Freezing Potatoes for Winter

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We eat a lot of potatoes.  They are one crop, like carrots I will never be able to grow enough of.  We buy them every week.  This year I want to try freezing potatoes for winter to cut down on the out of season purchases we typically have made.

This first batch I am trying, are some locally grown red potatoes that I received a great deal on from one of my awesome co-workers.  I grabbed 20 lbs a few weeks ago and we had been slowly eating away at them- making things like Potato Pizza and Potato Wedges.  Since my potato harvest is ready to be dug and we will be making our annual pilgrimage to the County next week for Em’s family reunion (which includes stops at the farmers stands to stock up on potatoes) I thought I would start my potato “putting up” project on these ones now.

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I had around 16 lbs of these red potatoes left.  My plan is to freeze them, cut in half, to use for baking during the winter.  Yellow potatoes are my favorite for breakfast potatoes so after our County trip I will focus on freezing those for hash browns.

The first step is to wash and wipe off all the potatoes.  Then I pierce each potato with a fork and line them up on baking sheets.

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Next I bake them at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Once they are out of the oven I let them cool completely.

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Once cool I slice them in half and portion into freezer bags.  I filled 18 small freezer bags with around 1 lb portions in each.  That is a good amount for a potato side dish for us.

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I think they freeze best by placing these halves onto a baking sheet and freezing before portioning into freezer bags but halfway through I ran out of freezer space and just start piling them into bags.

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To cook these I remove from freezer and mixed with a little olive oil and salt.  I place them still frozen, on a baking sheet and cooked at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.  They came out crispy on the outside and soft and warm in them middle just like we like them.

This project has us covered for 18 potato side dishes (actually 17 because I had to cook one to test it out and for the above photo).  That will only cover our potato needs for about a month this winter so we will need to put up lots more.  I would like to freeze shredded potatoes for hash browns, little diced potatoes for breakfast, larger wedges for dinner and dehydrate some cubes to use for soups and chowders.  Plenty more work to be done!

 

 

 

 

Jeff McIntosh

About Jeff McIntosh

Jeff's family lives in his childhood home on a 1/4 acre in town lot. Despite the small space to work with, they have challenged ourselves to produce as much of our own food as possible — and cook it! They document their journey at Blogging with Apples.