Use this easy method to store your garden potatoes through the winter without basements or traditional cold storage areas.
We eat a lot of potatoes here – there are two teenagers in our household, need I say more? So of course I’d want to grow them when I started growing our food. As my garden skills grew, I added potato plants here or there where I could fit them as my vegetable garden pushed out the flowers, but as soon as I had more space when we moved to our cottage, I planted more.
We ate them as “new potatoes” in the summer and then had great fun harvesting them in September (here’s more about the method I use – no digging and clean harvest – it’s great!).
However, after our harvest there were four 5-gallon buckets full of organic potatoes (these days, worth a lot of money!) and I had no idea how I was going to store them. I searched my gardening books and the internet and came up with these options for storing potatoes through the winter:
- Cool basement (not in this house)
- Root Cellar (hey-we live on the West Coast – I don’t know anyone with a root cellar!)
- Bury a plastic trash bin in the ground with the lid at ground level (dig 4 feet down? Uh…I don’t think so)
- Make an above-ground “root cellar” with straw bales and plastic (too complicated, not to mention sounds like an eyesore)
- Build a cold storage room in your garage (no garage at the time, and build a whole room for a few potatoes?)
Honestly, I couldn’t find anything easy or within my abilities. I actually was a little discouraged and started thinking about all the recipes with potatoes I was going to have to make over the next few weeks…
Then I read somewhere online about putting potatoes in a food cooler (the kind you take camping) for about a month. I thought, well, if they don’t last longer, it’s still better than nothing. So I found our old cooler out in a shed:
And loaded it with potatoes in September. It was about 3/4 full that first year.
I kept it out in the shed and would go “shopping” for potatoes whenever I needed them. They lasted until the middle of January! The last ones were starting to sprout a little, but they were still good. I’ve since learned you can choose varieties that store better and I also now use up the varieties first that aren’t good storage potatoes. Yukon Golds and other yellow-skinned potatoes last longer than red-skinned and even brown-skinned russets.
This year when I when out to the shed to get a few potatoes for dinner on February evening, this is what I found:
They look pretty good for being stored so long, don’t they? Not too many are sprouting – the potatoes on the right are a russet-type which are sprouting before the Yukon Golds on the left, so we’re using them up first.
So if you’d like to grow potatoes this year and don’t have access to root cellars or 4-foot deep holes, start looking for old coolers to store your harvest. It’s turned out to be a great option!
Oh, and if you do have potatoes that sprout, here’s a few things you can do with them.
Tammy says
Do you keep the cooler closed or leave the lid loose for air flow.
Jami says
The lid is closed, but the drain closure is left open for airflow. I check it about weekly, too, which introduces air.
Jessica says
Hi Jami,
Do you leave the lid cracked open at all on the cooler or sealed down tight?
Jami says
I left the lid closed, but the drain always open for air. If it seems to be too wet, you can leave it cracked, but be sure to not let any light in.
mary says
Jamie,
I am totally new to gardening and also need a place to store potatoes. Did you clean them up and set them out first to cure for a week to 10 days before putting them in the cooler?
Thanks,
Mary
Jami says
Yes, I did, Mary – we used the garage for about a week before adding them to the cooler. I simply brushed off the dirt with gloves and set them in like that, since I knew I’d wash them before using. You could wash them and then let them cure – it’s up to you. Oh, and good for you to start gardening – I hope you enjoy it!!
rose says
The back to eden garden is unbelievable! No weeds at all. I’ve been doing it for 8 months and the worms are loving it. Rich, rich soil. All my plants are healthy and beautiful. It will change your ways and thoughts in gardening. It blew my mind because I thought since this man is in the State of Washington and I was in Florida, it would never work. WRONG…it does work. My sweet peas were so high (seven-eight feet) that they fell over and THEN started to grow back up again…amazing. Most men cannot rap their minds around this but it is such a simple thing!! Enjoy if you do watch it!
Jami says
Thanks for the tip, Rose!
rose says
I too did something similar. I did the Back to Eden method. Put woodchips on top and got beautiful potatoes. Red are my favorite! Watch the film, backtoedenfilm.com and you will be amazed if you followed it!
Tami says
I was searching for this post just yesterday after I bought 50lbs of organic potatoes from someone local who grew to many ( I didn’t plant any this year ) I couldn’t find it!! I put them in a box in a cuboard in the garage but am now going to move some of them into a cooler and put them in the garden shed and see what happens to both. I just took some organic potatoes from the grocery store ($8.99 regular price, I paid 2.99 for 5lbs) out of the fridge and cooked them for potato salad and they turned out great!! I think I will plan to grow my own potatoes again next year. Thanks for all the info!
Jami @ An Oregon Cottage says
Rachel-
Thanks so much for your comments- I love when readers let me know what they’re liking! It’s one of the best parts of blogging. 🙂
I’m searching for our pictures of our house projects, and when I get them in order, I will be able to post about them.
There are lots of different ways to save- good for you for trying to find what works for you- and I hope I can help some!
rachelc says
I think I’ll be giving your cooler method a shot this year. I am new to this couponing thing and I found your blog thru becentables site. I like that you have all these gardening tips and recipes on here. I am looking forward to the frugal home improvement tips you commented on adding to your blog. I just want to say thanks. I’m a new mommy and try to save where I can. Keep up the good work!
Thanks again,
rachel
[email protected] Oregon Cottage says
Nope, its kinda like storing them in the frige, which I read recently that America’s Test Kitchen did a test and found it’s fine to store potatoes in the frige- contrary to what we’ve always been told! And that’s been my experience, too. I’ve cooked them directly from the coolers (and they’ve been cold) and never tasted any difference.
Now, about March there will be a few getting soft or sprouting more, and I set them to the side for planting – shriveled and soft is fine for replanting. A few will go bad throughout the storage period, and when I’m there getting the ones we need, I just toss them. I think that’s to be expected with any stored food for that amount of time.
Every year I’m just more amazed at how well they hold up – I just got the last good ones last night for roasted potatoes!
Jami
rachelc says
they don’t get wrinkly and kinda spongy feeling when you store them this way?