If you mean 'keep' without any canning, drying, refrigeration, etc...for us it would be sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkins. I always thought it interesting that a lot of our fall harvest was orange...a great source of nutrition for the winter.
"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young
I don't have winter to deal with but I do "keep" crop excesses until the next harvest. Those that I don't freeze or dry include potatoes, sweet potatoes, winter squashes and pumpkin, carrots, turnips, beets, and onions.
It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com
well, besides sweet potatoes and squash, we dehydrate persimmons, pears, peaches, sweet peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes....lacto ferment cucumbers, green tomatoes, salsa; can muscadine juice, tomatoes, more fruit. Some of it varies year to year how and what is kept for winter. We dry lots of herbs both medicinal and culinary.
"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young
Su Ba
pollinator
Posts: 2190
Location: Big Island, Hawaii (2300' elevation, 60" avg. annual rainfall, temp range 55-80 degrees F)
Things that I dry:
Assorted fruits (rambutan, jackfruit, bananas, coconut, pineapple)
Tomatoes
Peas
Beans
Corn
Assorted greens
Assorted herbs
Some peppers
Grains
Things I Freeze:
Soup assortments - vegs & broth & herbs that I can modify later
Green beans
Broccoli
Cabbage
Kale
Collards
Cauliflower
Assorted herbs
Sweet peppers
Tomatoes
Fruit juices
Bananas
Summer squashes
Asparagus
This list is off the top of my head, so there's most likely more. On my storage list I forgot to list taro and daikon, though the daikon I usually pickle. I also pickle assorted veggies, another way to store them. I don't can much because I don't have a long winter to deal with, so I don't find canning to be worth the effort.
It's never too late to start! I retired to homestead on the slopes of Mauna Loa, an active volcano. I relate snippets of my endeavor on my blog : www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com
Grow a variety of squash. Last year the butternut was really good a few weeks after harvest to a few months after harvest. After that it got kind of dry and the flavor started to be a little "off" and the cushaw was just coming into its own - very moist and sweet with a delicious "dessert" flavor. Cushaws are huge but you can cut off a hunk and let the rest just sit at room temperature for a week or so and the cut end will just dry out a little. Then cut off another hunk and keep doing that until you can fit it in the refrigerator or finish it.
I grew Indian corn last summer for hominy, which is wonderful in bean soups. Also popcorn for snacking.
I froze sliced apples from the tree for pies, crumbles, and fried apples, too.
I grow runner beans on my fences and eat young green beans all summer/autumn,
freeze, give away and ferment lots,
and there's still loads on the plants.
I leave them on till the pods are brown, then pod them, leave the beans to dry thoroughly and store in jars.
The roots are perennial in my climate, but production is supposed to go down as the plants age.
I poke in more beans every year to make sure that's not a problem
In my climate, fruit store best in the winter. I put more energy into fruit than anything else. You can eat apples you grow every month of the year here. Korean Giant Asian pears store well too. Some Euro pears. fuzzy kiwis. Flowering quince fruit. I freeze a lot of quince fruit because it is so tasty and productive.
John S
PDX OR
Northern Washington/Idaho, but really that does not tell you much, my neighbour friend about 8 miles away, higher elevation, and her growing times are different. She is always a week or more ahead of me, she is panting and my place is still freezing.