A question about potatoes

[Candycoco]

I'm just wondering if anyone can help me out with this one.
I tend to buy a bag of potatoes in aldi every week as they form part of a lot of the meals I make, e.g roast potatoes, shepherds pie, jacket potato, mash etc.

I often find that they start sprouting quite quickly or go green before I've had chance to use them all. Is there anyway of preventing this? And I don't think it's just aldi as I had this problem when I shopped in asda, not sure though?

Or I've thought about buying a sack of muddy potatoes as I've heard these last longer but I don't know where to buy one!

I'm wasting a lot of money every week on this and want to avoid this.

Alternatively I'd love to be able to grow potatoes, does anyone know of a cheap way to do this without buying one of those expensive bin things?

Thank you!

We keep ours in a dark cool cupboard which reduces the sprouting, although doesn't prevent it totally.

If you keep them in the dark they don't sprout so quickly. Lakeland do a dinky wee potato bag for this, but actually decanting them into a thick paper sack and keeping the top rolled down and putting them in a dark cupboard will work just as well.

Can you not pre-prepare and freeze them when you get them?

They sprout and go green when they're exposed to light. You need to keep them in darker conditions. That's why the sacks of potatoes last longer, because they don't let light in.

As for growing, potatoes are the easiest thing in the world to grow. They will grow anywhere and in the worst conditions. If you want to grow them in a container you can use any big, deep bucket. If you want the cheapest option then get a grow back, stand it on it's end and grow potatoes in that.

*a grow BAG!

You have to keep them cool and dark, but in paper or sacking (not plastic)
If you put an apple in with them they stay fresh for ages, strange but true, and keep them apart from onions too.

Oh ok I just had them on the work top so that makes sense, I will make space in bottom cupboard to store them.

I can only freeze a small amount of meals only have small freezer, but could try decanting into paper bag.

I actually have a couple of those huge rubber kind of basket things with handles on, iykwim - I could perhaps grow them in those then? They are just full of rain water at the moment completely unused!

Full of rain water In the garden that is! Not my house

Maybe line the rubber basket with paper first, even newspaper, to stop the tatties from sweating.

Yep you can use those. Just make a hole in the bottom for drainage.

They have to be kept in the dark because, aside from the sprouting, exposed surfaces will turn green and that makes them mildly (stomach ache) toxic. Where do you keep other vegetables?

Ok will have a google about growing in the tub, thanks for the ideas.

I keep other veg like carrots, broccoli etc in the fridge. Where do you keep yours?

I remember when I was child my mum had a kind of free standing vegetable rack on the floor and she kept everything in that, but I wonder if the carrots went bendy quite quickly in that!

The fridge is the best place for most vegetables although onions prefer somewhere dry and dark. Yes, carrots kept out on a rack will dry out and wither pretty quickly

I keep my spuds in the bread bin. Obvious really!

Do not keep in the fridge as too moist
Do not keep on the work bench as too much light
Do keep in a dry dark cupboard
Don't worry about a few sprouts
Do not use if they look green

I used to buy bags from the supermarket but experienced the same problem as you as they sprouted quickly! Also didn't last very long and we get through so many potatoes!

So I now buy a lovely big sack of "dirty" potatoes from a local farm shop which I keep in my garage! A huge bag costs less than £5!

We now have plenty of potatoes, save money as it's cheaper to buy a huge sack and they also don't sprout- I think they like my cold dark garage!

I also buy a giant bag of onions from the farm shop which also lasts forever and is so cheap to buy!

So maybe worth buying a sack to see if they workout better for you!