On the last day of October Linda and I set up a fresh moss bin for storing this year's carrot harvest in our unheated garage. It has been interesting to see how things have progressed over the last few weeks.
Having never done this before, I have been amazed every time I open the bin.
What have I been seeing?
It's alive! It's all alive!
I open the bin and I see that the moss is still alive and growing. It came from the forest quite moist, and it is still that way.
The bin gets covered with clear plastic to keep moisture levels up, and I guess it lets enough light through so that what we have is a big terrarium.
It still smells as fresh as the forest it came from. Since this moss is acidic, it does not support the growth of bacteria.
When I go to the bin it is like pulling carrots out of the garden because they are still growing. What?
Most of them have new rootlets, and they are also sprouting from the tops.
As I gently pull them from thier comfy moss bed they resist a bit before I overcome their tendency to want to stay and grow.
The best thing is that these carrots are as firm and fresh as if we just pulled them from the ground.
Our carrot harvest was not overly large, so we may only have a few more weeks of them left now. I wonder if everything will keep growing over that time.
If so, the carrots will be great into the new year, and when they are gone I am hoping to be able to take the moss back to the forest and replace the holes I left when I harvested it.
That would make for a great, sustainable method for keeping garden carrots fresh without electricity.
It is looking good up till this point, and I am optomistic that we have found our method for effective carrot storage.
Thanks for the update. This is so cool.
ReplyDeleteLinda
That is amazing! I am glad you are taking the moss back to its home.
ReplyDelete