4 Storage Vegetables (Foods That Will Last a Long Time Without Refrigeration)

Food preservation and storage can be a lot of work! These four of my favorite storage vegetables don’t require any special preservation techniques and are foods that will last a long time without refrigeration. They will keep for months at room temperature in your home. No root cellar required!

While most vegetables can be preserved through canning, dehydrating, freezing, fermenting or pickling, these 4 will keep at room temperature just as they are. How cool is that?

Learn what these 4 storage vegetables are, the best varieties of each crop to grow for winter storage, and how to store them!

 

4 Storage Vegetables

1. Potatoes (or sweet potatoes in the south!)
2. Garlic
3. Winter Squash
4. Onions

 

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If you are short on time and want to store some of your produce for winter, these 4 storage vegetables are some of the best choices! If you have a root cellar or an extra refrigerator, you could expand this list to include root crops, cabbages, apples and more, but for those of us who don’t…

 

#1 Potatoes

 

Potatoes are one of the absolute best foods to grow and store in your home! They are one of those incredible foods that will last a long time without refrigeration.

They are not picky about soil, but have far more caloric value than other common garden crops. And who doesn’t love potatoes? We use them for oven and stove top fries, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, hashbrowns, you name it!

The Best Potatoes to Grow for Storage

If you are buying seed potatoes, the company will often organize them for you in the catalog. Early potatoes typically don’t store well, so you’ll want to look for late-maturing varieties.

On the other hand, if you don’t know the variety name, or want to store potatoes you bought from someone else, you can get a good idea of how long they will store by their color.

Please note that these storage times are based on a late September/early October harvest.

There are certainly some exceptions here, but generally speaking, red potatoes will need to be used first. If they were harvested in September, they will be best used by early December.

Yellow or gold potatoes are next; harvested in September, they should be used by late December.

Blue or purple varieties typically last till January when stored at room temperature.

Russet type potatoes usually last the longest. Harvested in September/October, ours last till about March.

Once again, this is a generalization if you are storing store bought potatoes. If you have grown named varieties, you should have a much better idea if how long they will store.

If you weren’t able to grow your own storage potatoes, be sure to check with small local farmers. I’ve found they are often happy to give me a good deal on a box or two of potatoes. I also sometimes buy organic potatoes in bulk from Azure Standard. Azure is a food co-op that delivers to cities all across the US. They have great prices and offer both conventional and organic foods. With no membership fees and free delivery to your town, they’re a great choice for picking up extra storage vegetables in bulk!

 

Harvesting Potatoes for Storage

 

For the best storage vegetables, time your potato planting so they’ll mature at the end of the season. When the vines are killed by frost, leave the potatoes in the ground for another two weeks to let their skins toughen up for storage.

Dig your potatoes on a dry day if you can. They should not be washed; simply brush the dirt off as you go.

If the potatoes are damp coming out of the ground, you can spread them out to dry for a few hours. Don’t leave them in the light for more than a day.

Box up your potatoes so that they don’t get any light. Keep them in the coolest room of your home, and immediately remove any that start to go bad.

This is how we store potatoes every winter!

 

#2 Garlic

 

Garlic is another fantastic storage vegetable that doesn’t need any special storage conditions. In fact it might be the best vegetable of all when it comes to foods that will last a long time without refrigeration. Ours often lasts more than a year at room temperature!

I use a lot of garlic in my cooking. It adds so much flavor and can really liven up more boring foods such as dried beans.

 

Growing Garlic as a Storage Crop

To grow garlic for storage, you’ll want to look for a variety claiming good storage qualities. I often hear that softneck garlic stores better, however for me, hardneck lasts much longer and grows better. Grow it out as you usually would. In our climate that means planting in October for a late July harvest.

At harvest time, wait until 1/3-1/2 of the plants’ leaves have turned brown. Garlic harvested at the perfect time will store the best.

Leave the leaves on and tie the plants in bundles. Hang them somewhere dry and ideally without much light to finish drying out. A garage or barn is perfect! Leave them for at least two weeks; longer is fine.

When the plants are completely dry, you can finish prepping them for storage.

Cut off the stem, about 3/4″ from the top of the garlic bulb. Trim the roots with scissors to 1/4″ or a little less. If the outermost paper on the bulb is dirty, you can take it off. I do this with most of my garlic to get a nice, clean bulb. Removing the single outermost layer will not affect how the garlic stores, but be sure to leave the remaining layers of paper on. It’s fun to make your storage vegetables look pretty!

Sort out any garlic that has damage or is split. These won’t store well and should be used first.

We store garlic in mesh bags at room temperature in our home. For us it typically lasts 10-13 months in prime condition.

Didn’t grow enough garlic to store? Garlic is another crop that you might be able to purchase in bulk from a local farm. You can also buy organic garlic in bulk from Azure Standard. Unlike the supermarket, Azure usually lists whether their garlic is hardneck or softneck.

