Whether you buy potatoes a few at a time or in 10-pound bags, where you store them once you get home matters. I grow enough potatoes to last the entire winter, so I care as much about storage as I do about bed preparation and harvesting.
It’s frustrating to reach into their box and find they’ve sprouted or, worse, softened with rot. Temperature, airflow, and light affect how long potatoes last. But another vegetable I always have plenty of—onions—can also contribute to premature spoilage. You should never store potatoes with onions.
Why Potatoes and Onions Are Not Good Neighbors
Onions emit ethylene, a natural gas that speeds up the ripening of many fruits and vegetables. Add an apple or banana to a paper bag of avocados, and watch how quickly ethylene works. (It’s also why you should never store apples and bananas together.)
When you store onions and potatoes together, especially in plastic bags, the gas encourages sprouting and softening. Moisture, light, and warmth can also trigger sprouting. Essentially, potatoes and onions respond to these spring-like conditions and start to grow.
This makes your kitchen counter one of the worst places to store potatoes and onions. Stoves and dishwashers give off heat and humidity, and light (the culprit behind green potatoes) reaches even the far corners. Keeping these vegetables separate in consistently cool, dry, dark conditions helps them stay firm and edible longer.
Credit: Simply Recipes / Adobe Stock
Where Is the Best Place To Store Potatoes and Onions?
It’s hard to pinpoint the ideal storage distance for potatoes and onions, but the farther apart, the better. In a cool, airy pantry, the ethylene from onions in a wire basket on the top shelf might not reach a towel-draped box of potatoes on the floor. If you have a cramped, stuffy pantry, opt for separate drawers or cupboards.
Both vegetables keep best at temperatures between those of a refrigerator and a cool room, so I store onions and potatoes outside my kitchen. In my mudroom, I keep potatoes in repurposed ice chests lined with wooden slats, with a towel over the open top to block light. I also have friends who pile potatoes on open egg cartons in a partially open drawer or store them in wooden crates in a rarely used guest room or garage.
I store onions in a single layer in shallow, perforated produce boxes stacked in a cool, windowless corner. My sister keeps onions in their mesh bag in a dry basement room. Onions also store well in hanging mesh bags in an unused coat closet or wire baskets on a shelf under an interior staircase.
To store these root vegetables as long as I do, buy them directly from local growers, if possible. Potatoes and onions sold in supermarkets are often harvested early, warehoused for months, and exposed to fluctuations in temperature and light. Small local farms are more likely to grow, harvest, and cure these vegetables with the same care I give my homegrown crops, which I’m still eating in spring.
Read the original article on Simply Recipes