Last year, our potato production was great! We planted three rows consisting of Russet, red, blue and Yukon gold potatoes. We picked up the initial starts at the local feed store (note that starter potatoes aren’t sprayed with a sprout inhibitor like potatoes you get in the store). To plant them, we cut them into pieces and let them dry for a bit. We then placed the exposed flesh down with the eye(s) pointing up. There are a lot of fancy and cute ways to grow potatoes to increase your yield in smaller spaces, but we elect not to do this, as it seems like those methods take time we don’t have.
We left potatoes buried for the entire growing season, and after the plants died off, we simply dug them up. To preserve the potatoes, they were placed dirty in burlap sacks which were kept in outdoor plastic bins away from direct sunlight.
Over the last four months when we wanted potatoes, we just pulled out potatoes from the sacks to enjoy. It has been wonderful to have them and very convenient, but they will not last forever. To preserve some of what we have left, we decided to pressure can them.
The canning process basically cooks what is inside, so for potatoes, we are essentially left with a jar of mashed potatoes. Just stick an emersion blender in the jar with a little butter, salt and pepper, and you are done.
The canning process is tedious though. The potatoes need to be scrubbed, washed and pealed. All of the bad spots get cut out. Next, the potatoes need to be cut into chunks that will fit into a wide mouth jar. As we cut the potatoes, we placed the chunks into water with a splash of white vinegar to keep them from turning brown. After we were done cutting, we thoroughly rinsed the potatoes of vinegar and excess starch. They are then placed in quart jars, water added, and pressure canned at 10 lbs for 40 minutes.
We have been loving having pre-cooked potatoes ready to go. Lately, some of Greg’s meals lately have been these mashed potatoes covered with a fast and easy homemade bone broth gravy recipe similar to the recipe linked below (https://www.raisinggenerationnourished.com/2015/11/5-minute-bone-broth-gravy/), and a couple of eggs. To review our homemade bone broth, click on this previous blog on canning. If you have any questions, let us know!
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