Storing Apples & Potatoes

[Jerngen]

What's the best way to store apples and potatoes so that they'll last at least a couple of months? Preferably I would like to find a way to keep them fresh for 3 - 4 months.

I haven't had much success thus far. I'm lucky if I get 4 - 6 weeks.

We're currently renting a home in the city (hoping to buy our homestead next Spring). It does have a basement where the laundry/furnace/water heater and an old 3 piece bathroom is.

Other then obvious rot issues, when do you consider a potato to be going bad? When it starts sprouting? Good until it starts wrinkling?

Thank you

[farmmom]

I can't find my magazine! It was Mother Earth News or some such. Had "How to build a green house from window panes" on the front. It had several suggestions for "pit cellars". It involved digging a deep hole and layering straw and the apples or potatoes and covering them with dirt. They also showed one that was a trashcan buried with the same concept.

[7thswan]

I store my potatoes in produce boxes with newspaper on the top. They last all winter until I plant in the spring. The will be starting to sprout,but are still good to use. Store them in my cool dry pantry ona cement floor.

[geo in mi]

Here's some info from the Idaho folks on the Russett Burbanks: http://www.kimberly.uidaho.edu/potatoes/faq.htm

Here's some on Yukon Golds: http://homecooking.about.com/od/food...ngoldstore.htm

And here are some general tips: http://vric.ucdavis.edu/pdf/POTATOES/potato_storage.pdf

As you can see, there are four main factors in making a potato last as long as it is able to do so in storage:
1) A period of time after harvest at about 60 degrees to allow for wound healing and suberizition(another fancy word for healing and skin hardening around bruised spots)
2) Storage temperature of about 40 to 45 degrees
3) Humidity of 90%
3) Darkness

Whatever you can do to duplicate those conditions will do it. The main factor is coolness--so, the cooler you can make your basement will definitely help. Maybe an old refrigerator would be the ticket, too. And if you are willing to shovel snow(in West Michigan??), a buried trash container--called a clamp---insulated with leaves, straw, sawdust, etc to keep it from freezing inside will also do the job.

You can also freeze mashed potatoes and keep them that way. Reheat in a microwave or give them a slow warmup in a saucepan or in the oven in a casserole dish.

When to toss out a potato? You can sometimes peel shrivelled ones and reconstitute them in a pan of cold water. When they sprout, you can peel them deeper(below the eye material) and sometimes make them usable.

Some potatoes, like Burbank Russett, and Kennebec, will keep in storage longer than others. Each variety has its own built in storage length. As a general rule, the white ones will keep longer than reds or golds, but you should look at a variety listing chart to be sure.

Hope this helps,

geo

[Alice In TX/MO]

You can't store them together, for sure. The apples emit a gas that will affect the potatoes.

[HermitJohn]

Depends on local conditions, how deep ground freezes, how much snow pack, etc. But the best way here to store potatoes is just leave them where they grow and dig as needed. It will keep them in better condition than any other way I know.

As to apples, their storage capabilities depends on the variety. Of modern apples, Goldrush is one of best storage apples. Fuji is supposed to be good too. If you get to looking into antique varieties, there are many with long storage qualities. One called Hunt Russet is supposed to last in root cellar in edible quality over a full year. I dont know about that but there are many that should store until spring. Oh and some of the apples that store well arent very good fresh off tree, but mellow and develop peak flavor during storage.

[motdaugrnds]

WOW geo in mi, you and hermitjohn never cease to amaze me with the information you share. I sure am glad I visited this thread. Thanks for starting it jergen.

Question: Do you store "sweet" potatoes the same as you store Irish ones?

[fishhead]

Originally Posted by Jerngen

It does have a basement where the laundry/furnace/water heater and an old 3 piece bathroom is.

My basement stays around 60 degrees all winter so I was thinking of storing my tators against an outside wall in an insulated box with the side touching the wall uninsulated. My thought was that they would stay cooler than 60 degrees that way.

[ldc]

Fishhead, good plan, just make sure the wall isn't wet with condensation. Ask me how I know! ldc

[frogmammy]

When I was a kid, it was my job to peal the potatoes every night...EVERY night.

We had a large, almost two acre garden and a great deal of it was taken up with potatoes. When harvest came they were put in a bin in a back room of the basement. We always had potatoes until the next year's harvest and that was feeding a family of seven. Toward the end, the potatoes would be smaller and rubbery, but they still cooked up well. Potatoes with sprouts...well, catch and cook when the sprouts were small, being sure to cut down below the sprout. NEVER eat any of the green on a potato.

I know you can freeze up potatoes IF you half-cook them first...my sister used to do this, later on, after she left home and married.

Mon

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

WOW geo in mi, you and hermitjohn never cease to amaze me with the information you share. I sure am glad I visited this thread. Thanks for starting it jergen.

Question: Do you store "sweet" potatoes the same as you store Irish ones?

Thanks for the compliment, but Comcast hi-speed connection should get most of the credit.....

As for sweet potatoes, the answer is no. Here's Purdue's method, so it would apply to the conditions you would mostly find in the cooler areas. http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/HO-136.pdf

The harder part is the "cure"; which heals up the bruises, etc, but also converts the starch to sugars. Finding that place in your home with 85 degrees and 95% humidity is pretty hard in September. However, Purdue suggests that if you keep them at a lesser temp for a longer time, you might get pretty fair results.

The storage is not cool, like Irish potatoes, but at a basic room temperature--like in a dark closet. That's pretty straightforward if you have central heat.

I haven't tried to grow sweet potatoes(SW MI) for years, but this year I decided to try it again. If I get any and they look okay to store(won't know till I dig 'em), they will go to cure on the south facing, closed front porch where it gets pretty warm by day, at least, in small buckets, set down into larger buckets, with wetted paper towels in the bottom, and covered with towels to exclude light, but to let the excess moisture escape.

If that doesn't seem to be working, if the furnace is working by then, they will go in the basement next to the exhaust--keeps the kitty cat warm, so it might work to cure the sweet potatoes, too.

Wish Grandpa was around so I could ask him. He lived in central Indiana. Oh the memories, his sweet potatoes smothered in rabbit gravy.......

geo

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by fishhead

My basement stays around 60 degrees all winter so I was thinking of storing my tators against an outside wall in an insulated box with the side touching the wall uninsulated. My thought was that they would stay cooler than 60 degrees that way.

Usually an outside wall at eight feet below grade should be getting outside earth temperature of 50 degrees, so that should work pretty well. That's why root storage places were underground--back when they were commonplace.

geo

[ronbre]

best for potatoes is a dark cool place, but not cold, I prefer a seldom used closet or basement away from any light..

apples are best in the refrigerator or just above freezing, howevery keep them away from other produce as they will cause them to overipen (apples put off a gas that effects other produce)

[Danaus29]

My favorite way to store apples is in glass jars on the counter, after dehydrating them. Mmmmm, apple chips!

[Jerngen]

Thank you everyone. I was mistaken in that I believed potatoes had to have low humidity to keep? Not sure how that entered my mind.

I need to work on the darkness and the even cooler temperature aspect.

Thank you.

[julieq]

No problem here storing winter apples, but I've totally given up trying to store potatoes in the past few years. I buy in bulk and can them in quarts.