Best Ways To Store Potatoes

Storing potatoes properly to stop rotting and sprouting can help us :

• Cut food waste & save money
• Build an emergency food store
• AND enjoy all the benefits of growing our own harvest.

And despite what you may have heard, you don’t need a fancy root cellar to store potatoes properly!!

So in this post I’ll take you through :

1. Best Ways To Store Potatoes
2. How To Freeze Potatoes
3. PLUS Freezer Friendly Recipes To Use Up Potatoes.

Best Ways To Store Potatoes

Potatoes can be stored for as long as 8 months with the right storage space and for at least 2 months even if our storage spot isn’t perfect.

We just need to follow basic rules :

1. Potatoes You Can NOT Store
2. Best Potatoes To Store
3. Best Place To Store Potatoes
4. Preparing Potatoes For Storage
5. Best Potato Storage
6. How To Store Potatoes

If you just want to store your weekly potatoes better so they don’t rot or sprout, jump straight to quick tips on Storing Everyday Potatoes.

Potatoes You Can’t Store

Not all potatoes store well. So don’t try to store any of these potatoes :

1. Green potatoes
2. Soft potatoes
3. Sprouted potatoes
4. Cracked or split potatoes
5. Punctured potatoes with little holes
6. Damaged potatoes with obvious areas of black rot.

Green Potatoes

Don’t eat greening potatoes. They have very high solanine levels that can trigger headaches and nausea.

Damaged Potatoes

Storing any of these potatoes can actually damage good potatoes you are storing, so always eat up these potatoes first or freeze them.

Supermarket Potatoes

Supermarket spuds may have been stored already in a warehouse so do check they’re not soft before storing.

As we’ll see below there are better and often cheaper options for bulk buying potatoes for storage.

New Potatoes

You can store new potatoes, i.e. 1st and 2nd “earlies”, but they are most delicious when young and firm so best eaten recently harvested.

Freezing Potatoes Not Suitable For Storage

You can easily freeze potatoes unsuitable for long term storage as :

• Potatoes For Sides Dishes and
• Your Favourite Potato Based Mains.

The Best Potatoes To Store

The best potatoes to store are

1. Maincrop potatoes
2. Firm potatoes
3. Undamaged potatoes
4. Potatoes with dried mud on
5. Just harvested potatoes.

Maincrop Potatoes

Maincrop potatoes are the bigger potatoes traditionally harvested from August through November.

Just Harvested Potatoes

The most reliable place to find recently harvested potatoes – if you are not growing your own – is a local farmer or pick-your-own farm.

A family trip to pick potatoes can be a super fun outdoor activity for kids.

Best Place To Store Potatoes

The best place for long term bulk potato storage is somewhere :

• Dark & cool
• With stable temperature between :
  • 40-55 Farenheit
  • 4-12 Celsius
• Some humidity but not damp, if it’s too dry they will dry out and too humid, they will rot.

This could be a basement, dry cellar, garage, shed or other out building.

But it can just be a cupboard as long as it is dark and cool …

You can store potatoes at higher temperatures but not for as long.

If you have lots of potatoes to store and don’t have anywhere in your home consistently under 65 F/18 C, you are better off freezing :

• Potatoes Ready For Use
• Favourite Potato Based Recipes

How To Prepare Your Potatoes For Storage

Go through your potatoes and remove any that are not suitable for storage (as per the list above).

To store potatoes long term, you need to “cure” them which means drying them to thicken up skins.

Even if you don’t cure potatoes, as below, do leave them loosely covered to dry out before storing.

And whatever you do, do NOT wash potatoes before storing!!

How To Cure Potatoes

All you do to cure potatoes is :

1. Lay out paper or cardboard in a cool dark storage space.
2. Spread potatoes out well so as far as possible not touching.
3. Cover loosely with a sack, old sheet, newspaper or similar.
4. After 1 week – turn them over.
5. After 2 weeks check all dry.
6. Gently rub excess dirt off.

Best Potato Storage

You don’t need fancy potato storage racks or bins to store potatoes well.

You just need something :

• Non-plastic
• Dry
• Closeable to keep light out
• Lightly ventilated e.g. with loose weave or small slits or holes
• Big enough for some loose packing to keep potatoes apart.

