Help! How do I store potatoes?

quintwins

A._Badger wrote: »

I forgot to add, there is, some claim, a risk associated with eating potatoes that have sprouted, too. So which risk weighs the heavier?

As always with these things, some common sense is called for.

i can remeber being advised not to eat sprouting taties by my midwife in my first pregnancy, not thats they ever got a chance to sprout, however if sprouting taties are bad for you why do we wait for seed potatoes to sprout then plant them and eat them?

valk_scot

quintwins wrote: »

if sprouting taties are bad for you why do we wait for seed potatoes to sprout then plant them and eat them?

Because if the seed potato didn't sprout it wouldn't make a new potato plant and new potatoes, basically! But of you dig up a potato plant it's quite clear which potato is the mother potato as it goes all squidgy and mushy once it's food resources are exhausted and no-one would want to eat it. The ones we get in the shops are the new generation of potatoes.

I keep my spuds in a cool dark place, in my unheated utility room. The ones I harvest in September/October last till around now without sprouting, so about four months. Supermarket potatoes are kept in cold store, as in low refidgeration, until they reach the shops. Once they warm up and go into the light they think it's time to start growing again to make potato plants and that's why they sprout. If you put them into cool storage straight from the field this takes a lot longer. If tatties were sold in dark bags from refrigerated stands this dormancy wouldn't be broken as early....but your spuds would be a lot more expensive. And even in cool dark store they will sprout eventually because that's what they're programmed to do. At this time of year all tatties want to wake up and sprout tbh, and it gets harder and harder to stop them.

My advice is to either buy spuds from the farm shops direct from the sack they were packed into at harvest and which haven't seen the inside of a warm 24 hour lit supermarket, or in small quantities and eat them quickly. I have no opinion on the toxin build up of either storing them in the fridge or eating sprouted ones but....commercial ware crops are almost always chilled in store, tbh, so I can't see why extending this at home will make much difference. And we've been eating sprouted tatties in the spring ever since tatties came to this country simply because there are no domestic tatties harvested between October to April/May, normally, and they never used to be stored in chilled conditions in Ye Olde Days.

nykied

valk_scot wrote: »

It's quite clear which potato is the mother potato as it goes all squidgy and mushy once it's food resources are exhausted and no-one would want to eat it.

That is absolutely the worst thing about growing potatoes, especially the ones grown in the bags. Grabbing hold of the mother potato when you're grubbing around for fresh ones is gross! :eek:

[Deleted User]

I keep mine in a bettaware cotton bag that has black lining.On the occasional one that spouts a bit I nip of the sprouty bit off and just carry on peeling it.I am the wrong side of 60 and have had no ill-effect as far as I know in the past 60 odd years of peeling spud.When mine get to the sprouting bit I usually peel them all and put in water in the fridge anyway to use as and when and change the water daily.
If I have enough room in the freezer then I will cook and mash them and shape into round balls with an ice-cresm scoop and when cold open freeze then bag up for use when I need them.Nothing every gets wasted in my house,especially if I have paid good money for it.

spuunge

I've heard that storing potatoes below 10 degrees causes the starch to turn into sugar, which changes their nutritional value and decreases their storage time. My own home grown potatoes are kept in my unheated summer house over winter, not that they last that long anyway! Their storage life is also helped by buying potatoes that are still covered in dirt. I bought a 25kg bag of tatties (from the local farm shop, not the supermarket) just before christmas and they are still going strong. Washed tatties from the supermarket usually last about a week before sprouting in my house!

zippychick

ive merged this with the storing potatoes thread we already have, to help others in future

Zip

A._Badger

spuunge wrote: »

I've heard that storing potatoes below 10 degrees causes the starch to turn into sugar, which changes their nutritional value and decreases their storage time. My own home grown potatoes are kept in my unheated summer house over winter, not that they last that long anyway! Their storage life is also helped by buying potatoes that are still covered in dirt. I bought a 25kg bag of tatties (from the local farm shop, not the supermarket) just before christmas and they are still going strong. Washed tatties from the supermarket usually last about a week before sprouting in my house!

The washed/unwashed potato thing isn't about sprouting, it's about preventing them from turning green.

When exposed to light, potatoes turn green and a concentration of harmful chemicals builds-up in the green areas. If you eat enough of them you will get an upset stomach.

Dirty potatoes have more protection from the light, which is why they last longer before turning green. It's also why those pristine washed bakers you see on the supermarket's top shelf, bathed in daylight and shop lighting, only survive a few days at home before turning a worrying shade of green.

Sue14

JackieO wrote: »

I keep mine in a bettaware cotton bag that has black lining.On the occasional one that spouts a bit I nip of the sprouty bit off and just carry on peeling it.I am the wrong side of 60 and have had no ill-effect as far as I know in the past 60 odd years of peeling spud.When mine get to the sprouting bit I usually peel them all and put in water in the fridge anyway to use as and when and change the water daily.
If I have enough room in the freezer then I will cook and mash them and shape into round balls with an ice-cresm scoop and when cold open freeze then bag up for use when I need them.Nothing every gets wasted in my house,especially if I have paid good money for it.

I keep mine in one of those bags, but I got mine from the £1 shop, I also just cut off the sprouty bits, it never occurred to me that I shouldn't, and I've never had any ill effects either.

valk_scot

Jevvers wrote: »

Not decrying the FSA as it's usually v sensible but i am pondering the difference for a potato twixt being in the fridge and being in the cold ground in Feb. Surely much the same temp? But then Ive not read the scientific reports so it's only a pondering.

They don't leave potatoes in the ground till Feb. They lift them in autumn and store them for the winter in cold sheds.

Biggles

Just go round to your local chippy and ask for one or two of the paper sacks they get their potatoes delivered in, they're always happy to give them to you.

They're completely light-proof and ideal for winter storage.