I know what many of you have been thinking. Ranger Man has just returned to turn this site into a survival/preparedness/awesome kick-ass blog in order to make HUGE bucks through online advertising and direct market sales. Yes, well …. no. I’ve done a variety of blogs over a number of years. The blogging time/effort/frustration-to-pay ratio is p-a-t-h-e-t-i-c.
No, not me, not that I wouldn’t mind it if you USEd that Amazon search bar for your STHF stock piling. Unlike the lucky Mr. James let-me-post-everyone-else’s-writing-and-make-tons-of-money-doing-it Wesley Rawles, I actually have to generate my own junk for this blog.
No, I’m here for another reason (besides the fact I love you), and that is – to pick your brain!
This year’s backyard garden is a story that I’ll have to get to over the coming weeks/months, but I’m now in a situation where I need to store a fair sum of potatoes. This is where you come in. I’ve spoken about the potato’s SHTF food attributes before, so it should come as no surprise that I planted some. Plus, I live in Maine – it’s what we grow. I just dug these out of the ground yesterday:
A few years ago when I wrote about my last backyard potato action experience, I went on to try storing the taters in wooden apple crates, covered over in the basement. And they rotted out. Fast. Stunk like hell.
I’ve done web searches on spud storage and everyone has a different solution. I know we’re going to cut some up and freeze them as fries. We also want to make shredded homefries for the freezer, too. Mmmmm, those will be damn fine on the cast iron skillet next to a couple sizzling eggs and bacon ….
I digress! Anyone have suggestions on how I should store the other spuds? I want them in the basement. It’s a walkout basement, so it has limited “root cellar” qualities. I’ve read about people putting them in coolers. I’ve also read the University of Nebraska’s brief, but seemingly sound advice. I just harvested a few taters and found their skin is still thin. According to the Nebraska advice, I need to leave ‘em in the ground longer. I’ll bet they taste okay on the skillet now, though.
I’ll probably split the potatoes up into a few piles and try a few different storage techniques for my particular location and basement. Thoughts, comments, suggestions or potato storage stories?
- Ranger Man
BTW: On a somewhat similar subject, for the ladies ….. and dudes of …. other persuasion …. errrrr …. anyway ….
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{ 6 comments }
a proper cold cellar will do it. i don’t think you cellar is tight or cool enough. it should be cold on the hottest days and smell of mildew.
…..I hang them in my root cellar, (48 degrees), in net bagging; we’re still eating last years’ and I’ll be digging this years’ in a couple weeks… you have to wash the dirt off to stop the rot and check for a bad one periodically…
Great to see you blogging again
http://1812garden.hamiltoncollegeblogs.com/index.cfm/2008/11/19/Potato-Storage-in-Winter
Ooooh – good info there.
If you dont have a root celler, use an out buillding or a crawl space. needs to be relatively dry. dig a hole a couple of feet deep, put some loose dirt back in the hole along with some lime and straw. The cool dry climate and the straw and lime will make them last. I have heard tell of this method keeping taters good all winter long and into the spring when things start to warm(which is usually the end of the stored taters). If you have the space and a good spot, just go ahead and dig a root celler, it is worth the trouble to be able to store more stuff.
Not that I know anything about what Im about to say. I truely do not but hope maybe someone with better knowledge of spuds and canning can help.
Im thinking clean them, peel them, cut them upi and can them. If you can. If you can figure out how. Again, I know nothing of this, have never canned a potatoe or had one in the can. :-)