Curing Sweet Potatoes, how to

[lilmissy]

i am located in PA. We are getting night time temps in the upper 30s. Going to dig them up. Every where I read says to cure 80-90 degrees with high humidty for 10 days. How do you cure yours when there is no place with high humidity?

 

[Bacpacker]

Try to cover them with something you could lay damp sheets/burlap sacks/something to hold some moisture around but not touching the taters. That's about the only way to create humiditiy. Jut can't let whatever touch the taters.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@lilmissy don't harvest the sweet potatoes until the green foliage on top of the soil starts dying off and then do it.

The secret is when you harvest them to keep the dirt on them and trim off the side shoots leaving a bit attached which keeps them for ages. We just place them on newspaper so they are separated with the dirt on on our veranda with shade cloth to keep the sun off them. Bear in mind you would be wise to use the smallest ones first or blanch and freeze them, but the bigger ones will last a lot longer just kept like this.

The curing time just makes them sweeter.

 

[joel]

You can leave them in the ground & dig them as you use them.
A farmer dug all his potatoes & missed the small ones, got another crop off them the next year.
The third year he gave me about 50 slips/plants from small potatoes from the 2nd crop that was free.
So they over winter small potatoes for 2 winters.

 

[lilmissy]

Thanks everyone. I read you cant leave them in the ground and they must be pulled before the frost. Cant always believe what you read. Its been in the low 40s at night and chance of frost tonight. I have them laying on the floor in my dining room on a brown paper bag. I am sure we missed some in the ground so hopefully they come up next year.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@lilmissy I always plant the really small ones back roots and all in the ground next to the drip irrigation holes and they grow back the following year. I am on my 3rd year now of having a crop from 4 sweet potatoes I cut in half and planted that I brought from the farmers market nearby. We get enough for us and this year sent around 30 - 40 kg to church we had so many of them.

 

[lilmissy]

@lilmissy don't harvest the sweet potatoes until the green foliage on top of the soil starts dying off and then do it.

The secret is when you harvest them to keep the dirt on them and trim off the side shoots leaving a bit attached which keeps them for ages. We just place them on newspaper so they are separated with the dirt on on our veranda with shade cloth to keep the sun off them. Bear in mind you would be wise to use the smallest ones first or blanch and freeze them, but the bigger ones will last a lot longer just kept like this.

The curing time just makes them sweeter.

When freezing them, do you mash or cube? Do they taste the same?

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@lilmissy we slice them in chunks but you can mash them too.

Here is the instructions we use to blanch and freeze them and if you follow this you can't go wrong -

- http://pickyourown.org/freezing_sweetpotato.htm .

This should help.

 

[lilmissy]

@lilmissy we slice them in chunks but you can mash them too.

Here is the instructions we use to blanch and freeze them and if you follow this you can't go wrong -

- http://pickyourown.org/freezing_sweetpotato.htm .

This should help.

Thanks! Once frozen and reheated, do they taste like fresh potatoes or frozen ones?

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@lilmissy they taste the same as fresh to us anyway.