Help! How do I store potatoes?

Laz123

A cloth or hessian bag is best as they can be ventilated. Keep them in an aerated place in the dark if possible. If you can hang them it would be even better.

butterflylady131

Thanks, much appreciated. I think I saw a cloth/hessian bag in Lakeland. Will pop off to see how much it is.

zippychick

Hi Butterflylady

Love your avatar. I was wearing a She Ra teeshirt yesterday

Help how do i store potatoes should offer loads of ideas

I'll merge this later once you get more input
thanks
Zip

csarina

We store ours in a hessian sack in the shed, do not wash them, the dirt helps them to keep better.

I have half a sack in there at the moment, hope to have at least 2 full sacks by winter.

Emuchops

I store supermarket bought (ie not "dirty") pots in a hessian sack in the shed with an old towel over the top to keep out the light. This works really well but I heard that if you put any old apple in the sack with them, they keep even better. I tried it and it really works-I have had the same apple in my sack now for months-it must be mutually beneficial.

Primrose

We hang ours in one of those freebie linen/cotton bags which lots of organisations give out these days, in our garage, away from the light. They still need to be checked occasionally but last longer in this environment that they would in a warm light kitchen.

boredjellybean

I want to buy a big sack of spuds this winter & store in the she, I'm concerned about frost & mice can anyone give me an tips?

many thanks
Sarah xxx

Primrose

If you want something totally mouse-proof I would suggest you need something like a big plastic box with a clip on lid, but I'm not sure potatoes would store well in such a confined airless environment. We store ours in big linen bags which are sealed at the top with either a draw string or pegs and hang them from hooks on our garage wall. Although from time to time we do get mice in our garage they've never managed to climb up the walls and get at the potatoes, although you may have to decant a big sack into smaller bags.

Vaila

we have a potato bin , its just a little metal dustbin

i agree with the idea of a hessian bag though, and you can pick them up rather cheaply too

Parva

Hi all, this tip may have been mentioned here in the past but I couldn't see it so figured I would share for the benefit of those that haven't yet tried it.

Basically, I live alone and find that by the time I'm half way through a 2.5Kg pack of potatoes they're sprouting so badly that they end up in the bin. Well, thanks to my daughters tip I no longer suffer this problem.

Basically, just store the potatoes in the fridge! I used to store them in a cupboard and they were sprouting within a week of their sell by date. Now that I store them in the bottom of the fridge they are easily lasting at least four times as long!

As an example, I bought some baking potatoes over Xmas with a use by date of 29/12/2010. I eventually remembered I had them at the end of January and on inspection they had started sprouting but only just. I peeled them, boiled them and mashed them and they were great.

Apologies in advance if this is common knowledge to most of you, I'd never even thought about it! Leaks and carrots also benefit from being kept in the fridge and last long beyond the sell by date though not to the extent that potatoes do.