Potato Storage

[Meadowlark]

Here in hot, humid East Texas conditions are not optimal for storing potatoes....but if you love new potatoes, you find a way that will work until the next harvest.

Potatoes for storage should never be washed until ready for use. Also, they benefit from a few hours of drying in the sun....thickens the skin for storage.

Here are my methods in no articular order.

1) The Bucket Method:

a) drill holes in a 5 gallon bucket and add a layer of hay

b) on top of the hay a layer of potatoes

c) continue until full

Holds about 25-30 pounds of potatoes. We store them in our pumphouse which is always dark and cooled by the frequently refreshed cool water in the pressure tank. These last easily 9 months.

2) The Potato bag:
This bag has the nice features of being relatively small, an opening at the bottom from which individual spuds can be removed, and easily stored.

Water pressure tank on left, potato bags hanging until next harvest. These bags hold about 7-8 pounds each.

To be continued...

 

[Meadowlark]

Continuation

Method 3: Nothing fancy but very effective...store in refrigerator crispers. This one is a secondary refrigerator with two crispers. Will hold about 25-30 pounds total and store until next harvest or consumption which always comes first.

Method 4: Canning. Canned potatoes are wonderful in soups, fried for breakfast, etc. They will keep safely easily until next harvest. We will can about 20 plus jars total which will last us a good while.

We had a good crop this year marked by the number of "bakers"...well more than a bakers dozen.
These will be consumed and made as presents for friends and family. Nothing better than a big Texas steak and baked potato.

 

[Meadowlark]

I like to call this the "don't put all your potatoes in the same storage" approach. We have harvested about 180 pounds from 20 pounds of seed potatoes in the last few days and treasure them all . Hence, the use of different methods and locations for storage.

 

[Durgan]

Well done. I only need around 50 pounds and simply put them in a bushel basket in my cold room in the basement. They last about 6 plus months. I steam or bake them and eat with butter. Also do sweet potatoes similarly.

My little ccld room stores garlic, onions and potatoes.

 

[Meadowlark]

... simply put them in a bushel basket in my cold room in the basement. ...

Must be nice. There are no "cold rooms" in Texas from now to November. Brutally hot. It requires creative measures to store food.

 

[vette-kid]

Must be nice. There are no "cold rooms" in Texas from now to November. Brutally hot. It requires creative measures to store food.

Yeah, cold room here is kind of impossible.

I didn't realize you could store them in the fridge though! We have a spare fridge and the crispers are pretty much always empty.