How to preserve sweet potatoes, if you grow way too many.

Alder Burns wrote:I had good results a few times making granola out of sweet potatoes.  Basically I grated the raw potatoes and dried the gratings down snap dry in an otherwise unused greenhouse with fans running on them, and then stored this in sealed jugs.  When I wanted to make a "batch" for use, I'd get some out, drizzle them with some kind of oil or fat, and toast this in a solar cooker till lightly browned.  This then became the starchy base of the granola, the substitute for oats.  The fat toasted into them keeps them somewhat crunchy after milk is put on them, and then fruit, nuts, etc. can also be added.  I ate off of one year's harvest for two or three years this way, on an almost daily basis.

John C Daley wrote:How do you use the starch produced?

Megan Palmer wrote:My grandmother used to steam fully cured sweet potatoes, slice and sun dry them.

We would eat them like a sweet, they had a similar texture to dried mangoes, they were pliable and chewy.

Another way that she prepared sweet potato was to steam, mash and mix with rice flour to make a pliable dough, roll into small circles then stuff them with shredded coconut, sugar and peanuts and deep fry them.

Perhaps steamed mashed sweet potatoes could be dehydrated into a powder to reconstitute for future use?

Ulla Bisgaard wrote: Once dry, store in bags or jars with oxygen absorbers.

Ra Kenworth wrote:Has anyone had success in zone 4a with the black plastic mulch technique?

Mary Cook wrote:Mostly I want to respond to Liz Smith who posted this thread on the Dailyish--I don't know where she lives, but--are you sure you can't grow them? I thought my WV location in zone 6 as too cold, for years, or that you had to have sandy soil. But now I grow them every year without difficulty. I think you might have to be allergic to regular potatoes to want to go to all that trouble to save the starch, or the cubes...or maybe have iffy conditions. I don't mind relying on each year's crop, or doing without sweet potatoes from May to October, As for keeping them, I saw on another thread that people have trouble keeping them from spoiling, and someone in my own county told me hers rotted--and this mystifies me. What I do I dig them, wash them (everyone agrees you shouldn't wash them but I don't want to put dirty tubers on my pantry shelf). and when they're dry they get put on a pantry shelf--if there are too many, some go in a box upstairs. I have virtually never seen a rotten one--even the ones that got cut in harvesting heal over nicely. They do start sprouting too early  on the pantry shelf--this year's are already sprouting, Dec. 27-- but that makes it easier to get a good lot of slips in the spring. They are usually not available around here, and the catalogs want too much for them.

Mary Cook wrote:
I think you might have to be allergic to regular potatoes to want to go to all that trouble to save the starch, or the cubes...or maybe have iffy conditions.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

I mainly use it in my gluten free baking mix,  I also use it as a substitution for potato starch, since I am allergic to potatoes.

Megan Palmer wrote:

Mary Cook wrote:
I think you might have to be allergic to regular potatoes to want to go to all that trouble to save the starch, or the cubes...or maybe have iffy conditions.

Yes, Ulla is allergic to potatoes

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

I mainly use it in my gluten free baking mix,  I also use it as a substitution for potato starch, since I am allergic to potatoes.

Ulla Bisgaard wrote:

Mary Cook wrote:Thank you for your input. As for sweet potatoes rotting. It only happens if they get bruised. One time my son dropped a case of them, and they started rotting within days.
As for making cubes. I have an electric machine for dicing, cutting fries, and make slices. With it, I can dice 20 pounds in about 5 minutes.  

I'm going to try Sweet Potatoes again this coming year. I've been getting 'bowl meals' with little meat and lots of veggies. One of the veggies are cubed sweet potatoes and those little guys are really tasty. IF I can store some of the crop I can always clean, cut, and store some cubes in the freezer for immediate baking.

Has anyone tried their cuts or cubes of sweet potatoes in a low-pressure Pressure Cooker - like an InstaPot or a MealthyPot? IF so does that work well to cook the potatoes?

John C Daley wrote:How do you use the starch produced?

Barbara Manning wrote:Thanks so much for sharing all these ideas for storing sweet potatoes and making starch from them!  What a surprise!  I want to try it.  While I don't have to deal with 400 pounds of the veg, I do need to up my game on getting more food stored in an economical way.  Here's why:

Earlier this year, I lost the contents of all my freezers and refrigerator during a long-term electrical outage. It was a disaster of epic proportions. I probably lost $2,000 of food storage in the freezer.  But my takeaway from it was to learn to make more fermented veg. I'm also adding canning to my cookery acumen -- for me scary but necessary.  Here's an interesting link to fermenting sweet potatoes that you may like.  I like it because it's a shelf stable way to store the veg. So far I've made shelf stable mayonnaise and butter (how to make ghee, essentially).  Canning is more challenging, but I am determined to learn.
I hope that some of this is helpful.  And, Happy New Year to all!  

Alder Burns wrote:I had good results a few times making granola out of sweet potatoes.  Basically I grated the raw potatoes and dried the gratings down snap dry in an otherwise unused greenhouse with fans running on them, and then stored this in sealed jugs.  When I wanted to make a "batch" for use, I'd get some out, drizzle them with some kind of oil or fat, and toast this in a solar cooker till lightly browned.  This then became the starchy base of the granola, the substitute for oats.  The fat toasted into them keeps them somewhat crunchy after milk is put on them, and then fruit, nuts, etc. can also be added.  I ate off of one year's harvest for two or three years this way, on an almost daily basis.