Preserving Potatoes??

[Alaskajohn]

I have a good problem. I have way too many potatoes from this past year and I know that we will not eat them all before they start to go bad. The Yukon’s are doing well and will keep until about May in my cellar. The purples and the reds will keep will until Feb/March. With the pandemic we didn’t get a chance to barter/trade with our excess produce like we normally do. We keep them in the cellar where it is dark, dry and about 52 degrees year round. We have plenty set aside for this coming year’s seed potatoes. The purples go bad the fastest and these are the ones we will loose the most of. We only have few remaining reds and they will be gone. Our Yukon Golds were big producers this year and we stand on loosing a bunch if we don’t figure something out.

We will be giving some spuds away to solve our excess, but I am curious to learn if there is a good way to process and preserve spuds so that they can keep and be stored for more than 6-9 months? Getting them to store for 12 to 24 mo would be ideal and allow us to withstand a lean year by storing our excess. I frankly haven’t seen much conversation about processing potatoes to significantly increase the ability to store them.

Any great ideas on ways to process or store them for a bit longer term storage?

 

[user 55]

My first thought would be canning if you have the option.

 

[Alaskajohn]

My first thought would be canning if you have the option.

I was hoping for thoughts along this line! Have you ever canned potatoes, how did they turn out, and how long would they last?

 

[Sourdough]

Could you wash them in the "something'cide" (not sure what it is). That the potato industry uses to retard sprouting during long'ist term commercial storage. Keeping some for spring planting, and treat (maybe 70% of) others for longer storage life..??

 

[Alaskajohn]

Could you wash them in the "something'cide" (not sure what it is). That the potato industry uses to retard sprouting during long'ist term commercial storage. Keeping some for spring planting, and treat (maybe 70% of) others for longer storage life..??

I will have to Google this “Something cycle.” This sounds interesting.

During the 2018 earthquake we lost all but a couple of our canning jars and the trauma has made the wife a bit reluctant to get back into it. We lost about 40 jars of moose and salmon in the quake. Preserving the spuds by canning is an option, but I rarely hear folks talking about it which has me curious to how well this works and the taste. From what I have read is that canned potatoes last up to a year, so just a few months longer than storing in a cellar for the Yukon’s. I am hoping for something that will extend the life for two years to get me through a lean growing year.

 

[phideaux]

2 years or more I'm not sure...
But we always dusted ours heavily with lime.

Kept good , minimal sprouts for a full year.

Jim

 

[Amish Heart]

I'm a fan of dehydrating potato slices. I keep alot of them, and I mean alot. People in our community use them if they are out of fresh, and dehydrated potatoes are even sold in bulk at the Amish/Menno bulk store near me. There's a ton of Youtubes out there that'll show you how to parboil them and dehydrate them. You can also dehydrate shredded potatoes like hash browns. These products are commonly sold....even Sams club sells dehydrated hash browns. The slices are typically sold in boxes for scalloped potatoes with some cheese powder, for a buck at the Dollar Tree. You can dehydrate and pulverize for instant mashed potatoes, too.
I keep russet potatoes, sweet potatoes, acorn squash, spaghetti and butternut squash in storage, and I knock the eyes off the potatoes once they start. Usually fine for 3 months in my basement. Canned potatoes are not my favorite, but they are ok, especially canned with french onion seasoning and sliced greenbeans. They need to be pressure canned.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Thanks Amish. Let me look into dehydration. Hopefully I wont need fancy equipment, but if this can get me a few years of life from my spuds, this maybe the ticket.

 

[Neb]

(Tongue in cheek)

Make vodka and they last forever.

Ben

 

[SouthCentralUS]

I like canned potatoes in stews. I also drain and dry them well and fry them. If you can them in strips like french fries you can drain them and put them in the air fryer for fairly good french fries.

We have many buckets of dehydrated slices, cubes and hash browns. My husband raises a lot of potatoes. Some of them are years old and still good. Will probably last forever.

 

[Caribou]

If the seal is good on the jar the product is good inside. I've eaten 20 year old canned salmon that I put up myself.

I put my canned salmon, and other products, back in the original boxes with dividers and put it on the floor under the shelving. Other stuff that wouldn't fit went on the shelves with a railing. I lost no jars in the quakes and very little of even the light stuff that was less protected. It cost me $3,000 to repair the driveway.

