Curing potatoes?

[SuburbPrepperMember]

I’m a very inexperienced gardener. I have a small yard and I’ve been doing a little experimenting with planting some vegetables. I planted a few potatoes in the spring (I live in Florida), the plants are dying back, and I think they’ll be ready to dig up in a couple of weeks. Everything I read and see on videos tells you to “cure” the potatoes by letting them sit in a cool, dry place for 10 days or so. My question is, in an SHTF situation, I won’t have a cool, dry, place at potato harvest time, and I’m wondering what to do just to “get by”, so to speak. I’d really appreciate any input from more experienced gardeners. What if I don’t cure the potatoes, and instead, maybe just sit them in a dry, shady spot. How long do I need to let them sit? And, is “curing” them absolutely necessary? If you needed to, could you just eat them right after digging them up? Appreciate any info. Thanks in advance to everyone.

[whitebear54Participant]

They’ll last longer if you cure them. But in a SHTF scenario you might be eating them as soon as you harvest them.

I don’t have a cool place to store them so I simply place them in a single layer in cardboard boxes or garden flats and store them inside in a dark room. It’s very dry here in AZ so I don’t have to worry about excess humidity like you might have to in FL.

Lack of refrigeration and AC after TSHTF is one good reason to dig a root cellar to store produce in.

[NJMikeParticipant]

In the dryer, hotter climates evaporative refrigeration might be usable to keep the storage temp low. One uses two clay pots with wet sand in between and a moist towel on top. I’ve previously stored eggs in this manner and it works.

A good website on this (scroll down for a table of humidity and temp, with expected lowered temperature):
http://rebuildingcivilization.com/content/build-evaporative-refrigerator-no-moving-parts-no-electricity

• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by  NJMike.

[Author]

Posts