Is it ok to store potatoes in the fridge or freezer I ask because we have rats.
Also for how long do potatoes and other vegetables keep?
Best Place to Store Potatoes and Veggies
AlienC on 01/03/2017 - 09:38
Comments
Those two vegetables are basically still alive, so chilling them just causes premature rotting. The best way for potatoes that some people use still is putting them back in soil or sand in raised crates out of the sun…keeps them alive for months. Onions should just be aired out of sunlight.
This is interesting from Gardening Australia: "Researchers have found that storing potatoes with dried lavender, sage and rosemary naturally suppresses sprouting and inhibits bacteria that can lead to storage rot."
where do you store garlic?
at room temp unless its garlic paste.
I keep my onions in the fridge but I use them all up within a week or two so they are never in there too long
Get a fine mesh container with a lid. That way the rats can't get in and the potatoes are in a more optimal container. How do you even have room in your fridge - mine is usually pretty full of other food. (Well, maybe wine).
Got any recommendations? I have got a woolies coles aldi target and big w within walking distance.. Also a Bunnings and home hardware store.
Got to admit harder to find that I thought. I suggest looking at small wardrobe baskets and using pegs to clip together or a mesh waste paper bin and create a lid for it. The other thing that might work is you can get under shelf mesh baskets so you can get them up off the floor, make it harder for the rats. We use these to put spice bottles on.
Look at Target, Bunnings and Office Works for options.
Is this what you are taking about? From K Mart but I couldn't picture exactly what you were describing I was picturing chicken wire for some reason.
http://www.kmart.com.au/product/under-shelf-basket/545335
If so nice idea I honestly never thought of that.
If I can't find a full cage equivalent I might make a diy one for the kitchen that or start looking at pet cages haha lol to store my potatoes.
I am pretty sure certified rat cages should be rat proof haha lol otherwise it's a call or email to the complaint feedback orifice.
@AlienC: That is what I was thinking of. We have a step in pantry and they are really good for putting the spices on. For potatoes, or something equivalent, you would probably need to put, e.g. cardboard, on it to stop stuff dropping below. We get our basmati rice in cloth bags, from the supermarket, and we use the old bags to hold our potatoes and onions (separately). Stops them making a mess where they are and allows the vegies to breath. You could try that and then put them in the basket under the shelf. Hopefully the rats can't get up that high. If that doesn't work you can still use the basket for spices :).
@try2bhelpful: worse comes to worse I'll buy a safe and put the potatoes in there haha lol just joking
@AlienC:
Funny you should mention that.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coolgardie_safe
If you could get hold of an old mesh one it would probably do what you wanted it to.
@try2bhelpful: Thinking about the DYI option you could even adapt an old milk crate by lining it with mesh from, e.g. Bunnings, and then fashioning a lid. (When we were at Uni half of our shelving was based around milk crates, so we still have some left overs.
Perhaps a mesh food cover like this
Because it is steel, rats cannot eat through it. You may have to weigh it down somehow, if its on the table. I am not sure how strong rats are, i.e., can they push the mesh along, or push the mesh up to get through. Maybe they are not super rats :-) and won't do that, but not sure.
Would not trust that. I have had a big old white rat chew through the door version of that at my old folks home.
Either some sort of reinforced metal or pet cage is probably what I would be looking for. Thin meshes can get chewed up by the really desperate and hungry ones I have learnt and thin pieces of wood and dry wall too.
Might end up getting a work tool case and pierce some holes just gotta now research if the materials are safe for produce don't wanna protect my food from rats only to get metal food poisoning haha lol
@bluesky: wish I was but apparently rats chewing through anything is apparently common. The only thing that stops some of them are glass and certain metals. Do a Google search on rats chewing through concrete and be prepared to go wtf they are basically like mini beavers or moles
Hmm maybe you should be asking how to get rid of rats?
I have already got that figured out from a previous infestation (ratsak bait batches scattered all round the house in little plates) just wanted to ask this question because I really did not know.
My assumption was freezing works for everything and anything but apparently that is nut always the case.
Plus i like to bulk store my vegetables and ingredients so less trips to the market and more time on the internet haha lol.
At the shop?
Just buy what you need to use for the day and don't store any until the rat problem is gone.
Just looking at all my options.
In my kitchen
Where and who can I make my delivery to?
Fridge is ok for potatoes, I keep them there as they last longer in summer. Freezer ruins them
For anyone who has a problem with ants getting into their pet bowls we found that if we stood the bowls in the lids of yoghurt containers we filled with water that the ants didn't get into the bowls anymore. We use small china bowls from the op shop so they taper and the lids are big enough for the bowls to stand in and there is sufficient clearance the ants cant just walk up the side and straight onto the bowls. Our kitties prefer to eat Al Fresco (out of the sun) and we had a lot of trouble with the ants ending up in the food.
Keeping the potatoes at room temperature is great. Other vegetables are stored in the fridge.
Potatoes and onions are best stored at room temperature in open air.
Call an exterminator.