How We Store a Years Worth of Potatoes | Homestead Vlog | September 26, 2023 

Hey friends! We are so glad you are here! Be sure to drop us a comment and share if this can help anyone you know! Potatoes are something that can be grown and stored easily without a lot of extra effort. We feel like it is the ultimate survival food to have on hand, here’s how we store ours! Check out our potato harvest ⬇️ ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WWs9WH8lJ5Q.html Join our Facebook group and share your gardens!: facebook.com/groups/639624823908914 Instagram: instagram.com/tg_southerncookingandcanning/ TikTok @tg_appalachianways Contact us: Hello@thelawsonfarm.com Write us: P.O. Box 138 Lawsonville, NC 27022

Great harvest! I take and cook some of my potato’s and make mashed potatoes completely and then put them into silicone muffin pans and freeze them, then pop them out and put them in the freezer bags and then I can take out as many as I want to make dinner pretty quick and it’s all I do is add a little more milk and butter as I warm them up.

The knowledge you two have is amazing. I will learn alot. Thanks from Rockingham County NC

It makes me so excited for yall to see the bounty of potatoes! Isnt that such a good feeling to have food saved for winter?! 😊

My grandaddy used to store his potatoes and sweet potatoes in dirt and straw the way you were talking about. I wish I could remember exactly how he did it, but I remember going out there when I was a little girl and digging in there for potatoes or sweet potatoes.

That’s a good crop guys! We never get tired of potatoes. So many ways to fix them!

We never kept green potatoes.

I really enjoy your channel and how efficiently you are using your farm. When I was young I recall my dad (holing away) potatoes. He hollowed out a place in the garden, layered straw, then potatoes, more straw, then mounded it with dirt. I believe he used some type of cover to shed water away. I remember how sweet the potatoes became through the winter. Sue, Northeast KY.

Megan, I am so impressed with you guys. Not just the farm but, the way you are with your kids. I think it's wonderful. Your values on life. Thank you for showing us how to do so much more than we do. I'm 70 and I learn something new almost every day ❤❤

When I was a kid my dad buried an old refrigerator with the door at ground level under our house and with a layer of straw in the bottom that’s where our potatoes was stored in that old insulated refrigerator buried

Your channel takes me back to my younger years.

The way you described the old timer kept the potatoes is called keeping them in a clamp. That’s the old fashioned way they kept potatoes back in England.

Great info on storing potatoes! I like what Andy mentioned about keeping a record of things like the goldenrod blooming and the weather cooling down. I would like to keep a notebook and note the weather and such each day. I'd love to have had something like that from my grandparents! God bless.

My Dad always kept our potatoes in those huge totes that you see in orchards, in our cellar. We'd put a layer of straw, then one of potatoes and so on until it was full then top with a thick layer of straw. All of us kids had to sort them every 2 weeks, just move them in reverse to an empty bin, removing the bad ones. Our potatoes lasted until after we planted the next year. He did the same with apples and squash

Yall should set you up a space in that barn and build you some wooden drying shelves with some 1//4 inch hardware cloth. That will give them plenty of airflow. I hate seeing hard earned produce going bad. Maybe that could be an over the winter project for next years garden.

I am new to growing my own potatoes, last year was my first & I grew sweet potatoes. This year I added baking potatoes. I learned a lot & will do better next year. I am keeping my small potatoes 🥔 I grew & hoping to get them sprouting for next spring. This is what it’s all about, Every year is different and worthy of trying to learn and grow from it. You said nothing about the rotten potato smell.. 😂😂 yuck 🤮 Dude it’s fall in KY, but hotter than a Jalapeño in MS 😂😂❤❤ dang it girl I got rid of my “tater” box 20 years ago, next thrift item I am looking for 😂😂 whoop 🙌 yard sales tomorrow morning

That's a lot of taters! Congratulations! You guys are one of my favorite channels! You inspire me to do even more in my own garden! Terrie North Carolina

Thanks for sharing with us. Great information about the potatoes. Stay safe and keep up the great videos. Fred.

Nice harvest!!! We keep potatoes in our basement. We live in Wisconsin, so that's the only option with our winter. Ours made it to about March then we replanted them too! We eat a ton, too!

