[AT] digging potatoes

Larry Goss rlgoss at insightbb.com
Mon Jul 1 06:59:09 PDT 2013


They take dark storage for potatos very seriously in Idaho.  They don't even expose them to light in retail stores and super markets, but rather put them on wire racks that are completely covered with black builder's plastic.  If you don't know to look for that kind of display, you could search the produce aisles all day and swear that no one had any potatos for sale.

Larry  
----- Original Message -----
From: David Bruce <davidbruce at yadtel.net>
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 05:23:45 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [AT] digging potatoes

My paternal grandfather has a darkened room in the tobacco packhouse 
that was the storage spot.  The use of straw was to insulate the 
potatoes from winter freezes.  Often as we were preparing to store the 
current year's potatoes there would still be some store potatoes 
remaining from the previous season.  Even after that length of storage 
they were in decent shape.

My maternal grandfather grew sweet potatoes and had a potato hill 
-basically a hole dug into the side of a red clay bank, lines with 
straw, cured sweet potatoes added and covered with straw.  Over the top 
of this was a very crude tin roof.  As in the earlier example the sweet 
potatoes stored all winter with no issues.  I'm not sure how much 
acreage of sweet potatoes he grew but there were 14 kids in my mom's 
family so I know pretty substantial quantities were grown and stored.

It seems Charlie was exposed to similar methods of storage for spuds.

I can remember walking from home (about 100 yards away) to the packhouse 
and getting a poke full of potatoes for my mom.  In my case digging into 
the straw covered mound for the spuds then carefully replacing the straw 
to protect the remaining spuds.  As Charlie says keep them cool, dry and 
dark.  Maybe there was method to my grandpa's madness in planting late 
and harvesting in August.  We were pretty much assured of having soil 
dry enough to harvest the spuds and by the time the spuds were properly 
cured in those baskets it was in September and getting cool enough that 
they stored very well using the darkened room and the straw.

It seems a key to these storage methods is proper curing of the potatoes 
before storage.  I store 3 or 4 bushels of sweet potatoes every fall.  I 
either grow them or most often buy at a farmers market or roadside 
stand.  They must have never been stored under refrigeration - those 
ALWAYS rot.

David
NW NC



On 6/30/2013 8:44 PM, charlie hill wrote:
> John,  when I was a kid my grandfather would bury his potatoes, sometimes
> under a hay stack
> but sometimes just in a bank of dirt.  He'd dig a hole, layer the bottom
> with hay or straw, lay on a
> layer of potatoes then another layer of hay, then potatoes and hay for 2 or
> 3 layers at least.
> Then, with hay on top, he'd cover the whole mound under 6 or 8 inches or so
> of dirt.
> When he needed potatoes he'd just "scratch them out".
>
> The main thing is to keep them cool and dry and dark.
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: jtchall at nc.rr.com
> Sent: Sunday, June 30, 2013 8:29 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] digging potatoes
>
> David and Charlie, the straw is a new idea to me. If it ever quits or at
> least slows up raining, we'll try to get them up.
> John
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Bruce
> Sent: Sunday, June 30, 2013 3:03 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] digging potatoes
>
> My experience related to a 1/4 acre of spuds - if a much larger spot
> this might not be possible but I raise the idea in the hopes of
> generating ideas.
>
> I can say that once the spuds are cured the skins are a lot tougher.  In
> those times we would place the cured spuds in a room in the tobacco
> packhouse that was lined with straw, potatoes poured on the straw then
> covered with more straw.  Later old quilts were used to cover the pile
> and all light was blocked.  For us (in NW NC) the program worked and I
> remember tossing potatoes from the last season in prep for the new spuds
> that were way better than what you see every day in the supermarket.
> Maybe not viable on a larger scale but maybe something to spur thoughts.
>
> David
> NW NC
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
> _______________________________________________
> AT mailing list
> http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>
_______________________________________________
AT mailing list
http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at




More information about the AT mailing list