Storing Potatoes

[Granny in Wales]

Just lifted some spuds (two bucketsful and a carrier bag) from my veg plot, they were left-overs from last year and suddenly sprang up all over the place earlier this year. What would be the best way to store them so that they stay fresh over the next few weeks?

cheers

Granny

[ina]

Cold, dark and reasonably airy... I store mine in cardboard boxes or large paper bags (feed bags) in the spare room (which is the coldest in the house), or the garage. Oh, and it should be dry; I suppose this year we can't expect rooms to be necessarily dry... Make sure none of them have any nasty diseases - could be a problem this year, with all the dampness around. You can still eat them if they have blight, but can't really store them.

[Granny in Wales]

hmmm, don't really have anywhere cold at the moment, but I have got dry. My feed sacks are all plastic which is a nuisance - will have to see if my husband can bring me a cardboard box home from work. Thanks for the advice

[ina]

A wooden crate would do - or one of those plastic basket type thingies, lined with newspaper.

[Thurston Garden]

Somewhere mouse proof too....

Last year I supplemented my tatties with gleanings from my landlords fields (the only plus side to supermarkets demanding perfect looking tatties ). One paper feed sack was stored for ready use in our pantry. A second one was stored in a cool shed in the garden.

When it came time to bring the second bag into the house, I picked it up and the backside fell out of it! Mice had eaten a nice hollowed out cave in the tatties in the bottom of the bag (the top was untouched) and managed to eat a good proportion of the bottom of the bag too.

Problem is that can get through the smallest of holes!

More thought required this year (and more gleanings!)

[ina]

Ah yes, I'd forgotten about the mice... They got half my seed tatties a couple of years ago, too. And the last of my own tatties this winter...

[mrsflibble]

DON'T use an old chicken brick. it does not work.

[Thurston Garden]

Chicken brick??

[mrsflibble]

red clay chicken cooking device. mine sucks, I am much happier with my 1970s roasting tin... so i decided to use the brick for storing potatoes. big mouldy mistake.
none of the mould has got into the clay, but the potatoes were a write-off.

[mrsflibble]

a chicken brick:
http://images.drct2u.com/content/images ... _large.jpg

[Thurston Garden]

Thanks - I am with you now. I remember HFW ordering lots of them ££££££££!!!!!!

[Stonehead]

For those with monster amounts of tatties to store...

http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2006/10/ ... -potatoes/

We removed the last 25kg of 2006's crop from the last storage bin about a week ago.

About a dozen potatoes had started to show rot on the outside. When I started to prepare the remaining ones for pig feed and potato wine, about 10% showed signs of rot internally.

To put that into context, we put more than 20 hundredweight (just over a metric tonne) of potatoes into store last September and October. Ten-and-half months later, we still had a good store of useable potatoes that overlapped nicely with our early main croppers this year.

Aside from pig feed, the remaining old potatoes are now bubbling away in the fermenting vat to make spiced potato wine.

The only improvement I'd make to the storage bins is to put 12v ventilation fans on them. I now have a 12v battery and solar charger, so it's just a matter of sourcing the fans and fabricating shrouds for them.

[mrsflibble]

well that puts my old wooden breadbin to shame!

(found in the corner of a charity shop.)

[MrsD'ville]

We're looking for mouse-proof storage for oats, rice, flour etc for our pantry. Ideally we'd like hyowge earthenware crocks but I can't find any to be had online

[Cheezy]

For those with monster amounts of tatties to store...

http://stonehead.wordpress.com/2006/10/ ... -potatoes/

We removed the last 25kg of 2006's crop from the last storage bin about a week ago.

About a dozen potatoes had started to show rot on the outside. When I started to prepare the remaining ones for pig feed and potato wine, about 10% showed signs of rot internally.

To put that into context, we put more than 20 hundredweight (just over a metric tonne) of potatoes into store last September and October. Ten-and-half months later, we still had a good store of useable potatoes that overlapped nicely with our early main croppers this year.

Aside from pig feed, the remaining old potatoes are now bubbling away in the fermenting vat to make spiced potato wine.

The only improvement I'd make to the storage bins is to put 12v ventilation fans on them. I now have a 12v battery and solar charger, so it's just a matter of sourcing the fans and fabricating shrouds for them.

As ever great advice Stoney. We didn't have too many tatties to overly worry about this year (was SSish for 3 months!!!), next year I'm hoping to up production (not quite in the same league tho'), and I shall take this advice to heart.