 

#3 Winter Squash

 

Winter squash is probably my favorite of the winter storage vegetables. And the winter squash category includes pumpkins!

Depending on the variety, winter squash can last anywhere from 3 months to well over a year at room temperature in your home. That’s pretty crazy!

With all the unique colors and shapes it’s one of the prettiest foods that will last a long time without refrigeration. We put winter squash throughout our home for fall and winter decor!

 

The Best Storage Squash Varieties

Seed catalogs will usually list whether a variety has good storage qualities.

Acorn squash is typically the shortest-lived, only lasting a few months at room temperature. Small pie pumpkins and butternut squash also don’t store very long, and are usually best used by Christmas.

Some of the best storage varieties include:

• Jarrahdale Pumpkin
• Rouge Vif D’Etampes (Cinderella Pumpkin)
• Blue Hubbard
• Iran Squash
• Lady Godiva Naked-Seeded Pumpkin
• Red Kuri
• Long Island Cheese Pumpkin
• Thai Rai Kaw Tok
• Ben Gusto de Horno

Have you found another great storage squash that isn’t on the list? Please share in the comments!

Curing Squash for Winter Storage

 

You don’t need to do anything special to grow these storage vegetables. They should be picked before a hard freeze. A light frost that nips the vines won’t hurt the squash, but temperatures much under 32 will.

Be sure to leave part of the stem in place!

 

Storing Winter Squash

Most squash benefit from a curing time of two weeks in a warm place, such as a greenhouse, near a woodstove, or just in the warmest part of your house. Curing isn’t needed for acorn squash or small pie pumpkins.

After curing, move the squash to the coolest room of your home for long term vegetables storage. A spare bedroom or under a bed is perfect! A garage will also work if the temperature doesn’t fall below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Be sure to separate out any squash that are damaged or missing stems to use first. They won’t store well.

Throughout the winter, check on your squash stores every week or two. If a squash begins to get wrinkled spots, it needs to be used ASAP. It is still fine to use, but this is a sign that it will soon begin to spoil. With regular checking, you can avoid any waste!

If you didn’t grow winter squash this year, this is another crop that is often easy to find from local farmers. This year, some of my varieties did very well, but I was short on pie pumpkins. I found a small local farmer who was happy to sell me a box of pie pumpkins. My kids are eagerly anticipating lots of pumpkin pie!

 

Eating Winter Squash

When it comes to foods that will last a long time without refrigeration, winter squash is probably the most versatile. It can be used for every meal plus dessert!

We use winter squash and pumpkins interchangeably in recipes.

Most winter squash can be cut in half and the seeds scooped out. Place upside down on a cookie sheet with sides, and bake till tender. Serve hot with butter and a dash of real maple syrup, brown sugar or coconut sugar.

We’ve also found a healthy recipe for pumpkin pie from scratch; you can find it here!

More ideas include, pumpkin bars, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin soup.

 

#4 Onions

 

Last but not least in my room temperature storage vegetables roundup, is the onion!

Onions can last anywhere from a few months to 6 or more at room temperature.

 

Growing Onions for Storage

 

When growing onions for storage, look for a storage variety. Sweet onions such as Walla Walla are meant to be eaten fresh and do not store well.

Generally, yellow onions store significantly longer than red onions.

At harvest time, stop watering when the tops of your onions begin to fall over. Knock over any tops that are still standing, and leave them in the ground for another two weeks.

Dig your crop and spread them out to dry where they won’t get rained on. A barn or garage is perfect! Don’t remove the tops until they are completely dry.

Once the tops have dried out, cut them off about 3/4″ above the top of the onion. Trim the roots so they are neat and tidy.

Keep your onions in the coolest part of your house. They should be checked regularly and any bad ones should be removed!

If your onions begin to sprout, you can plant them in a pot on a windowsill and harvest the greens as green onions.

If you didn’t grow your own, you can store onions from the supermarket, or buy them in bulk from Azure.

More Room Temperature Storage Vegetables

 

Although these are my top four, there are more storage crops that will keep at room temperature. Sweet potatoes could be number 5 on this list. I didn’t include them in my list of storage vegetables because they are hard to grow here in Montana and I don’t have much experience storing them. If you live farther south, they’d be another excellent choice to store in your house!

Dried beans and grains are also good choices for foods that will last a long time without refrigeration.. You can learn how to grow flour corn here!

Have you found a storage vegetable (or fruit!) not on this list that will store a long time at room temperature? Be sure to share in the comments!

And finally, if you’d like to learn more about growing storage vegetables like these, I’d highly recommend Carol Deppe’s book, The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self Reliance in Uncertain Times. Potatoes and winter squash are two of the four storage vegetables she raises on her homestead for self-sufficiency. The others are dried beans and flour corn, as well as duck eggs.