How to store zucchini at home

How to store zucchini at home - a question for those who want to extend the summer for the whole winter. The simplest is to harvest or freeze the fruit. But sometimes there is a desire to try fresh zucchini. And where to get them in the winter?

Storage locations

Keeping the fruit at home is very simple. It is important to pack them correctly. And until spring, they can lie:

• under the bed
• at the balcony door
• in the cellar
• on the terrace
• at the front door
• in the basement
• in a refrigerator

Any of these storage places is well suited for zucchini only if three conditions are met. Low temperature, darkness (mandatory), dryness.

Council Different sources indicate different temperatures. It ranges from 0 to 20 ° C. Such a big drop is suspicious. In order not to be mistaken, you must choose a middle ground. Degrees 10-12 is enough.

How to choose zucchini

Not all varieties of zucchini are suitable for long-term storage. Some manufacturers provide information on seed packages, but for the most part they are silent. What to do? Yes, just look at the time of ripening, since they are always written. Ultra-early and early zucchini will not be exactly stored for a long time.

Late-ripening fruits are not suitable either. It is not enough to collect zucchini from the garden and dump them in a pile in the cellar. A month later, instead of vegetables, you can get a fetid pyramid with gorgeous mold bushes.

Choose the fruit like this: gently scratch the peel with the nail. If there is a trace, then the zucchini will not work. If the scratches are not visible - feel free to pick up for storage. By the way, nails should be natural. Artificial wherever you want to scribble if desired.

In addition to checking the density of the peel, assess the appearance and size. Fetus length less than 14-16 cm should not be taken. The best option is from 20 to 40 cm. Spherical zucchini is kept worse than elongated. Ideal if the diameter is from 6 to 15 cm.

If zucchini is not grown on its own, but purchased on the market or vegetable base, then choose them the same way. Only here about the timing of ripening will have to guess.Then it is better to give preference to zucchini, and not to bright fruit varieties.

Next, examine the zucchini. Any damage to the skin, be it a dent, scratch, stain, is a direct route to recycling.

By all means collect melons before frosts. This is usually the beginning and end of September. Such fruits do not lie for a long time. Outwardly, they are easy to identify - dark watery spots immediately appear on the peel.

By the way, dairy zucchini is wonderfully stored in the refrigerator for 3 weeks. They are simply wrapped in paper, leaving a small hole.

Council Did you like the zucchini? Smooth, smooth, beautiful, but you can not decide whether to put it in storage or not. Yes, everything is simple! Cut another fruit from the same bush. Small seeds and dense pulp - a sign of good keeping quality.

Storage methods

Squashes for winter fresh storage should be properly assembled, packaged and arranged. Then the result will be wonderful.

Cleaning
In dry sunny weather in the morning with a sharp knife cut off the fruit. The tail is left at least 7 cm long. Let the zucchini warm up in the sun all day.In the evening, gently with a soft cloth shake off the dirt from the skin, if it is. It is absolutely impossible to wash melons before laying! The top wax layer is washed off, which protects the vegetable from bacteria and germs.

If the weather is rainy, the cut vegetables are first dried in a dry room, remove the dirt and then removed for storage.

Packaging
It can be thick paper, matting, straw, burlap, cardboard, soft rags. A litter is laid on the bottom of a suitable box, the gourds are laid in one layer. Between them, too, lay the litter. Zucchini top cover is not covered.

Location
Storage boxes are placed so that they do not fall on the light and moisture. With this treatment, the fruits will lie until March. In the refrigerator - 3 months.

It is undesirable to put the boxes on the cabinets. Although it is dark there, it’s still hot for zucchini.

If a cellar or cellar is chosen as a place of storage, then it must be pre-treated with sulfur checker. Or simply whiten the walls and ceiling with lime with the addition of blue vitriol. This eliminates pests and putrefactive bacteria.

When the room is too humid, they are saved like this: in a paper bag or an open bucket, quick lime or ordinary salt is left for a week.Instead of these manipulations, you can drop several dry red bricks inside, then periodically change them.

Council If space permits, then you can do without boxes. Just lay paper or straw, put zucchini and enjoy the winter with fresh vegetables.

Alternative method

When there is not enough space, and I want to save more zucchini, ordinary nylon pantyhose will help out! Fruits prepare, as described above, put in stockings one by one and hung in a suitable place with the leg down. They should not touch each other.

Council Instead of kapron tights you can use mesh bags.

Small subtleties

1. Overripe fruits are stored much worse than just ripened. Their taste is unpleasant, with bitterness. And to approach such zucchini can only with a saw or an ax, it is too thick peel.
2. To absorb excess moisture melons lightly sprinkled with a thin layer of crushed chalk. Not limes!
3. Almost all varieties of zucchini are stored at times better than zucchini, without losing taste and nutritional value.
4. During winter storage of zucchini at home they are regularly inspected. Each.Any slightest spot on the peel makes the processing of this fruit first. Otherwise, it can rot and infect nearby vegetables.
5. If in the near future there are no plans to try the zucchini dish, then it is simply cleaned of bitumen and peel, cut into pieces suitable for cooking and put into the freezer. Then it will certainly come in handy.
6. Squashes with dark-skinned peel possess greater keeping quality than light ones.
7. Many in the apartment have a closet or pantry. If the temperature allows, you can arrange zucchini there.
8. The kitchen has another place where you can store vegetables. For many, the lower shelves of the cabinets are not used, because they are far away for a long time after the dishes. If you press the saucepans, then it is quite possible to place several fruits.
9. Insulated balcony is also great. Only it is necessary to close the melons from the light with a thick cloth, but check them more often.
10. Some people recommend wrapping gourds in newspapers in the absence of another. They also lay under the bottom. We strongly advise not to do this. Printing ink contains lead. Let a small amount, but still. Is there no old bag or rag?
11. There is an opinion that zucchini, grown by rassadnym way stored worse than seed planted immediately to a permanent place.
12. In the same room do not put a number of zucchini and apples. The latter emit ethylene, which damages vegetables.
13. The premises with gourds are regularly aired.

How to store zucchini at home? Observing the technology. Of course, until next summer, melons will not be left to lie. Already in March, seeds germinate inside the fruit, the flesh becomes bitter, friable. But to please your loved ones in winter with fresh vegetables is quite real.

Video: how to freeze zucchini for the winter