How to store potatoes and sweet potatoes?

[eofelis]

What is the best way to store russet potatoes and sweet potatoes?

Local stores are selling russets for $1.99/15 lbs and sweet potatoes/yams for 48c/lb. Good prices and I want to stock up.

Doing some web searching it says to store in a cool dry place. I've always kept my russets in the fridge but now it looks like it's time to do something different.

Right now I have them all in a cardboard box in the basement where it is cool, about 60 deg. I closed the top of the box to keep them in the dark.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

[oheoh's momma]

My mom used to wrap her individually in newspapers to keep one from from rotting and causing another to rot. That is the way the are stored in the cold room. hope this helps....

[Trishagirl]

A cool dark place is best that's what my pantry is cool & dark.

[lparker]

sweet potatoes are good for a couple years stored in canning jars. Russets - french them, parboil them, dry them off, freeze them.

[Contrary Housewife]

A box or a bag will do fine. I have red potatoes from the garden, harvested in August in a bucket in the kitchen. They are now starting to grow eyes, but we will finish them soon. There is a bag of russets straight from the store next to them. I expect they'll be fine until around christmas, by which point we'll be done with them, too.

Sweet potatoes from the garden are in a grocery sack, where they've been the past month and since they show no signs of deteriorating, I'll just leave them there.

You don't want to close up the box, as they need air circulation to remain fresh.

You can also prep the potatoes, make hash browns, or mashed potatoes and freeze for use later. I did that with most of our garden harvest this year. In the past I have bought the 5lb bags for 99c and made a big batch of twice-baked stuffed potatoes and frozen those, too. Great easy side dishes.

[Judi Dial]

Everything you've been told here is fine. Markets cover their potatoes with a cloth cover when the markets aren't open, this helps to keep them from greening up.

Also do NOT store them next to apples. Apples give off ethyline gas as they age and cause the potatoes to age faster too.

Judi

[Contrary Housewife]

Yeah, you don't want to store them next to any kind of fruit or produce with a short shelf life. That includes tomatoes, onions, bananas, peppers....

[Saule]

Be sure to keep them out of the light. I was appalled to see a local market sell potatoes out of a bin right out in front of the store in the sun - never buy any potatoes stored anywhere near a window. You've gotten a lot of good advice here.