You grew a good crop of squash, onions, and potatoes. Now comes the part that decides whether you are eating it in February or composting it in November: curing. Curing is a short drying-and-healing step that toughens skins, seals wounds, and lets these crops store for months instead of going soft in a few weeks. It is easy, it is mostly waiting, and skipping it is the single most common reason a harvest does not keep. Here is how to do it, wherever in Canada you garden.
Winter squash and pumpkins
Harvest winter squash before the first hard frost (a light touch of frost on the leaves is fine, but a hard freeze damages the fruit and ruins storage). Cut each one with a few inches of stem left on as a handle; a broken stem is an open wound that rots. Never carry a squash by the stem.
- Cure warm: 10 days at roughly 20 to 27C in a dry, airy spot. A sunny windowsill, a warm back room, or a few warm fall days under cover all work. This hardens the skin so you cannot dent it with a thumbnail.
- Then store cool: 10 to 15C, dry, with a little air movement, not touching each other. A spare room or a cool closet beats a damp basement.
- Eat in order: acorn and delicata do not keep long, so eat them first. Butternut, hubbard, and spaghetti squash store for months, so save them for deep winter.
- Do not wash them. Wipe off dirt with a dry cloth; moisture invites rot.
Pie pumpkins cure the same way. Carving pumpkins are not bred for storage, so use them and move on.
Onions and garlic
Both are ready to cure when the tops flop over and start to brown. Pull them on a dry day and move them out of direct sun.
- Cure with the tops on for 2 to 3 weeks in a warm, airy, shaded place: a covered porch, a garage with the door open, or any spot out of rain and strong sun. Spread them in a single layer or hang them in loose bunches.
- They are done when the necks are completely dry and papery and the outer skins rustle. A soft or thick neck means it is not cured yet.
- Then trim the tops to an inch and the roots to the base, or braid softneck garlic and onions by their tops.
- Store cool, dark, dry, and airy: a mesh bag or an open basket around 5 to 10C. Not the fridge, and not a sealed bag.
- Eat thick-necked onions first; they never fully seal and will not keep. Save the tight, papery ones for late winter.
For the full garlic story from planting to harvest, see our fall garlic guide.
Potatoes
Dig potatoes about two weeks after the tops have died back, on a dry day, and handle them gently; every cut and bruise is a place that rots.
- Cure in the dark: 1 to 2 weeks at around 10 to 15C with high humidity. This thickens the skin and heals small nicks. A cool basement corner or a cardboard box in an unheated room works.
- Do not wash them. Brush off loose soil and leave the rest; washing drives moisture into the skin and shortens storage. Wash right before you cook.
- Then store cold, dark, and humid: 4 to 7C is ideal, in the dark, in a breathable bag or box. A root cellar, cold room, or unheated closet is perfect.
- Keep them out of the light. Light turns potatoes green, and green means solanine, which is bitter and mildly toxic. Cut green parts away generously, or compost badly greened tubers.
- Keep potatoes and onions apart. Each gives off gases and moisture that make the other sprout and spoil faster.
A few rules that apply to everything
- Only store the sound ones. Set aside anything nicked, soft, or bruised and eat those this week. One rotting vegetable spoils its neighbours.
- Cool, dark, and airy wins. Warmth sprouts things, light greens them, damp and stagnant air rots them.
- Check the stash monthly and pull anything turning. Five minutes of culling saves a whole crate.
Timing it to your season
The one hard deadline is getting squash and potatoes in before a hard freeze. On the mild south coast of BC you have slack into late fall; across the Prairies and the North the window slams shut fast once October frosts arrive, so watch the forecast and your local first-frost date. Onions and garlic are usually lifted earlier, in late summer, so by now they should already be curing or stored.
Put the time into curing and a single afternoon's harvest feeds you for months. Skip it and the same harvest is soft by Remembrance Day. It is the cheapest insurance in the garden: a warm corner, a few weeks of patience, and a cool dark shelf.