Potatoes storage - OT but maybe not

[aprilsweetheartrose]

I have been buying potatoes from Morrisons and Tesco's over the last three or four years or so. Various ones, usually their own brand, wonky ones and sometimes Albert Bartlett ( which are more expensive but my favourites in may ways). The problem is that none of the store well. They sprout after a week.

I cant recall having had this problem in the past.

Now I am thinking of going back to getting a large 56lb bag from the local farmer who has set up business from his low larder/tractor in his field entrance close to the road where I live. I used to get large bags of potatoes from a farm a few years ago but the old lady who ran the farm passed away and the family stopped selling potatoes by the barn door.

The point.... Now I need somewhere to store a big bag of potatoes. I used to use a pantry in the kitchen but that went in re modelling a couple of years ago when I had a new freezer which I couldnt get in the kitchen and I was no longer using the pantry.

So, I need a store. Could I use one of those KeterBox type plastic storage boxes/ mini shed things that you can buy? Would it do the job? I am thinking of putting it on the small paved area outside my kitchen door ( and bringing in small amounts to store in a cupboard in the kitchen for convenience ( and not having to go out in the rain etc.).

Alternatively can someone suggest an alternative form of dry outside store ( smallish) I could use?

As an aside, what is up with potatoes from supermarkets that they sprout so quickly these days?

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

[e-mail] was thinking very hard :

We often buy them by the 56lb bag, but I just call the local farm shop and they will deliver for £2 per delivery, so I buy spuds and bulk bags of dog dried biscuit. Its not worth getting the car and and making the trip for the £2 delivery I could save.

To keep, potatoes need a cool dark place to store them. I have a pantry which is cool, with no windows and plenty of masonry to keep the temperature down. I doubt a shed or shelter would work well, because of the rapid temperature variations.

[The Natural Philosopher]

freezing potatoes ruins them Fridge os good until winter, then unheated pantry or cellar

[Jethro_uk]

There was a thread about this recently. Clamps were suggested and discussed ... which was an education. Good knowledge in case we need to go back to less complicated times ...

[aprilsweetheartrose]

I dont have a pantry or a cellar. Can you suggest an alternative?

[Nick Odell]

When I lived in the Norfolk borderlands, the potato farmers used to keep back their crops and preserve them in Potato Graves. As a casual observer it looked to me as if they dug a long trench with a mechanical digger, lined it with black plastic, poured the potatoes in and covered it over with soil again. Although the plastic might have been over the top of the potatoes before the soil - I'm not sure. They looked like Iron-Age Long Barrows when they were finished but by doing this they were able to deliver potatoes in good condition all through the winter season.

Nick

[Brian Reay]

I tried it once, about 30 years back. It was about 50% successful, ie about half of the potatoes were usable. I think I probably didn't cover them enough.

Around the same time, I tried growing some in a container to harvest during the winter. The ones for Xmas were fine, in fact excellent. The later ones were more variable. We were discussing trying it again just recently- we've been more active in the greenhouse in recent years than the open veg plot but have some crops on the go at the moment.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well you dont have heating either do you?

cover em with a load of builders sand outside...

Just to stop them freezing and keep them dark

[Jethro_uk]

aka "clamps" :)

Can be used for any root veg.

[Andrew]

bulk purchase of cadburys smash ?.

[Bob Eager]

We keep ours in a kitchen cupboard, in a black bin bag.

[Jethro_uk]

As with most things we are currently forgetting at a rate of knots, there's a lot more to it than just reading the wiki :) It's real man-and- boy stuff

In general, farming is f****ng hard work. My Dad grew up in a more rural part of Sicily, and decided very early on it was easier to repair and then hire out agricultural vehicles than till land that you didn't even own.

Nothing I have seen in my life so far has suggested he was wrong. Farming is f****ng hard work (even with the modern age) and the Brexit Bollocks brigade who blithely assume we can all go back to agrarian self sufficiency are really talking out of their arses. When they say "we could produce our own food" it's clear they do so with the express intention that it's *other people* that produce the food, etc.

Still, as I said upthread, it's a good skill to at least be aware of, if not practised to perfection.

[Brian Reay]

Do you have a garage with a concrete floor? You could try storing them in a paper sack and putting them there. Our garage seems to stay cool even in the summer, despite housing the CH boiler and couple of freezers and being integral to the house.

[Chris Green]

That's what I'd call them too.

[Brian Reay]

Around that time I attended some courses locally and learned a number of things- killing a chicken and preparing for the table, basics of pig keeping (even castrated a few), ....

Farming today is nothing like it was even 50 years ago. It is an industry now. You couldn't make a living on a small bit of land unless you had a niche market- even then you'd be vulnerable. We (as a country) could grow much more, that is certain, the land is there. I'm no tree hugger but importing food we could grow here makes little sense. We've got used to having things out of season. That is less common in in, say, France, even their supermarkets tend to follow the seasons when it comes to veg etc. For example- you can get asparagus all year round in the UK but only when it is in season in France (unless you can stand the tinned stuff). Ditto fresh peas- in pods that is- in season a delight in France.

[Jethro_uk]

It's been an "industry" since the industrial revolution ... seed drills, mechanical harvesting and ploughing etc.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well there was a lot of hand work still up till WWII And there still is, even if its repairing the machines

We temd to thibk of agriculture as grwoing screals or potatoes, but other food needs a lot of hand work - animal husbandry, market gardening fruit and the like is far more labour intensive

[Brian Reay]

We can debate terminology but it is rather pointless- those are examples of mechanisation on a small scale (in terms of individual tasks). I was thinking more of small farms being subsumed, huge areas given over to single crops, massive herds, ...

Even now, when people think their eggs come from happy chickens, they'd get a shock if they visited an egg production plant - and I mean one considered to be best in terms of care etc. No, I'm not a veggie etc. I happily eat eggs, meat (in moderation- more from choice than morals etc), most things in fact.

[ARW]

Store them in your cauldron?

[misterroy]

coolbox? See if there is one that wont let rain in.