How do I store patatoes for the winter?

[jobguy]

I live in Blaine MN, near Minneapolis. Anything outside will freeze and anything inside will be the same temperature as the living room. So,,,, how will I be able to keep potatoes and other garden items through the winter??

 

[smstonypoint]

Build a root cellar?

Steve

 

[DAY]

Build a root cellar?

Steve

But first do a search here for "root cellar":laughing:

 

[schmism]

root cellar/basement covered in sawdust in a crate

 

[Car Doc]

Can them.

http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-potatoes.html

 

[retiredmgn]

When we bought our 200 year old farm house 35 years ago we needed to educate on such things. First thing we did was put in huge gardens. Come fall the question was, 'what do we do with all this stuff?. There was a monthly publication called the Mother Earth News which seemed to contain all the answers. The basement was quartered off with brick walls. ****, it was like they thought of everything back then. Potatoes, carrots and onions went into crates of clean sand. Apples were stored in stacked crates. Green tomatoes hung in a seperate room. The Mother Earth News mentioned to rotate in a green tomato bush into the apple room. The ripening apples give off ethelen gas which served to ripen the tomatoes. Red ripe tomatoes throughout the winter.
There were many things like that we learned. These little facts that have passed us by with the availabilty of supermarkets.
That was years ago and I'm going to have to learn it all over again.

 

[Pete Judd]

My grandfather, in the 1920's built a very large woodshed/shop and in the center was the "fruit room" It had 12 inch cedar sawdust filled walls, and a 24 inch cedar saw dust insulated roof as well, and a old fashioned freezer door to enter. He also buried 200 feet of concrete drain tiles and used these to feed year around 48 degree air into the room. In the summer time, the room never got above 50 degrees. And in the wintertime, we would just light a candle to pull air through the pipe to keep things from getting to cold. This was around a 16x16 foot room with lots of storage.

 

[MNBobcat]

I live in Blaine MN, near Minneapolis. Anything outside will freeze and anything inside will be the same temperature as the living room. So,,,, how will I be able to keep potatoes and other garden items through the winter??

The ground below the frost line stays at about 55 degrees all year long. Build a root cellar and take advantage of it.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I think we are going to have quite a few potatoes, I've been digging a few at a time and eating them but at some point they have to all be dug. Here in the south not much of a way to store stuff outside. I begged hubby to build me a root cellar, we looked at getting one of those formed units and put it in the ground as hubby said there is no way to keep it dry here without a sump pump. The cost was so much at this time I decided not to do anything.

We won't have that many potatoes this year but next year I would love to produce enough to last all winter, but putting them on the floor of the den or laundry room would be a bit much, they are the coolest rooms in the house. But what will I do with them. I could can some, they would be good but I would like fresh. Also would love to do the same with onions.

I planted red potatoes this year and they are doing great, some quite big bakers already. I suppose we will just dig a hill and eat till gone then repeat. But I sure would like one of those root cellars and it also could double as a tornado shelter here. We had a cellar and potato bins in it when I was growing up.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Kill the plants and leave the tubers in the ground. Dig them when you need them. I see you're near Houston, so frost shouldn't be an issue.

Alternatively my grandpa would always have me dig a hole about 3 feet deep to bury the carrots. I'd guess the same could be done for potatoes. He'd cover the roots with old blankets, then a sheet of plywood, then a little dirt. About once a month he'd dig up the pit and take what he needed, then cover it again. Our biggest concern was frost, but I'd imagine that the same setup would protect from overheating, too.