I find myself with about 40 kg (90lbs) of sweet potatoes, these are the white-fleshed ipomoea sort. Last year I tried to keep them in a cool dry place in the shed through winter but they didn't last. The shed would have been 0-15C (32-60F) mostly. I will give away a fair amount while they are fresh but still want to keep some. What is the best way to keep them? How do they go if frozen? Any special tips on freezing?
David
Probably was too cool and too dry, but I'm no expert.
Like winter squash, best cooked and mashed/pureed for freezing.
Can then be used to make pies, breads, soups, or served straight up with a bit of butter, nutmeg and cinnamon and maybe a bit of red or black pepper.
special tips on freezing?
The same way you would potato, pumpkin, etc; par boil sort of. Pot of water at bubbling boil, drop in for a few seconds, take out, drain, dry and freeze.
In truth, we just tend to cut to the chunks we want to used them (roasting mainly) and just freeze them, but we do not keep them for max freezer time.
We used to have them down in the basement near the oil burner. None were allowed to touch and a small fan was on for additional air circulation. Never had over two bushel so the scale was small.
This site near the end has some info you may incorporate in your preservation efforts.
I don't know about "the best" but I know what works in the hot humid southeastern US. IME in U.S.A. supermarket sweet potatoes should be considered "fresh-dug". Do you know whether yours were properly cured after digging and are ready for storage? Assuming that they were, they then should be "root cellared", in darkenss, at temperatures of
45°-85°(F), in well ventilated containers packed so as not to touch each other in a light absorbent medium such as shredded wood "excelsior", straw, pine straw, shredded paper, etc. Properly cured and stored sweet potatoes shrink somewhat, get more leathery-skinned and considerably sweeter with age.Temperatures below 40-45°(F) reduce quality and shorten storage life. Dunno about freezing. My father was born in 1910 into the agricultural South of the US and spoke often of his family's method of storing sweet potatoes in pits, interleaved with native pine straw. Dad claimed that the swine got the best sweet potatoes, those being the remainders when the pit was reclaimed for re-use.
thanks good gear.
D
They were not as I grew and dug them and I don't have the right conditions to cure them. Apparently they want 85F and high humidity. I've got 40-70F and variable humidity.
Assuming that they
We don't have a root cellar or anything like one. I will probably put them in the house which is closer to the correct keeping temperature than outside.
David
I used to store Tahitian Squash under my bed for about 6 months. Aug to Jan. A wonderful squash sort of like a very big sweet carrot . 10 to
15 lbs with some 25. Heavy feeder and a sun lover.
Still, you may as well have a go at extending their storage life. Nothing to lose, and all....
Sorry; didn't mean that literally! Any dry indoor relatively undisturbed place will do such as pantry, closet, storage room, etc.
My grandparents used to keep the sweet potatoes in the guest bedroom, which as long as it was not being used, had the heat vents closed and stayed cool.
Squash are not widely available or particularly well known down here. Even with the influx of "northerners", the markets continue to stock only the common commercial varieties of hard-skinned "winter" squashes. There are exceptions -- most notably among pumpkins, watermelons, and cantaloupe -- but most of the long season curcurbits don't deal well with W/Central FL's hinky "spring" and the sudden onset of summer heat and humidity. Like many other gardeners in the deeper-than-Deep South I'm happy to get cucumbers and "summer" squash from, say the end of April-to-mid-May (depending on planting date) until something takes them out.
That is where they will end up. It amuses some of our guests to see our lounge room which has a long teak wall unit filled with books, treasures and knick-knacks. At certain seasons the top is festooned with pumpkins.
David
We eat what we can and what we can't we can. :)
basilisk
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