vegetables retain their quality much longer, since large, overripe vegetables produce porous fibrous pulp. In addition, their taste is reduced.

Important! Vegetables grown on your own plot last much longer than those purchased in the store.

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

When stored dry, root vegetables with tops placed in a plastic bag will last 10-15 days, provided the greens are constantly moistened.

Radishes last the longest in a cellar or basement in boxes with moistened sand or sawdust. Conditions in a cool room with an air temperature of +1...+3°C and constant high humidity allow you to preserve root crops until the end of winter.

With the wet storage method in a bowl with a small amount of water and preserving the greens, the radishes lie for 7-9 days without losing their taste and remaining crispy.

Root vegetables, peeled from greens and roots and placed in a jar of water, are stored for 30-40 days. The water must be changed every 3 days.

When kept in the freezer, chopped vegetables in a plastic bag will last the whole winter.

Dried fruits can be eaten for 3-4 months.

Conclusion

Radish − useful Healthy vegetable containing a large amount of vitamins and nutrients. Many housewives are interested in the question of how to preserve this product longer. If you follow the recommended rules, you can maintain a vegetable in a state in which it does not lose a significant part of its microelements, vitamins and its inherent taste for a long time.