I much prefer canning most of them over freezing but about 35-40 lbs. of our crop each year goes into the freezer as hashbrowns.

Easy to do. Just lightly boil until heated through (not cooked), cool in fridge overnight, peel, grate/shred, spread out on cooking sheets to flash freeze, and then bag them up.

Dave

I make mashed potatoes and freeze them.

I leave them in the ground all winter and dig some up once a month or so to put in the fridge.

I feel like I am always posting here about the lazy person's way of doing things :).

If your soil gets too cold, you might be able to pile on a mountain of straw or leaves. The taters would LOVE that, come spring:).

Nila, I'm ALL about the lazy way of doing things, believe me! Living in Maine, though, storing them in the ground would be way more work as I'd have to shovel the snow off the row before I could dig them up. Not happening -- I've already got enough snow to shovel :-)

Thanks Dave, I like the hash brown idea. Can I do the same for oven fries? I'm trying to avoid canning as I am not a huge fan of mashed potatoes.

I'm going to try the frozen hash browns next season. I didn't know potatoes could be frozen and maintain quality! Sounds like a great idea! I do can most of mine. Our climate is too warm (hot) to leave them in the ground. I can in the sizes dictated by NCHFP and use them for anything I would normally use potatoes for. I add them to stews, French fries, hash browns, soups, mashed potatoes, etc. I just cut them to size, if needed, after opening the jar and rinsing and then prepare the dish as usual. I try to can as many items as possible because I have more pantry storage space than freezer space, plus shelf stable is more reliable as freezers have been known to go out.

Thanks Dave, I like the hash brown idea. Can I do the same for oven fries?

Yes you can. One word of warning I should have added above is to use the coarse grade grater, not a fine grade one. We tried the finer grade one year and they are too mushy when cooked.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: grater we use

Thanks for the photo, Mabel. That is a lot of snow!

Frozen hashbrowns are available at supermarkets, if anyone wants to sample them and see if they like the texture and stuff. I think they are pretty good.

potatoes can store for months in cool dark place, especially if you layer them in straw.

Burying them outside(deep enough not to freeze) is another option. The ground temperature in the winter( dependin on depth and location) will be around 45- 50F, perfect refrigeration for potatoes. We used to save cabbage like that to, but in a shallow well.

I've done the oven fries. Bake about 3/4 of the timethat you would normally (just starting to turn golden), cool and freeze on cookie sheet, then bag.
When ready to eat them, shake out what you need and finish browning/heating in the oven.

Deanna

Potato Question:

From time to time I like to freeze some French Fries shape tomatoes. and freeze them.
How long do I have to blanch them?

I'm going to assume you mean french fry shaped potatoes since french fry shaped tomatoes makes no sense.

Instructions linked below.

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: How to freeze french fries