Here is my advice from my long term storage experiences. Once it is harvested do not wash it, simply store it packed loosely in bushel baskets with damp cloth over the top of the baskets (damp not wet). I wonder if a bit of sawdust in the baskets would help hold in the moisture... just a thought. 38F is about right. When you are ready to send it to customers you can put it in plastic or explain to the customers it has not been washed because it stores better that way.

Plastic bags cause sliming no matter what. I think it is because of air circulation but I am not entirely certain about that. Good luck to you.

Alicia Jenks

Green Dragon Farm

Weathersfield, Vermont

----- Original Message -----
From: "arethusa collective" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, January 7, 2010 2:20:41 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Celeriac storage issues

Hi fellow farmers,
I was wondering if anyone has information to share (personal experience or other) on winter storage techniques of celeriac. What we have done is washed and bagged (plastic with vents) 25#s of celeriac in November and stored in a cooler that seems to run at about 38 F.

We are now getting "slime" on some/many of the roots. I am wondering if there are better ways to prevent this slime as we are at risk of loosing a lot of the crop much earlier in the winter storage season than I like to see and customers are starting to complain.
Thanks for any info you can tell us.
Thomas

Arethusa Collective Farm
Thomas Case, F. Benner Dana
PO Box 8082
Burlington, Vermont 05402
802.578.6429
www.arethusacollectivefarm.com