Curing and drying veggies for winter storage

In the fall, my greenhouse becomes the perfect place for helping prep the harvest for storage. I use it to cure winter squash and onions for storage, dry sunflower seed heads, dry flour corn and popcorn, and dry cayenne and paprika peppers for grinding. Unlike potatoes, all of these crops benefit from as much sunlight as possible during the curing process. Winter squash ideally cures at between 70-90 degrees, and onions 50-60 degrees. I find that temperatures in the greenhouse hover between 50-80, but it still seems to work well enough for both crops.

Our greenhouse benches are surfaced with ½ X 1 inch hardware cloth to allow for proper drainage when growing starts. This works perfectly for airflow when curing in the fall as well. Space each item so that air can flow between them, especially sunflower seed heads as they contain a lot of moisture which can cause molding even in the driest conditions. In-field drying helps a lot as well, and I always wait as long as possible after the most recent rain to cut the sunflower heads. Onions cure better when they have dried in the field as long as possible as well. For peppers I am drying down, I let them ripen and dry on the plant for as long as possible, then cut the entire plant and place it on the greenhouse bench to dry. Any unripe fruits will be discarded when I'm ready to gather the peppers for grinding into powders. Rotate and flip winter squash a few times during the process to expose all parts of the skin to the sun, which drys and seals the skin during curing.