Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: frederick on January 23, 2016, 14:03
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Hi There, Still have 5 bags of maincrop spuds in the shed, how long can i keep them for this year?They are kept in the dark and have been through them,no bad ones. thanks.
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Till you've eaten them all - or till they start to go soft/sprout. It all depends on the temperature.
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Thanks for that, some have started to sprout like seed spuds,
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Hi, if they are sprouting they may be coming to their useby date, but as Mum says is temperature dependant, if you can't use them then instead of a barbie, have a chippie night! All invited :D
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or dump them lol
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Looks like i will be dumping them.
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That seems a waste why not eat them?
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But are they safe to eat? and for how long.?
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Yes, they are safe to eat. I'd eat them until they're too soft to peel easily.
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I keep my maincrop in a little shed, all wrapped in hessian bags and on a wooden slat above the ground.
Important thing is it is dark and to check and remove any on the turn.
I usually finish mine around April/May.
But in March do make batches of roast potatoes and freeze and then when you want to use reheat them for 30 mins, so you then do not have to go and buy any from the supermarket.
Any on the turn I always freeze or eat as mash, great for shepherds pies.
And those months before you start enjoying your maincrop again, you will mostly be eating your first and second earlies in the summer months anyway.
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Once mine are past their best and beginning to sprout, I roll my sleeves up and peel, cook and mash them in two huge stock pots that I have. When cool I bag them into portions for topping cottages pies, or smaller ones for using to make fish cakes. I also make them into potato cakes, adding herbs and sweated onions to some, then open freeze them before bagging. It depends on what space you have in the freezer.
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Mine started to deteriorate due to the warm autumn here, like Jaydig I cooked and mashed some and the main bulk of them I par boiled and half roasted them before freezing. They have been a great handy thing to throw into the wood burner oven when time is short. I would certainly do the roasties again, but the mash I will only do if I have very small pieces. Seems an awful shame not to use them.
The potatoes I buy always sprout before I use them as they are straight from a local grower with no supermarket facilities. They are fine though they can be a bit sweet if they are very soft.
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You can break off the sprouts and that makes them last a little bit longer in my experience.
This year we are fighting a bit of a losing battle with the last sackful, and are giving lots away (without their sprouts, obviously!) rather than leave them to get too soft to peel.