Today I want to talk about the beloved Peking cabbage in our family and how we preserve the harvest of this vegetable. Yes, yes, do not be surprised, Peking cabbage is perfectly stored, the main thing is to know how to do it correctly.
Which Chinese cabbage is suitable for winter storage
Of course, not every Peking cabbage can lie for long winter weeks without losing its qualities and its appearance. It all depends on the variety. I think it is not worth long talking about the fact that early ripening varieties, when stored at home, will quickly deteriorate. They need one to two weeks to do this. Therefore, my wife and I decide in early spring how much cabbage we need next winter, and, based on these data, we plan the number of plantings for salads and for storage.
For cabbage for the winter, I usually buy seeds of domestic hybrids of mid-ripening and late-ripening varieties.
When to harvest cabbage for storage
In order for the vegetable to lie for a long time without problems, it should be removed from the garden in time. I am doing this before the coming frosts. At the same time, I choose a sunny and dry day so that the fruits are not wet. Otherwise, you will have to decompose them and wait until the water evaporates. If the upper leaves are excessively contaminated, they are removed. The fruits are sorted out, leaving only healthy and intact heads of cabbage without rot and damage by insects. It is preferable to leave the largest and densest specimens for storage.
In what conditions is Beijing cabbage stored?
The room is chosen with high air humidity - from 95 to 98%, while condensation is not desirable on the heads of cabbage. Cabbage will lie well at a temperature of 0... + 2 ºС. At home, this is the lower shelf of the refrigerator or an insulated loggia.
In what form is Beijing cabbage stored?
There are three main ways of storing this culture: fresh, dry or freeze.
- Fresh. Heads of cabbage are tightly wrapped with cling film and placed in a refrigerator or on a loggia. In this form, Peking cabbage can remain unchanged for about a month. If, like mine, you have a cellar, put the heads of cabbage packed in bags in a box. My wife, on the other hand, likes the way in the sand. To do this, she pours a layer of wet sand into the container and drops into it the heads that have been torn out of the ground by the roots. The neighbor keeps Peking hanging on a clothesline. The last two methods allow you to keep the cabbage fresh for up to four months.
- Dried. This option is preferable for lovers of soups and cabbage puree. I dry in a dehydrator. To do this, the cabbage is chopped into strips and folded in an even layer on pallets. Dries for about 6 hours at a temperature of +60 ºС. Ready-made dried vegetables are folded into paper or linen bags and sacks. The shelf life is almost a year.
- Salty. Peking cabbage pickling is different from white cabbage. For a kilogram of vegetable, take 60 milliliters of water, 10 milliliters of vinegar, a pinch of salt and a clove of garlic. Cut the cabbage, mix with other ingredients, put it in a container and tamp it. A load is placed on top and left for three days at room temperature. Then they are taken to a cool place, where the cabbage will be cooked for about two more weeks.
- Frozen. In this form, Peking is suitable for making soups and cabbage rolls. To do this, cabbage is sorted into leaves and put in bags. Defrost the workpiece in a natural way. The shelf life of such cabbage is one year.
If you like Chinese cabbage, put your harvest in storage. Most importantly, do not forget to monitor the humidity and temperature in the room where the vegetable lies, otherwise it will germinate. If you start picking off the leaves from the cabbage, use it as soon as possible, it will start to deteriorate in the next two weeks. Observing these simple rules, you can feast on your cabbage before the New Year, and if you freeze or dry it, the period will increase to a year.
Read also: How to properly prune strawberries after harvest
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