Nice potato harvest guys! Just wanted to comment about the storing potatoes in the ground. My grandparents always stored potatoes this way. After the potatoes cured they lined a dug out spot with dry leaves or straw then add the potatoes then cover with straw or dry leaves then dirt. Obviously you don't want to do that in a n area that's wide open to elements but you could erect a semi shelter. Seems like you've got a pretty good idea with what you're doing, though.

Wow!! Great harvest Praying that they keep well Thanks for sharing. Always look forward to your videos 🥰

ANDY WHAT ABOUT SHELVES IN THE STALLS WHERE YOU CAN LAY THEM OUT AN COVER WITH STRAW OR BURLAP ON EA LARGE SHELF SEEMS KEEP.THEM FLAT NOT BUNCHED UP AN PROTECTED LIKE BURLAP THEYD KEEP .FOREVER

I left my potatoes in the ground all winter long all I did was cover them with old Maple Leafs because we have a whole pile of maple trees down here other people use straw but I just use maple leaves and when I needed more potatoes I'd quote and take the maple leaves off dig up a potatoes and for my dinner cold and scarred around here lately is minus 10 and I think I only had two potatoes go rotten last year and I planted purple potatoes the first year this is going on the 4th year now that I have not had to plant purple potatoes they keep coming up by themselves but I hear you're not supposed to plant potatoes in the same spot every year i've been doing it for 3 going on 4 years now in the same spot should I move my potato spot Where I planted my potatoes all it is is gravel got hardly any dirt in it at all my backyard was all filled in with pit run gravel 13 feet of it

I HAVE A TATER BOX JUST LIKE YOURS, WITH CAPITAL LETTERS, PROBABLY BECAUSE I DON'T SEE REAL WELL... ; BUT HUBBY BUILT IT FOR ME, AND AN ONION BOX, HE CARVED OUT AN ONION ON THAT ONE... HUGS TO THE YOUNG-UNS TOO!!!

Have you thought about using coke and Pepsi crates. They stack on each other. That way you wouldn't have alot of weight on them. Love yall guys

Every one has different climate, so some can keep the green ones and some cant

Have you tried replanting the green potatoes in the fall? It seems that we miss a few potatoes every year when picking and they grow quite well. Now where they green, I am not sure. We live in zone 6a.

Throw a few handfuls of pulverized garden lime over your stored potatoes...it keeps them from rotting and shriveling up. Our family has always stored them that way. Regular potatoes and sweet potatoes. Maybe every few years we will get a single bad potato that didn't store all winter. And when it does happen the bad potato didn't have any lime on it. 43 years of gardening here in VA :-) thanks for a great video

We keep our potatoes in the pit in our pack house..y'all cleaned out that building with a pot and that be the perfect place to store them..temp stays regulated...we build a platform up off the floor bout 12 " ..kinda like a whole nother floor for air flow! Have awesome luck with that method.. we also throw a small layer of lime over our taters... I'm here in the boonies of southern VA so climate about the same !! Enjoy y'all's channel..nice to see plain ole folks living like me and my family !!!

Maybe they have different temps and humidity. Can make a difference.

You guys are so cool and smart and down to Earth. This is my new favorite thing to watch. My family had a dairy farm in WY and I loved going there to visit! Your kids are going to be raised right!

Great harvest! We store ours in bushel baskets in the basement covered with sheets as well. And they do sprout by spring. But we try to keep the sprouts pulled off so they dont pull all the moisture out of the potatoes. They are calling for a super cold winter here in northern NC so any extra insulative layers will be good. BTW those old tobacco sheets smell good and keep insects away!

Great video! Thanks

G'day beautiful family.. lots of love from Australia.. Fresh potatoes are so good.. l loved them regardless of how they are cooked

I love watching ya,lls videos,,, they are very interesting,,and ya,ll are honest about what you know, thank you so much,,, keep them coming..

