Keeping Potatoes Without Canning Them

 

Ok, here it goes, I HATE canning. There I said it and now I feel better. If there is another way to store foods for a long shelf life, trust me, I'll find it and at least try it out once ;- ) Having  300lbs. of taters to store this year (excellent crop- thanks to AnnBelle) Hubby and I decided to find out how we could successfully store potatoes here in hot and humid southeastern NC with no root cellar. This is what we came up with.

 

I asked several older people I knew from church how they used to store their potatoes. They said they stored them under the house. (Simple and to the point.) I asked myself how that could work through the HOT and HUMID summer months around here. Again, you just put them in a crate under the house. Simple. Oh, do I like *simple.*

 

Now potatoes around here are usually ready to harvest by July 1st. That pretty much goes for the corn too. After that the heat just sets to killing everything off. So again I asked myself, "Is putting them under the house really going to keep them well preserved, at least until January?" It's now December first and we are still able to eat the taters we grew. Happy Dance! Thank you LORD!

 

(The first picture is the side of our mobile home. It's where the potatoes are stored.)

 

 

This is a picture of the taters in the crate Hubby made to place the taters in. We knew that after losing a few in the first several weeks that we needed to find a way to keep the air moving in there. So he hooked up a small personal fan that we kept on during the hottest part of the day to keep the air circulating. It worked!

 

 

Here are some of the potatoes, now starting tho sprout. We still use them by picking off the *eyes* and washing well. I do have to cut the potatoes in half to check for black rot in the middle. We haven't had too many with that problem this year, which is a HUGE blessin'.

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we are about out of potatoes. I figure I have at least a months worth left if I stretch accordingly. Before you know it though, it will be time to start thinking about next years potato patch ;- )

 

So to sum it up, the potatoes were dug the last week of June and laid out to *rest.* They were then put under the house. We had about 300lbs. but lost about 150lb. to rot and what not. There was a lot more we could have done to *save* more of the taters but that's what ya call learning and we will apply that to next year's tater crop.

 

The best part- I didn't have to can a single one ;- )

 

Have a blessed week in THE LORD!

 

Happy Homesteading!

 

Amanda

Matthew 6:33