Storing Potatoes

By David Ashton

Many of our community gardeners grow potatoes, and like any home-grown vegetable, they seem to taste better than the spuds we buy in the supermarket.

But once we have a large crop all ready to be harvested, we need to find a way of storing them so that we can use them progressively over several months.

One option is simply to leave them in the ground for as long as possible, but once I have harvested my potatoes, I’ve got quite a good way of storing them for progressive use.

Micky and I have found that a good storage method is to place them in a small portable plastic-covered greenhouse in our garage. (Our cars ‘sleep’ in the street.) These small greenhouses are available at Bunnings or other hardware retailers.

First we make sure we aren’t storing any potatoes that have started to rot, have gone green or have sprouted. We then stack them separately on the three racks in the greenhouse, and cover the entire greenhouse with an old sheet, making sure that all sunlight is excluded.

In our draughty garage, there is sufficient airflow to prevent any moisture developing, which could cause the potatoes to rot. We have left them there through the hottest part of summer quite satisfactorily.

As long as light is excluded by the old sheet covering the greenhouse, the potatoes can be used progressively over a period as long as three months, and they are still perfectly edible.