reinvigorating bendy carrots

How does this work? I have a friend who gets carrot seconds from a nearby farm that are all bendy and not (i think) so good to eat. He reburies them and they harden up in the soil and it's his whole winter carrot stash. What!?

Carrots are the ultimate no-no in transplanting. Yet this works. How? And do any other root veggies , or anything else, respond this well to being reburied for storage?

Basements are few and far between here and sticking root crops  such as potatoes, carrots and turnips in the ground or sandy soil in a cool area is the only way to store them fresh. Storing them this way enables them to suck up just enough moisture to stay alive but keeps temps down (usually) enough to prevent them from sprouting. It will perk up smushy carrots if they aren't too far gone. I plant carrots in the fall and (once mature) pick them as I need them.  I'm not willing to devote my limited space on taters by leaving them in the ground year round, I dig them and  can them. I'm expanding though and might next year, I have sevaral volunteer tatos now in the garden that I obviously missed when I dug.

For a few carrots, you can immerse them in cold tap water and stick them in the refrigerator to make them crisp.

Kelda, he isn't really replanting them, he's just storing them underground.

The requirements for root crop storage are cool, moist and dark. Having them easy to get to is also a nice asset.  If you get much snow, it's a pain to get them from under two feet of it.  Here in the PNW, leaving them in the soil is iffy because of the rot issue from the rain, and the freeze-thaw thing makes carrots sort of spongy. Besides, I own a canine Belgian Harvester, who pulls up carrots, and plucks blueberries and cherry tomatoes for her own consumption, and she LOVES carrots.

Here's some info that you might be able to adapt if you don't have a cool basement, from the National Gardening Association:  http://www.garden.org/foodguide/browse/veggie/roots_harvesting/623

If you use sawdust, 'raw' sawdust is best, dried sawdust is next (furniture type), and it all must be untreated, so be sure you know your source.  Here in WA, a cubic yard (one picup load) of sawdust costs about $10.  Sand costs twice that. Your area may be different, so call around and ask; landscaping materials yards seem to be the best.

I used to know a woman who harvested her root crops and packed them in moist sand or sawdust in clean 30-gallon garbage cans and left them on her enclosed but not heated back porch (north-facing).  Be aware that these get VERY heavy and practically immovable, so carry the produce to the storage site.

Sue