Tom and Barbara grow their own fruit and veg. Many a time they have referred to their store of veg in the spare bedroom saying how it's got to last them all the year.
What bothers me is how do they expect the veg to last that long? My carrots fresh from the supermarket are limp in two or three days.
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A lot of "poetic licence" was taken in this excellent series. eg, wet potatoes (as gathered after the storm with the help of the Leadbetters) stored in sacks like they did will rot quickly. Also, I doubt they would be able to run a generator using gas from their animals dung, although in principle this is possible if enough gas is produced! I hardly think there would be enough gas from the dung of two pigs, a goat and a few chickens!
"You made me miss!I've never missed that board before".
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If stored properly, root veg and certain other produce will last for at least a few months, though they will certainly deteriorate in quality over that time. All they would need was enough to keep them over the winter, until they had fresh seasonal stuff growing again. Most folks before year-round produce sections had to sort through their stored veg over the winter and get rid of all the spoiling stuff so it wouldn't get the rest of it rotting. By spring, pickings would have been very slim, and probably pretty flabby and blah, but still edible.
But yes, there were a lot of agricultural inaccuracies in the show which I take a strangely self-righteous pleasure in noting. First of all, they wouldn't be harvesting every single veg at the same time -- green beans and potatoes, for instance, have different seasons. Beans at that late date would more have been mature, and then you harvest the whole vine and hang them to dry to shell them later, you don't pick them individually and store them in boxes.
And after a storm like that, the most important thing would be to get up the aboveground stuff that had been beat down into the mud, before it all rotted. They could have left the potatoes and other root crops in the ground at least a little while longer without harm, unless they had a solid frost that froze the soil.
Tom mentions to Margo and Jerry that the spare room is the perfect place for storing food because it's dry, cool and dark. I don't know how accurate that is.
ROCK STARS HAVE KIDNAPPED MY SON
We do see Barbara canning and they have a freezer to store food as well. Both can go a long way in stretching their harvest.
Dry , cool, and dark is preferred.
If you reduce the temp and moisture it will extend the life of many veggies. Light can affect things as well.
I recall there was some program on, many years ago, about how opaque milk containers help to extend the shelf life of milk.
Also that a compost pile would not do as well in the shade as it would in full sun.
doo doo doo dooda dooda