I forgot to show you my Irish Potatoes!

Back in September, I dug the Irish Potatoes. Here I am holding a big one!



These all came from one plant!



Here is the entire harvest from that day. There are Kennebec and Pontiac Red in the basket on the right.

I had been robbing the hills for a few weeks prior to this when I needed some potatoes for cooking, so this isn't all of them... maybe 3/4. This was a good year for Potatoes here in Indiana.




I spread them out on newspapers to let them dry before storing. If you don't do that, you'll end up with a lot more rotten potatoes. We also covered them with an a thin board to keep the light out. You could use more newspapers, or an old blanket. Just make sure that the air can get in there to dry them out.



When they were cured nicely, I sorted out a few that were going bad and put the rest into brown paper grocery bags, closed the bags and they are in my unheated food storage room. We don't have any kind of basement or cellar. It never gets below freezing in there, but through the winter is quite chilly.

I used the red ones first, since I have read that they do not last as long, being higher in water content.

It is very important to protect potatoes from exposure to light. If they are in the light very long, they will start to turn green with "solanine," which is highly toxic. Eating one such potato could kill a child.

I have often seen potatoes in grocery store that were "green as grass." NEVER buy those!