Posted: 1/13/2009 12:56:08 PM EDT
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I have read that potatoes that are properly dried and stored can be kept for a good while if kept in a dark place kept at around 40 degrees, but not frozen.
How do you guys store potatoes? |
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We had 70lbs from our garden and they are still fine in January.
We used some wooden crates that are airy. We didn't wash the taters off or anything and just stored then in our pantry which stays very cool cause it's on a wall against the garage that isn't really insualted well. I noticed the other day the 2nd crate of taters, mostly the smaller ones, does have some that are starting to grow roots but for the most part they have held up great. You don't have a cellar or basement that stays cool? Even a garage maybe? We can't keep ours in the cellar cause ours stays about as warm as the house. |
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Mom and dad use a wooden box (slats = narrow boards on the walls of the box with spaces between the boards) and store the potatoes and apples like that in their cellar. Big cellar, doesn't freeze in the winter and stays pretty cool in the summer. They dig their potatoes in late August/early September and if they have a good year they still have potatoes left at the end of May/start of June when they use some of them to plant the next years crop.
When you see the little white eyes growing they are absorbing moisture from the interior of the potato so you need to pull them out every so often and use your thumbs/fingers to "rub" the eyes off the outside of the potato or the eyes will really dry the potatoes out and eventually ruin them. The apples don't last quite as long but at least into January or February. I'm not sure about the potatoes but different types of apples last longer, or not as long, than others and it may be the same way with potatoes. When dad was growing up and the two cellars under the house weren't big enough for all the stuff they had to save over the winter they would go up to the upper part of the garden (better drained soil) and dig a long trench 6 or 7 feet wide and 3 feet deep. All the corn stalks were cut off (after the corn was pulled) and used to line the bottom of the trench. The potatoes, apples and cabbage were placed on the corn stalks and then covered with more corn stalks. Then the dirt they'd dug making the trench was shoveld back on top of the cornstalks covering the potatoes, apples and corn. The corn stalks kept most of the water off and the dirt insulated the produce from the snow and cold. Dad said the food stored well like this till it was consumed later in the winter. They used this stuff first and left the potatoes and apples in the cellars for later. Of course, you regularly inspect the food and learn to recognize when its best to eat it vs. let it go to waste (spoil completely). Times were tough back during the depression in those little WV coal camps when you had a house full of kids. Hope I never see it that tough. |
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Quoted:
I made the mistake of washing the Yukon Golds my Dad gave me from his garden. Turned green on me in no time. I wanted to cry. The green color is not from washing, but from light. Keep them in a dark place. I do R&D for the largest frozen potato company in the world. Here's what we do to store potatoes for over 9 months, in some cases. We store them so we can process potatoes all year in our plants. •48-50°F (warmer will accelerate sprouting and rot, cooler will drive some of the starch to sugar which will increase the brown color when fried). •80-90% humidity •Keep them dry, don't even wash the garden dirt off till you use them. •Keep them in the dark, and I do mean dark! Even a little light will hasten the emergence of the green skin color. The green color is the potato trying to start photosynthesis (chlorophyll) and is associated with solanine, a glycoalkaloid and technically a poison. It would take a bunch of green potatoes to make you sick but why even eat one? •If you do smell one potato going bad, get it out of there and throw it away. "Rot" breeds rot. |