How to store potatoes (sorry boring)

[happycat]

Does anyone know how to store potatoes I have just thrown out yet another wasted bag and they don't seem to be lasting very long at all

I find they last longer if you store them in the fridge

I was thinking that about an hour ago!!!!!!!!!!!

I think i read to store them in the dark so i have an old wooden bread bin, i'm gonna try that and see if they last any longer!!

Also don't put new potatoes in the fridge as it alters their flavour!!

ooooh, posts crossed tammybear, didn't mean to contradict you!!

i put mine in the fridge
last longer than in the cupboard - don't know much about the flavour tho' seem to be tasteless whatever

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Always put our potatoes in the fridge - is the only way I can get them to last the week...

How weird. We buy potatoes in 25 kg bags (typically lasts us about 6-8 weeks), and store somewhere cool (under stairs cupboard is often quite good, else an outdoor shed as months get warmer). Keep the bag closed up tight, dry and cool. These strategies works fine in winter but in mid-summer we cop out and only buy small amounts (2-5kg?) of potatoes each week... still, store them somewhere cool (not fridge, though) and they last ok for us.

Maybe you guys have very warm houses?

I used to always store potatoes in the fridge but dp thought i was strange!!

I read about the new potatoes in a book about househols tips!! (Can't beleive i'm admitting that, i also found out how to raise the carpet when it's been squashed by furniture!!)

Grumpyzebra do you buy yours at the supermarket?

Lol its quite alrite angeliz. Just saying what iv been told

I've discovered keeping them in an old large cereal box (or 2!) with the top closed keeps them fine for a few weeks at least.

No, Happycat, I don't buy in supermarket. We buy the great big paper 25k bags, typically from local F+Veg grocers, the market or very occasionally from an actual Farm shop. Maybe it does come down to storing them in the thick dark paper sacks??

We used to buy spuds in big sacks, many years ago and they'd last for ages in the garage. But they don't last as long nowadays, even in the garage and with children to feed.

Tell you something else that bugs me - tomatoes. Why do you have to pay more for a tomato that tastes like a tomato, instead of a watery mass? Do you think I could sue Sainsbury's/Tesco/Asda under the Trade Description Act for selling tomatoes that don't taste of anything??

If you buy the potatoes that have been pre-washed they could well be last season's that have been in cold storage for months, which explains why they will sprout very quickly once they're in a warm house.. Buy the ones with mud still on & you know they are fresh, then store them in the dark. Fresh potatoes should take months to sprout.
The only tomatoes that taste of tomato are either organic & ridiculously expensive or from farmers' markets.
You can grow potatoes & tomatoes in pots in the garden - they taste completely different!

Perhaps we should start a Real Tomato campaign!

My sis grows gorgeous tomatoes, I love eating her tomato sandwiches. Growing my own isn't really an option for me, as we're in the north of Scotland, and don't have a greenhouse. The season just isn't long enough.

I store them in the cupboard under the stairs.. DD is teething and likes to bite into them for some reason, also I dunno if this is true apparantly if you put an apple with your potatoes they won't start sprouting little tentacle type thingys.....

Don't store them in plastic - if you can store them in paper bags or cardboard boxes then they last alot longer.

Given the success rate we've had with dd2 growing cress on the kitchen windowsill - about three sad seedlings - I'm probably better off buying toms at inflated supermarket prices. I like the idea of growing my own, though...

you need to get a brown potato bag from somehwere and keep tem int he garage out of light and out of plastic