My mom and dad use to store our potatoes under the house on a thick layer of pine straw and covered them with another thick layer of pine straw. They did the same with Irish potatoes and sweet potatoes. What potatoes do you grow for storage? It gets so hot here so quick in spring that potato vines suffer about the end of May they are dying. We called the first good cold snap hog butchering weather, we did our own butchering and curing. I'm old and worn out now but I still remember how to do all that. My son still does all his own butchering for most things, especially deer and chickens.

Be careful in enclosed spaces, look up the story how the fumes killed a whole family when they were kept in the basement.

My Daddy use to did a hole the size he needed fill the bottom with pines straw then cover them with pine straw then cover with old tin that was mostly sweet potatoes I was very young then but I remember eating baked potatoes in the winter we never growed many regular potatoes and they got eat pretty quick enjoyed the video I have been going back and watching yalls older videos we done some of the same things yall do but all we had was one mule as sharecroppers it took most of the time trying to grow as much cotton and corn as he could so gardens were small

What about rodents getting to your potatoes? I know not to eat green potatoes but didn't know they don't last as seed potatoes.

I need to create a colder place to store my taters. Basement is 60deg or colder but they really should be down to 38-40F and somewhat high humidity. If your taters sprout and the ground is not frozen, you can lay them out on the ground and cover with 6" of straw and they will grow and produce without actually planting them in the ground. Ruth Stout Method.

Thanks for the tips. Will try Kennebec in spring for storage and red for eating. 😊

I remember my dad (I'm 78) putting a thick layer of hay/straw under the burlap, and on top, to insulate the potatoes.

I don’t like to eat the ones with green!

I grow potatoes in raised beds and containers due to limited mobility. Stogie has been my biggest problem because I don’t have a root cellar and I can’t store them outside since it freezes here in Northern Illinois.

Can I buy a 5lb. bag of potatoes frpm the store and cut off the sprouted pieces and plant them? Itried but no luck with them . Thanks.

How do you keep critters out of your potatoes? Mice, snakes, raccoons?

Thank you for showing us how to do these things. I pray one day I'll get to use this information ❤

I don’t have room to plant potatoes 🥔 but I’m thinking of adding 3 more beds before spring so maybe next year that will give me a total of 12 beds all 12 foot by 4 foot wide

I think I commented on that video or the next about golden rod. I find that the first bloom is the cold coming in and the second is for the first real frost. Great looking taters btw. We can’t wait to plant ours next year. We are trying those long rows like y’all have. Justro has competition on the biggest tatertarians 😂

yum i can eat potatoes everyday good job fam~!!

Can you build a cellar in a hillside. I stored potatoes a year in an earth covered cellar in E. MT. .

I can my potatoes. Don’t blanch them. Don’t worry about them going bad

I don’t call it predicted because God planned out everything for our ability to know when to plant. Or rest

Yall are a blessing to me and my wife of 42 years keep up the good work

Can you feed green potatoes to hogs? Also, if you cut off bad part of potato and feed rest to hog? Just seeing nothing goes to waste.

The red and yellow potatoes are more waxey than the white, just FYI.

I just love your family and your values.

Do you ever can or freeze some of your potatoes?

Why couldn’t you dig deep into the ground and put the potatoes down in the deep hole in a crate of some kind and cover with fill dirt and just dig as needed? Would they rot that way? I have zero clue on proper potatoes storage. I think my grandma would just keep them in her floors of closets in cardboard boxes but she went through them fast.

I can never seem to get on my potatoes out of the ground cuz the following year I have volunteer potatoes pop up all over the place

I noticed the exact same thing with the goldenrod. A cool down and a second bloom 6 weeks to the day. I set an alarm on my phone when I noticed the first bloom and the day my alarm went off was really cool and that same day that I noticed goldenrod in full bloom for the second time.

I need to come up there and set you up a beehive and maybe help your pollination some not that you need it but you plant so much stuff up there I bet you could get a great honey harvest. I’m just in Mayodan. I’m sure you get a lot more than me in the middle of town 😂

My grandfather aka papaw that's all he would plant was kenebac potatoes.

Do you have a farmstand? Do you donate any crops to food banks

Nice harvest I'm going to plant some this week

My Aunt n Uncle had a tator house jest for tators I put a bunch of tators in that house

Wouldn’t you get mice eating on your potatoes?

