Help! How do I store potatoes?

scaredy_cat

sacks of potatoes are best bought in the autumn, winter and spring, when the potatoes are 'old'. Also the coolness of the air helps them keep longer, and leave the sack open.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Plus, don't forget that we've had a lot of Smith periods (At least two consecutive days where min temperature is 10ºC or above and on each day at least 11 hours when the relative humidity is greater than 90%), which basically means potato blight is a possibility.



Blight is a range of fungal thinguumiwotsits, they don't make the spuds inedible, but they don't store for long.


Which is what sounds like has happened to your second bag of spuds.


It's just one of those things.

[Deleted User]

It is an odd year for spuds, ours are not going to keep, even the maincrop. The earlies are all cooked and in the freezer as they were going mushy after a couple of days out of the ground. The maincrop are very small in size and we are having to turn out the sacks every week to see which ones are keepers and which to use now. If you had the freezer room you could put in mash, boiled spuds, roasties and even jackets, all of which come back out OK. It might even save you some fuel costs as you can fill the oven with jackets and reheat them in the microwave. Hope that helps, Cheers Lyn.

krlyr

I had heard it wasn't a good time for potatoes. We do freeze the wedges etc. (bought a large chest freezer as well as the upright fridgefreezer), we get a sack then have a mass session peeling, par-boiling, and chopping/spicing/mashing as necessary, but obviously tough to know how long the bags have been stored at the farm shop

zippychick

krlyr wrote: »

Thanks Zip but we're 'processing' most of them straight away and still having the problem, so it's not a storage issue AFAIK (and those that are done a few days later are stored in a paper bag in a cool, dark place as per that thread)

Then you've just been unlucky. I would complain where you purchased them but you do get the odd bad bag of potatoes

Zip

boredjellybean

Hiya

Just planning a big monthly shop & was wondering if I buy a load of baking potatoes how long should they last & where is the best place to store them??

thanks

PipneyJane

Correctly stored, potatoes can easily keep a month or longer. Don't buy the ones in plastic - by the loose ones because they last longer (they won't have spent days sweating under their plastic jacket).

Store your potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place away from onions. (Onions give off a gas which causes them to sprout.) They don't need to go in the fridge. In fact, I think they shouldn't be stored in a fridge - when my sister was staying and put potatoes in the fridge, they didn't keep for more than a couple of days.

Potatoes need to be stored in the dark or they'll develop green patches, which are toxic and will cause stomach upsets.

FWIW, mine get stored in the kitchen in the cupboard under the sink. They're in a wicker basket.

medusasmummy

PipneyJane wrote: »

Correctly stored, potatoes can easily keep a month or longer. Don't buy the ones in plastic - by the loose ones because they last longer (they won't have spent days sweating under their plastic jacket).

Store your potatoes in a cool, dark, dry place away from onions. (Onions give off a gas which causes them to sprout.) They don't need to go in the fridge. In fact, I think they shouldn't be stored in a fridge - when my sister was staying and put potatoes in the fridge, they didn't keep for more than a couple of days.

Potatoes need to be stored in the dark or they'll develop green patches, which are toxic and will cause stomach upsets.

FWIW, mine get stored in the kitchen in the cupboard under the sink. They're in a wicker basket.

Thanks for that info PipneyJane. Whenever i buy new/salad potatoes i usually put them in my veg basket which always has an onion in and they've always sprouted after a couple of days. I'll remember next time though

TO OP-
If you have a local asian supermarket or car boot running they usually sell the 10kg or 25kg sacks of potatoes which usually have some big potatoes in rather than buying baking potatoes

Also l!dl sell 7.5kg bags for £3ish

cornishchick

:DI keep my spuds in the breadbin, its one of those made from china, and i cover them with a layer of newspaper, then the wood lid goes on top of that. they kept really well untill i put some onions in as well. now i store them seprately.

btw, I used to forget I had bread in the breadbin and it would go off to quick, so that just lives on top now , lol

Sambucus_Nigra

If they were harvested this year, they should keep until about March. After the winter solstice, and the day length changes, this breaks their dormancy and they start to put out shoots. It's got nothing to do with onions as to why they sprout.

I keep mine in bags in the shed until the frosts come then they get brought into the cool kitchen.