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The sweet potato harvest season has arrived, and autumn gives them the opportunity to harvest abundance. Whether in rural markets or urban supermarkets or wet markets, sweet potatoes can be found everywhere. Since the price of sweet potatoes is more affordable now, many people will buy 20-30 pounds of sweet potatoes at once to go home and prepare to enjoy them in winter.
Sweet potatoes, aka sweet potatoes, are a common and affordable plant. Because of its soft and sweet taste and rich nutrition, it is loved by the majority of people.
Sweet potatoes are also eaten in a variety of ways, and can be processed as a staple food into sweet potato flour and sweet potato noodles to provide energy and satiety; It can also be made into delicious pastries such as sweet potato cakes, sweet potato cakes and sweet potato puree, which are sweet and delicious; In addition, sweet potatoes can also be baked, boiled, steamed, fried and other ways to cook, suitable for all tastes.
However, there are many sweet potato lovers who dare not buy too much at once, despite their great love of sweet potatoes. This is because sweet potatoes can easily rot or sprout if not stored properly. In rural areas, in order to keep sweet potatoes longer, people will keep them in cellars, which can last for a year without spoiling. But now that there are fewer cellars in the countryside, it is more difficult for urban dwellers to find a place to preserve sweet potatoes.
Today I will share with you some tips that can be used to preserve sweet potatoes for half a year without rotting or germinating, and they will become sweeter. For friends who like to eat sweet potatoes, you may wish to learn it!
Let's first understand the three conditions for sweet potato germination:
1. Lighting
Sweet potatoes love the sun, so one of the conditions for sweet potatoes to germinate is the exposure of sunlight. If we want to avoid the germination of sweet potatoes, we need to choose a dark environment during the preservation process or use a shading cloth to cover the sweet potatoes.
2. Temperature
Store sweet potatoes at a suitable temperature. Although sweet potatoes are harvested in autumn, they are not hardy. Below 0 degrees will cause frostbite of sweet potatoes, while higher than 15 degrees will easily cause germination. Therefore, preserving sweet potatoes requires a controlled temperature, preferably between 5 and 15 degrees.
3. Humidity
Under humid conditions, sweet potatoes are prone to bacteria and mold, resulting in germination or decay. Therefore, in order to preserve sweet potatoes, it is necessary to ensure that the environment is dry.
In addition, sweet potatoes themselves will emit water vapor due to respiration, so we need to take some measures to keep the surface of sweet potatoes dry. For example, it is kept dry by wrapping newspaper or sprinkling with sand, alkali noodles and other substances with absorbent properties.
So, how can sweet potatoes be stored longer without rotting or germinating? Actually, the method is very simple!
1. Selection
When we buy sweet potatoes, we should choose sweet potatoes with intact appearance, no mechanical wounds, bumps or mildew, and also try to choose sweet potatoes with dirt on the surface.
This layer of soil does not need to be washed off, because it is a natural protective layer of sweet potatoes, which can prevent sweet potatoes from being damaged by collisions during transportation and storage, and this layer of soil is also needed when storing sweet potatoes at home.
2. Drying
After buying sweet potatoes home, do not rush to box them for storage, but need to first place the sweet potatoes in a sunny and well-ventilated place and dry them for 1-3 days before storage. If the weather is sunny, a day's drying time is enough.
The purpose of drying is twofold:
First of all, the freshly harvested sweet potato contains more water, so it is not too sweet to eat, after drying, the moisture on the surface will be dispersed, and the sweetness will increase, making it more delicious;
Secondly, if the sweet potato has more water, it is easy to germinate and rot and deteriorate, and it is difficult to store, so it is more conducive to maintaining its quality after drying.
3. Preservation
【Carton method】
Choose a plain cardboard box as a storage container for sweet potatoes, and insert a few small holes with scissors above the box to ensure proper ventilation. Then prepare some alkali noodles and newspapers, alkali noodles can also be replaced with sand, both of which can absorb moisture and moisture.
This is done by laying multiple layers of newspaper on the bottom to ensure the inside remains dry, and then sprinkling with a layer of alkaline noodles. Arrange the sweet potatoes in an orderly carton, and each time a layer of sweet potatoes is full, spread a layer of newspaper and sprinkle with a layer of alkali noodles. Repeat this step until the carton is full.
Finally, use several layers of newspaper to cap and place the carton in a cool and ventilated environment at a temperature of 5-15 degrees. This keeps a ventilated and dry environment protected from light, and sweet potatoes can be stored for half a year without germination or rot. If the temperature drops to around 0 degrees, you can cover the sweet potatoes with some unused clothing to avoid frostbite. But be careful not to let the temperature go too high to prevent the sweet potatoes from germinating.
【Plastic bag method】
This is another way to preserve sweet potatoes, called plastic bag preservation, which can also keep sweet potatoes for more than half a year. Also dry the sweet potatoes for 1-3 days to evaporate the surface water, which can effectively prevent the sweet potatoes from germinating.
After waiting for the sweet potato to dry, wrap it in a paper towel and place it in a bag. Next, drain the air inside the plastic bag and tie the mouth tightly. Finally, just keep the plastic bag in a ventilated place.
If you want to store sweet potatoes and keep them fresh, the above methods can be used as a reference, even after half a year, the stored sweet potatoes can avoid germination and rot.
If you also have a lot of sweet potatoes at home that you can't eat in time, you can try these tips, they won't be bad until next spring, and they will get sweeter and sweeter. Also welcome to share your exclusive tips for storing sweet potatoes in the comment area to benefit more people!