You can use any of these you have :

1. Cardboard box
2. Paper bags
3. Paper sacks
4. Hessian / burlap sacks
5. Natural laundry basket
6. Cotton mesh bag.

Loose Packing Material

You also ideally need loose packing to keep potatoes apart. This can be:

• Shredded paper
• Dry sand
• Sawdust.

Cardboard Boxes

Cardboard boxes take some beating for storing potatoes and none of us are exactly short on them!!

Boxes are better at keeping potatoes apart from each other which is key if we haven’t got the totally optimal temperature or humidity.

To ventilate the box, just slash some small vertical slits in all the sides.

How To Store Potatoes

To store your potatoes simply :

• Put a layer of loose packing
• Then a layer of potatoes
• Then another layer of packing
• And another layer of spuds etc!!

Give potatoes on each layer enough room so they are not touching.

Your potatoes can last for 8 months in this storage in a cool, dark place but keep an eye on them as you use them and remove any starting to sprout

Storing Everyday Potatoes

To get more life out of the ready bagged potatoes you buy weekly and stop them softening, rotting and sprouting simply follow these tips :

1. Open bag of potatoes.
2. Pick out any potatoes with black rot spots or start of sprouts.
3. Store these separately and use first.
4. Store in a closed cardboard box or paper bag with a few slits or holes in it to keep potatoes ventilated.
5. Store in cool dark spot in kitchen.

And stick to these rules :

• Do NOT store or eat any green potatoes hiding in your bag.
• Do NOT wash your potatoes at all before you store them.
• Do NOT store near onions as emit ethylene which triggers sprouting.
• Do NOT store in fridge – chilling uncooked potato does weird stuff to the sugars and not good for us.

Now we’ve seen how to store potatoes properly long and short term let’s look at how to freeze those potatoes not suitable for storing.

How To Freeze Potatoes

Potatoes that are soft, sprouting or damaged in any way need to be eaten right away or frozen.

It is very easy to freeze our own ready to cook fries, wedges, roast potatoes and more …

Simply peel your potatoes, putting peeled potatoes in cold water as you finish peeling each one. Then :

• Blanch in boiling salted water for 3 to 5 minutes dependent on size.
• Transfer to very cold or icy water to stop them cooking further.

Once the potatoes have cooled :

• Cut in shapes & sizes you use e.g.
  • Fries / chips
  • Wedges
  • Roast
  • Thin dauphin slices.
• Spread out on baking sheet.
• Put in freezer for 2-4 hours to flash freeze them so they won’t stick together in freezer bags.
• Transfer to freezer bags.

Cook potatoes straight from freezer without defrosting them first.

Freezer Friendly Recipes To Use Up Potatoes

If you’ve got a load of potatoes but don’t have a great home for potato storing i.e. too hot, these potato recipes are brilliant to put in the freezer for ready-to-go meals :

• Fish Pie
• Shepherds Pie
• Moussaka
• Potato Curries
• Gnocchi
• Potato Casserole

Fish Pie

This stomach warming fish pie is a fantastic meal to have in the freezer and will use up a good 2lbs of potatoes that aren’t good for storing:

Shepherds Pie

Shepherds Pie is another stomach warming recipe that uses up over 2lbs of potatoes you can’t store.

It also uses up ground meat and is a handy frugal meal to have frozen :

Moussaka

Classic Greek moussaka will use up a good 11/2lbs of potatoes that won’t store and freezes easily …

Gnocchi

Homemade potato gnocchi is heartwarming after a long day but can feel like a faff from scratch, so make a big batch with potatoes you can’t store and flash freeze them …

Potato Casserole

A big potato casserole is another delicious but frugal recipe to have in the freezer and can use up almost 4lb of potatoes you can’t store …

Potato Curries

Great potato curries are super simple and again very cheap to make.

This quick recipe you can easily freeze will use up over 1lb of spuds you can’t store. You can easily triple ingredients to use up more …

Or for a super tasty alternative freeze this Persian potato curry that will use up a good 2lb of potatoes …

And there you go.

Everything you need to know about storing potatoes properly PLUS delicious freezer recipes to use up potatoes that can’t be stored.

For more frugal food storage tips that cut food waste and save money check out these posts :

• How To Store Milk
• How To Store Apples
• 50 Extremely Frugal Food Tips
• Grow Your Own Spinach
• Grow Your Own Collards
• Grow Your Own Raspberries

And follow me on Pinterest …

Original images: Potatoes & Paper Bag by sloely.com and Potatos on a White Background by Marco Verch under Creative Commons 2.0