Natural Foodie: Indoor markets keep local food handy all year

[Gormy Cuss]

[div class='excerpt']Demand for year-round access to Maine food has translated into a growing number of winter farmers markets.

In southern Maine, two new winter markets opened this season in South Portland and Saco, bringing the number of them in the state to more than 20.

http://www.pressherald.com/life/foodanddining/Natural-Foodie-Indoor-markets-keep-local-food-handy-all-year.html


I think this is a cool trend for northern areas where outdoor markets aren't an attractive idea in winter. Between the fall crops that keep growing after the early frost and the stuff grown in cold frames or greenhouses there's a lot of possibilities for buying local. As a bonus the indoor markets help extend the season for local food product producers and crafts people too.

[luckyleftyme2]

1. keeping tomatoes

when I was a kid we had a dirt floor cellar and dad pulled his tomato plants and hung them from the 2x8's in the cellar;we had fresh tomatoe's till thanksgiving. he made a wood box slatted on sides for his potatoes-they would last till spring;he also made a solid box and filled it half full with dry sand. he then put his fresh pulled carrots (which he first dryed in sun ) into the box and covered with sand, the cellar was not heated but stayed above freezing. the carrots and potatoes would last till spring.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. Sounds like he knew about root cellars -- those spud and carrot boxes were just miniature versions.

Our house had a dirt floor in the cellar too. I still call those "cellars" and the ones with cement "basements."

I never heard of the hanging tomato plants trick. My family used to pick them green the day before the first frost was expected, wrapped each in newspaper and boxed them in the cellar. About once a week my mother would go through the box looking for ripened ones and ones that were rotting. Hanging them would have been so much easier.

I see that you made it onto DU3!

[jpak]

3. My Dad used to hang tomatoes and we had a cold cellar - off the basement

where he would keep potatoes and squash

yup

[luckyleftyme2]

4. yes I made it

we had friends that lived on farms near to us that had root cellars! we keep our carrots in a spare fridge down stairs now and they last a couple months! wrapping tomatoes in paper (brown) an keeping in dark will keep 6 weeks or so!
hope you have good luck with this new format!