 

[Alaskajohn]

(Tongue in cheek)

Make vodka and they last forever.

Ben

That might be good post SHTF business opportunity! You gave me something to noodle over.

 

[LadyLocust]

I would have said dehydrate them - keep forever that way.

 

[UrbanHunter]

If you have other stuff (onions, carrots, and meat) you could can stew using the potatoes, the meat and stuff. We do that using chicken, turkey, and venison. They will keep up to two years, but eventually you will have to eat it. The wife has also canned potato leak soup, but that takes a little playing with to get the flavor right.

 

[SheepDog]

Potatoes will usually store very well in the ground. I've had a couple that I missed when doing that and new plants came up the next year.

 

[Neb]

Potatoes will usually store very well in the ground. I've had a couple that I missed when doing that and new plants came up the next year.

I have been doing that for years.

Ben

 

[Caribou]

Potatoes will usually store very well in the ground. I've had a couple that I missed when doing that and new plants came up the next year.

How cold does it get in your neighbourhood and how deep does the frostline go? Some people place straw over the plants to help insulate the ground if it is marginal.

 

[Neb]

How cold does it get in your neighbourhood and how deep does the frostline go? Some people place straw over the plants to help insulate the ground if it is marginal.

While our frost line is 15" it seldom gets cold long enough to freeze the spuds. I do let weeds grow in the potato boxes that does help cover the boxes. The top 3-5" of spuds do freeze and turn to mush but below that the spuds keep until spring when I harvest what is good and replant.

Prepper bonus

The spuds are hidden in plain sight.

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

We dehydrate ours if we have many. Canning would be my next choice.
Never heard of liming them. I've give that a shot.

 

[Meerkat]

My first thought would be canning if you have the option.

I can't figure out how to get rid of the taste of canned pottoes. only way I can get id of even some of it is to use in potato salad full of pickle, celery seeds, and what ever viggy we have.
Anyone know why they taste so different?

 

[SheepDog]

What do you add when you can them?

 

[SouthCentralUS]

I only add salt because I have versatility in use with no other seasoning.

 

[Amish Heart]

They do taste not so good when canned. Maybe if they were parboiled and rinsed first before canning. They have to be parboiled before dehydrating to release the starch or they turn brown.

 

[Meerkat]

What do you add when you can them?

Canning or kosha salt only. Something about potatoes change taste when canned.I also don't like grocer store canned potatoes,but home canning is even worse.

I may dehydrate them instead.

 

[SheepDog]

If you want them to taste fresh just leave them in the ground a foot or so.

 

[Alaskajohn]

Canning or kosha salt only. Something about potatoes change taste when canned.I also don't like grocer store canned potatoes,but home canning is even worse.

I may dehydrate them instead.

great video. I just need to get a dehydrator.

 

[Caribou]

I expect that AJ has to deal with ground that could freeze down two feet some years which would eliminate not only all the potatoes but the spuds as well.

 

[Alaskajohn]

I expect that AJ has to deal with ground that could freeze down two feet some years which would eliminate not only all the potatoes but the spuds as well.

You are correct!

I just need to figure out which dehydrator to buy. Amazon has them from about $30 all the way up to $1,000 with the majority above $100. I don’t want to overspend, but I am clueless on what the critical features are. So I have some research to do. If this turns out well, then my ability to stash away good food will increase exponentially as I can dehydrate more than spuds.

 

[Amish Heart]

If you are going to use it regularly, I would recommend the Excalibur. I also have a heavy duty round type one I bought from Sportsman, so I use two. I have burnt through many a cheap model over the years, but only blew one Excaliber. And order the extra plastic sheets for whatever you get. I have the budget model, which has great temp control, but no automatic shut off timer. I didn't really need that.

 

[Alaskajohn]

If you are going to use it regularly, I would recommend the Excalibur. I also have a heavy duty round type one I bought from Sportsman, so I use two. I have burnt through many a cheap model over the years, but only blew one Excaliber. And order the extra plastic sheets for whatever you get. I have the budget model, which has great temp control, but no automatic shut off timer. I didn't really need that.

Would this one be adequate? There are some in the low 200 dollar range, but I think my use will be modest. Space is an issue at our cabin so I don’t have a lot of storage space for equipment.

Dehydrator