Spuds

liney

Just wondered how long a sack of spuds usually lasts before going manky.

I'm trying to determine whether i'd use enough to be worth buying, or if it would be very wasteful.

brokenwings

well its going to depend on how many youre feeding liney

i feed two of us ( three sometimes but not often ) and a bag of potatoes ( old tatoes that is ) lasts us about two months but we eat potato in some shape or form most nights

i have just finished one bag off and used some i would probably have normally thrown out - as we didnt want to buy a new bag cause new potatoes were coming up in the garden - and i had to use perhaps a dozen potatoes that had sprouted a bit and gone a bit wrinkly

but they made fab chips!

twink

depends on how quick you are going to use them, if they are last years maincrop then they wont last very long now, you would have to keep them cool and use them up quick
dont know if you can freeze them cooked someone else will keep you right, but come the autumn it is usually cheaper to buy them by the bag, maris piper is a good all rounder, keep them in the dark, cool but frost free

lin473

It also depends on when you buy and how you store them.
If you buy a sack say in early september when the new crop of 'old' potatoes come in ,and store them somewhere dark and cool,(garage?) they should be fine even if you take 3 or 4months to eat them.
If you want to buy some now ,put a few in the fridge if you have room.
They last better but use the un-chilled ones first obviously!

Ted_Hutchinson

It's too early to buy a bag of tates at the moment, All the old spuds for sale have been kept in storage since last harvest and the "new" spuds won't keep and as the price is dropping there's no point in having a bagful.

As soon as the skins have set then it's definitely worth buying them by the bag and keeping them in the garage. I have 2 friends who I share my spuds with, so whenever I see them cheap I buy a bag and divide it into 3 so we each pay £1 or possibly £1.50 and get a third of a bag. We get through quite a few bags over the winter but at this end of the old spuds season it's not worth it as they go over so quickly once out of the coldstore.

Gingham_Ribbon

Ted, what does 'as soon as the skins have set' mean? I'm asking because I get new potatoes sometimes and the skin just peels off when I wash them. I'd really like to keep it on if I knew how.

twink

until ted comes back i think what he means is the maincrop potatoes you can keep them all through the winter, theyre usually picked here in oct but maybe sept with you, they are eg all the maris types, records, kerrs pink
the skin on new potatoes comes off very easily if you get them straight from the garden or market but i would think it wouldnt once they have been in the shop for a while

thriftlady_2

Just agreeing with Ted - don't buy large sacks of old spuds now,they will sprout really quickly and be horrible.Stick to new potatoes until the maincrop is lifted (September I think).

I buy 25 kilo bags of maincrop spuds through the winter and I reckon they last our family of 5 2-3 months if kept in their paper sack with the top rolled down.We don't eat potatoes every day.