Vegetable Storage

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Here it is another fall with a wonderful bumper crop of potatos and I'm afraid to store them, again !!! Over our many years of homesteading we have never been able to master the "storing of potatos" We have put them in a cool part of the house/cellar. They grow !! Hid them in straw in the barn and they still continue to grow !! Have even thought of putting soil inside of an old chest freezer in the barn and burying them in that !! and even put them in an old car trunk one time. I really hate to see them go to waste like this. It gets very cold in our area sometimes 20 below is not uncommon. Does anyone have any suggestions that might just work for us ???

-- Helena , (windyacs/@ptdprolog.net), October 17, 2000

Answers

Response to Vegtable Storage

There was an excellent article in the sept/oct Countryside. We have a large add on closet (10 x 6 ft) with a window, I am planning on installing a small window ac and use it for a root/wine "cellar". Maybe you can isolate a single room in this fashion. I think the dry air is the key.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), October 17, 2000.

Response to Vegtable Storage

My father and grandfather grew thirty acres of potatoes on our homestead in Alaska, and stored them in Grandma and Grandpa's cellar all winter, selling them to the local grocery store as needed. So they had to KNOW that their stored potatoes were going to make it through the winter! They said that they found a temperature of about 34-36 degrees best -- I think the extensions and books on root cellaring say 38-40 degrees. Plus there must be some humidity. So what you need to do is keep close track of temperatures, perhaps with a recording thermometer. I suspect that your problem is a combination of wrong temperatures (probably too warm rather than too cold, if they are sprouting) and lack of humidity, as the air gets very dry in really cold weather. Lacking a better place to put them, excavate a hole in the ground. Line the sides with something to keep the dirt in place, leave the bottom dirt. Put the spuds in, put some kind of top on, and re-bury the thing. It will be hard to get potatoes out when the ground is frozen unless you mulch the top heavily. Or just break down and build a root cellar. Of course, the potatoes *will* start to sprout towards spring, even if the temperature is right; that's why store-bought potatoes are treated with a sprouting inhibitor. Have you read any of the books about building root cellars? If not, it would be a good idea.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), October 17, 2000.

Response to Vegtable Storage

You can can some of them, they're quite convenient. A good canning book has directions or I can post directions later.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), October 17, 2000.

Response to Vegtable Storage

I didn't plant any potatoes this year, as last two summers have been such a disaster for gardening, decided to skip them this year. I buy 10 or more #'s at a time, boil them, cool and peal and cube into about l/2" pieces, freeze on trays them bag and seal in vacuum bags. When I want to use some, can either fry them, or heat in water, drain and mash. They are just like fresh. If you have a whole lot to store, is may require quite a bit of freezer space. I stored them in laundry baskets previously in an storage garage, and they kept fine, but we hadn't had much below 20 degrees temps, and they began to sprout late the next spring.

-- Hazel in WA (hazelm@tenforward.com), October 17, 2000.

Response to Vegtable Storage

I also had problems storing potatoes and switched to canning them this year. It works! It takes 2 qts to do a meal for 5, but it really is better for my family. The potatoes I bought before always rotted before we got halfway through the bag. As we have no rootcellar but we do have shelf space, this seemed the way to go. A 25 lb batch takes all day though if you are working by yourself. An apple peeler really helps speed things up if you go this route. annette

-- annette (j_a_henry@yahoo.com), October 17, 2000.


Response to Vegtable Storage

Hi Helena, what kind of potatoes are you growing? Could be the problem. Some types will sprout easier. I grew some Irish Cobblers this spring, dug them up awhile ago, put them in a wooden basket in my pantry which is part of the house and not any have sprouted yet. We don't get nearly as cold as you all, but for my fall crop, I always leave them in my raised beds, and dig them up when needed. Hope you're able to save them, nothing is as good as a fresh potato. Good luck!

-- Annie (mistletoe@earthlink.net), October 17, 2000.

Response to Vegtable Storage

We keep reds and russets through from one harvest until the next. We keep them in a damp (not too damp) basement but in pitch dark. I know the farmer we got them from said that the dark was probably one of the reasons they kept so well so long. Also if you dont wash them first they'll keep better too.

-- Nancy Steele (nsteele@theofficenet.com), October 23, 2000.

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