Behold, the Farm to Live potatoes, which potatoes are in the process of being cured. Cured of what you may ask. Potato disease? Well, in a sense they are.
Potatoes, when they’re first harvested out of the soil, have very soft skins. Because of this they can get bruised and easily damaged while they’re being harvested, which makes them not very fun to eat. So MEVO cures these potatoes of their soft skins, by drying them in paper bags or boxes which are around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, expose the potatoes to little sunlight, and have high humidity. This dark, moist, and cool environment is ideal for curing the potatoes.
The potatoes sit in these bags for about 10 days, and during this time their skins harden and any injuries these potatoes got while being harvested are healed. Once properly cured, MEVO will go through each potato and sort out the ones that look injured or diseased, and put the best ones of our harvest for donation.
If all of this goes well, these potatoes can then last up to eight months, according to Oregon State University potato researcher Alvin Mosley.
That , in a nutshell, is what it takes to cure the potato. So if you want to do some ‘potato curing’ yourself, here’s a good place to start from.
