Storing squash

I’m interested in winter squash for winter storage. However, it seems to do best in a space that stays 50-60 degrees. I don’t have room for a bunch of squash in my house and I don’t have a heated squash warehouse. I’m in the process of building a root cellar, but it seems that I would need a unrealistically big one to accommodate a significant amount of squash. And I’m pretty sure my situation has been common throughout history- heated indoor space has been at too much of a premium to use for squash. In my region the native people grew squash but I’m sure they didn’t fill their wigwams with it.

So where to store squash? Is it realistic to just leave it to freeze outdoors and then feed it to the pigs quick when it starts to thaw?

Good question. We seem to be in a similar situation as you. We pressure can squash.

For me it does best at room temperature and as dry as possible so a root cellar isn't ideal. No idea how to help you with the space issue. Under a bed, or on top of kitchen cabinets or some other unused but not easily accessible space I guess.

If you have freezer space or outdoor consistently frozen temperatures would also work well if you cook the squash first and then freeze it.

agreed, root cellars are generally to cool and too damp for long-term squash storage. i tend to store mine in a cool corner in a cool room of the house (low 60’sF until it really gets cold outside). i regularly have good-tasting moschatas into early summer. for what it’s worth, i grew about 400lbs of squash this year (not all is inside yet), so i do get the space concerns!

Questions:
What climate zone?
What kind of house? (in general: apartment, basic suburban tract house, etc)
What do you want the squash for: human food or animal food?
Do you have a freezer with space?
Do you pressure can?

I'm in zone 6, cheap tract house.
I use them for human food.
I have a freezer that I put a bunch down into, and I pressure can.
My storage solution is a mostly unheated but attached to the house garage that I get creative in for stacking or hanging them. Milk crates and hammocks are my friends!

I freeze as much as I can as long as I have space but the majority live on my tile floor.  There are casualties.  They are evacuated to the compost pile for further service :).  I find that my tile floor is far cooler than a shelf in my shop and it works out well for us.  Hopefully you have a compost pile to handle the occasional problems.

my situation has been common throughout history- heated indoor space has been at too much of a premium to use for squash.

I like Trace's about under the bed so I'll add in the garage or attic.

Pearl Sutton wrote:Questions:
What climate zone?
What kind of house? (in general: apartment, basic suburban tract house, etc)
What do you want the squash for: human food or animal food?
Do you have a freezer with space?
Do you pressure can?

I'm in zone 6, cheap tract house.
I use them for human food.
I have a freezer that I put a bunch down into, and I pressure can.
My storage solution is a mostly unheated but attached to the house garage that I get creative in for stacking or hanging them. Milk crates and hammocks are my friends!

Zone 5, house is a former hunting lodge- older and small-ish (about 1100 square feet for a family of 4 with an unfortunate amount of stuff that requires heated storage), no basement although the encapsulated crawl space is a possibility for low-humidity storage.

My attitude toward animal vs people food is to “skim the cream” by which I mean I grow more than I need, then cook up the best portion for myself and allow the waste to go to pigs and chickens. So storage methods which bring a small percentage through in good shape and create a lot of pig food would be acceptable to me.

I have a freezer but prefer to use it for high-calorie and high-dollar foods. I do pressure can, but then I need a storage space for jars which doesn’t freeze, so it’s not that much of a benefit spacewise

Anna: Much better data to work with! Defining the parameters of the problem is always helpful for good answers.  

So storage methods which bring a small percentage through in good shape and create a lot of pig food would be acceptable to me.

In that case, I'd go for the crawl space, keep them up off the bottom with something underneath them, like someone said about cold tile, cold spots on bottom are going to be a problem. A bit of air flow under them will help too, so not something like cardboard, more something like a rack or similar. Don't know about your place, but access to the crawl space here is my dealbreaker for using it for storage, if you have kids who like to crawl under there that would help.

Anna Morong wrote:I do pressure can, but then I need a storage space for jars which doesn’t freeze, so it’s not that much of a benefit spacewise

It would prevent you from needing find storage for the large seed-cavity at the center of the squash. I suppose it depends on the fruit, but that could be a huge savings in volume.

I don't have huge amount, but I favor stockings and laundry bags made of netting for hanging them from the ceiling.

If I had this as an ongoing issue, I think I would favor dehydration of flesh and roasting of seeds for human consumption.
Lactose bacillus ferments can survive a lot of temperatures and still be edible, even more so for animals.
I don't think it would take much energy  to keep an insulated container above freezing, maybe use a water deicer in a barrel.

William Bronson wrote:I don't have huge amount, but I favor stockings and laundry bags made of netting for hanging them from the ceiling.

If I had this as an ongoing issue, I think I would favor dehydration of flesh and roasting of seeds for human consumption.
Lactose bacillus ferments can survive a lot of temperatures and still be edible, even more so for animals.
I don't think it would take much energy  to keep an insulated container above freezing, maybe use a water deicer in a barrel.

I like this dehydration idea. Also just FYI I ran across an article detailing how to make pumpkin silage by putting pumpkin flesh in plastic bags and sealing it up for pig food. It ended up being excellent food at 18% protein (far higher than raw pumpkin) so you are definitely on to something with the fermentation idea. I just don’t want to use that much plastic but someone who has access to leftover silage or haulage bags might do great with that

I love that idea Anna!
Regarding the plastic, once again it's time to flog one of my favorite forms of refuse, the discarded water heater!
If you make the pumpkin fine enough, you wouldn't even need to cut the top off the tank.
Other wise, you might need some rubber /plastic/silicone involved in resealing it.

My own experience with fermenting cabbage in a 5 gallon water cooler tells me a layer of oil can be a good seal.
Mind you, I did not eat the result, rather I used it in my chicken coop.

I know that people have made pumpkin kvass, but I'm not sure how long unrefrigerated kvass keeps anyway.

Lactic fermenting is one thing, but I wonder if we could pitch some yeast  into a slurry of squash and preserve the food that way?
I've read that some alcohol producing yeast/fungus combos will produce a liquid that is as much as 20% alcohol, and that amount is enough to preserve food with.
You could go from there to adding a vinegar mother, aquarium pump and air stone.
I don't think these ferments are ideal for preserving calories for  human consumption, but they do preserve or even improved the value of the crops.
On the other hand, I have read that pilgrims survived off the calories in pumpkin beer...