How to store zucchini at home

Zucchini is a popular and favorite vegetable, from which you can cook a lot of tasty and healthy dishes. In addition, it has a high yield. However, its ripening dates are in the middle of summer. If you know how to store zucchini in an apartment, you can treat your loved ones with dishes of fresh vegetables at any time.

Zucchini are unpretentious to the conditions of detention, but not all vegetables are suitable for long-term storage. You need to be aware of the requirements that apply to them.

Selection of seeds for planting

Not all varieties of zucchini have good keeping quality, therefore, when planting, it is necessary to select the necessary seeds in advance:

• do not withstand long-term storage varieties of zucchini with a thin peel;
• late species are best suited, in which a thick skin grows; different types of zucchini are distinguished by good keeping quality, they do not lose their taste even with long storage;
• many gardeners believe that zucchini grown immediately from seeds are better suited for storage than seedlings.

picking vegetables

When harvesting zucchini, you should select fruits intended for storage. In this case, you can follow the following rules:

1. More mature and larger vegetables with a dense, smooth skin are distinguished by better keeping quality, however, it is also not worth keeping them in the garden, as they lose their taste. Preference should be given to vegetables of medium size, approximately 20 to 40 centimeters long.

   

2. Dark-skinned zucchini will keep longer than light-skinned ones.
3. By cutting one fruit from a bush, you can determine the ability to keep. If the zucchini has dense pulp and small seeds, the fruits from this bush will be well stored.
4. There should not be any, even the smallest, damage or dents on the fruits.

   

5. Zucchini should be harvested in dry sunny weather. Watering should be stopped a few days before harvest. If the cleaning fell on rainy days, you need to spread the vegetables in a dry, ventilated room and dry for two to three days.
6. When removing a zucchini from a bush, you can not tear off the stalk, otherwise the vegetable will be easily susceptible to infection. Usually the fruit is cut with a knife, leaving a tail a few centimeters long.

It is recommended to keep the harvested vegetables in the sun. As a result, their skin will dry out well and harden, providing reliable protection for the fruit pulp.

Harvesting must be completed before the start of the first frost, the shelf life depends on this – frozen vegetables will not lie.

Preparing for storage

Zucchini is not very demanding on storage conditions, which allows you to keep it fresh even in the absence of a cellar or basement.

But in order to keep zucchini at home, certain conditions must be met:

• carefully clean them from the ground with a dry cloth – you can not wash;
• provide suitable temperature and humidity – room temperature and humidity are optimal for zucchini;
• the fruits begin to rot, starting from the tail, therefore, before storage, it should be lowered into molten paraffin;
• put vegetables in boxes or cardboard boxes on sawdust or straw previously poured into them;
• the storage location should not be near heating appliances;
• the sun’s rays activate the growth of seeds inside the zucchini and cause it to germinate, so darkness is one of the conditions for the preservation of vegetables.

If there are not a lot of vegetables, you can wrap each individually with paper. For a large crop, this method will be problematic. Then it is better to lay the zucchini in rows, and lay cardboard between them.

To prevent fungal diseases, it is good to sprinkle zucchini with chalk powder.

Rules for storage in the apartment

It is important to choose the right place where to store zucchini:

• a box of zucchini for the winter should be placed in a dark and dry place in the apartment – in the pantry or under the bed;
• you can put it near the door leading to the balcony or place it in a closet;
• if the balcony is heated, you can put the box there;
• another option is to store zucchini under a sofa or bed in a single layer, laid on straw or softwood sawdust.

Periodically, it is necessary to inspect the vegetables laid down for storage, and in time to choose specimens with traces of decay. You should pay attention to the tail from the stalk – if it darkens, this means that the fruit is starting to deteriorate. If the optimal storage conditions for zucchini are selected, and the vegetables are selected correctly, then they can be stored for a long time. Depending on the variety, the shelf life can stretch even until the next season.

However, in most vegetables, by spring, the peel begins to become thicker, seeds germinate, and the fruit becomes bitter. Such fruits should not be eaten, it is better to replace them with frozen foods. You should not put a box of apples next to zucchini. Ethylene, which is released by fruits during storage, will harm vegetables.

Ways to store zucchini in the refrigerator

Within two to three months, zucchini will withstand storage in the refrigerator. In this case, they must be wiped, packed in paper bags with holes for ventilation and placed in the refrigerator on the vegetable shelf.

Another way is to freeze fruits. There are various options here. Vegetables can be cut or left whole, peeled or stored unpeeled. In plastic bags, they will remain in any case. You just need to remember that you can defrost them only once – before use. Therefore, before laying in storage, it is better to divide them into portions.

If zucchini is frozen for subsequent frying, you must perform the following steps:

• cut young zucchini into rings about one centimeter thick;
• lay out the rings on the board and put in the freezer to freeze;
• after freezing, put the chopped vegetables in a plastic bag and put them back in the freezer.

In winter, you can use them for roasting.

Any vegetables are suitable for freezing – young or overripe, damaged or frozen. Thanks to freezing, they will be preserved in any form. When frozen, you can add other vegetables and herbs to zucchini. If you divide them into portions and put them in the freezer in plastic bags, in winter you can get ready-made vegetable mixtures for stews.

The best way to store zucchini, of course, is the cellar, as it has the most optimal conditions for temperature and humidity. If you often ventilate it, then vegetables can be perfectly preserved. In the basement of the zucchini you can:

• hang in a grid, laying each vegetable separately;
• lay out in a row on a shelf, trying so that they do not touch;
• lay in one layer in a box, placing cardboard between the rows.

Young zucchini, of course, are the most delicious. How to keep them fresh for a long time? They are more prone to diseases and will not be stored for a long time. The longest time they will last in the refrigerator is three weeks in the vegetable drawer. But they should not be washed before storage. You can simply wipe it with a dry cloth and put it in a paper bag.

Following these simple rules will allow you to enjoy the delicate taste of your favorite vegetables even in winter.