I recall a novel I was reading recently. They were putting away vegetables for the winter and talked about storing potatoes and other root vegetables in sand. I had never heard of this before. Has anyone else done this?
I've lived in the middle of Idaho potato land all my life. Around here, we just store spuds in a cool, dark spot and they generally keep fine for several months. It got colder than crapolla for the entire month of january this year, and a bunch of my garden potatoes froze in the garage. It was a real bummer.
Carrots, on the other hand, I store in sand or dry garden dirt, in a big plastic bin with a good lid. The first few weeks, it's necessary to open the lid a bit to vent the condensation from the carrots. If it gets too moist in there, they will rot. After a few weeks, the carrots seem to stop "sweating," and they keep really well if the weather is cool enough. Sadly, during that cold snap, my carrots froze as well, even though they were packed in lots of dirt. They were still fine for cooking, until they thawed out. Then they had to be thrown out. Also a bummer. I've got to figure out a way/place to keep stuff cool, but protected from those weeks that are -20 for days on end. Maybe move a couple hundred miles south, lol.