I eat the green ones first, make sure critters don’t get access to the green ones

Hi Andy and Megan! I don't see any reason why your potatoes won't keep. The burlap and straw should keep them warn enough. I remember Grandma and Grandpa used to pour theirs out on the pack house floor and Grandma would cover them with some old carpets she had. They'd cover the window with a spread to keep them in the dark. We always planted Kennebecs and they did keep good. I don't ever remember them or us keeping any green ones. You're right. We always planted big patches for the whole family and would eat most of them up.

My stepdad used to put (sprinkle) lime on new potatoes. They seemed to last longer. Maybe try some with it on there and see if it helps.

I think its a NC thing. We never kept the ones with green on them.

I build a wooden trough, lay down straw then potatoes NS then cover with straw, have done it it with sawdust also and had potatoes still good after a year. Usually put the box under the house

Just found your channel our thoughts on the green tators my husbands family were tator farmers Kennebec’s he said Don’t Eat Don’t Keep! Well at least here in the north tee he. I have the tator box like yours it has and onion drawer on the bottom.

Cant wait to be able to grow my garden again. Our landlord won't let us grow one on her property. Looking for a new place. Blessings All

My red pontiac reds are good and firm but they always sprout too. I plant some of the small ones back out in the garden about now below the winter freeze line. In spring I dig them up and chit them Btw, I'm on the S. Cumberland Plateau Tennessee.

Make salt potato out of the small ones

Storing spuds under straw and dirt is called a clamp. It's an old way of storing spuds as well as mangel wurzels ( sugar beets ) .It has been used in other countries including England from back in the 1700s .A good layer of dirt keeps it dry. Some even put a small chimney to aid in breathability.

Enjoyed this very informative video guys. Y’all gonna be eatin taters for a while lol. Thanks for sharing.

Just found you & watching older videos. How do you keep mice or other critters away from eating the potatoes?

Have you ever stored root vegetables in sand? I remember when I was young my grandmother kept hers in a root cellar in sand.

I grow my potatoes from peels

We grew Yukon Golds this year, and they did great. Bought some reds from a farmer's market and the information you provided on the reds was great. Thanks guys and hope you all are well.

In my experience the red potatoes are better for canning.

Taters should be kept between 35 & 40 degrees fahrenheit.

i live in nw louisiana. its hard to keep taters here. i can up all the small ones and eat the big ones until they are gone. im a small gardener and get maybe 100 pounds each year. try canning the smaller ones to save as much as you can. i like yalls videos. keep it up.

Agri Supply has burlap! Just bought some last weekend!

Great video!

Red Pontiac Potatoes will keep as long as Kennbec Potatoes do.

Do you have any problems with rats eating them?

My Grandparents banked sweet potatoes. Maybe 500lbs.buried in layers of straw.

Im so ready for this cool down!! I was sick of the hot humid weather lol

Do you have any trouble with mice getting into them?

Yes. We really eat *that* many. Two of us here go through 400 to 500 pounds ... plus another 100 or so to save for next year's seed.

I am from potatoe growing area( Kennebec) we always throw out the green ones. Storing apples with potatoes will inhibit sprouting of your potatoes

Always something to think about! Sure enjoy hearing your take on things. That was really a nice stockpile for winter.

Love Potatoes. Wonderful harvest, Tomatoes thrown away are Free Animal Food for you. Not really thrown away, and not wasted either.

At my Grandma’s we ate potatoes every day sometimes 2 or 3 times a day 😋 ❤

Do you replant the whole potato or do you cut them up to replant the eye?

I use the green potatoes first and just cut out the green bit out before cooking. I then use the smallest potatoes next because I find that they don't grow well when sprouted and put in the ground. I use some of the best potatoes for propagating for next year's crop. Now, that is in Ontario Canada and it is a lot colder here so that may be some of the difference. Whatever works best for you is what to do.

If you can find a junk chest type freezer get it and put it in the barn stack hay bails on and around it. Then put your taters in it. This works good for apples and pears too. Oh yea it works better if you put down a layer of taters and a layer of straw and another layer of taters and so forth. Also drill some small vent holes in the top and bottom of the freezer.