SMMR: How do you store your potatoes and onions?

[cransplash]

We keep it in a grocery bag in one of our cabinets, but the peels from the onions gets everywhere and it just becomes just becomes such a mess.

Can you show me/tell me how you store your onions and potatoes so they:
a) don't go bad as quickly
b) don't make such a mess

[msmerymac]

I have a veggie basket. Kind of like this, but it doesn't hang, it just sits on the counter. I brush the loose skin off the onions and put them there. Sometimes I line it with a paper towel. I keep the potatoes in the pantry and they're fine. 

[Deleted]

We just keep them in the large bags (we buy them in bulk at Costco) on our food storage shelves down in our basement.

[Deleted]

Hanging fruit basket. Or sometimes just in the bag on the counter depending on what's already in the hanging fruit basket. We used to store potatoes in the cupboard but we forgot about them and it was a HUGE DISASTER.

[dirtyred]

keeping the onions and potatoes away from each other (and in a cool place, like the garage) will keep them fresher longer.

[Raggedeannie]

Mar 2, 2013 11:50:54 GMT -5 dirtyred said:

keeping the onions and potatoes away from each other (and in a cool place, like the garage) will keep them fresher longer.

I've never heard about this. Tell me more.

[Deleted]

Supposedly they release gases that ripen each other more quickly/cause spoilage. I know that and still store them together in the pantry though. I am lazy and haven't figured out how to separate them in my limited-storage kitchen.

[midnightmare81]

Wrap them individually in pantyhose and hang. I found it on pinterest. Drop the first on the foot part, put a know a couple inches above it, drop another, knot again, and repeat. It keeps them apart so they don't ripen each other. Supposedly it works

[livinitup]

midnightmare has it right. You might be able to find the Alton Brown episode of 'Good Eats' where he covers onion and potatoes storage. The neat thing about the panyhose idea is that you can snip the bottom onion off and not disturb the rest. Store in the dark, like a basement staircase. And yes, Alton made a huge point that onions and potatoes should never be stored together because they release something that reacts bably with the other. I moved my onions to the basement landing and left my potatoes in the bottom (least used) pantry cabinet.

[M]

I don't know about onions, I just keep it all in the fridge. But potatoes like it in a cool dark place. H's grandparents farm their own potatoes and keep them in their cool basement and it lasts them all winter.

[awkwardpenguin]

I keep my onions in a shoebox with ventilation holes poked in the top to keep them away from light, stored on an open shelf in our kitchen. We don't eat many potatoes, but when we have them, I put them in a cabinet.

[cransplash]

I rarely ever have potatoes, but unfortunately I really don't have a lot of storage space. I definitely took them out of the grocery bags though. Thanks so much for everyone's responses.

[meltoine]

I keep potatoes in the pantry. Opinions and garlic I keep on the counter near the cutting boards, since I use them nearly every day and I don't want them in the pantry spoiling the potatoes.

[mbcdefg]

Potatoes stay in their plastic bag in the pantry.

Onions stay in the vegetable crisper drawer in the fridge, in the mesh bag (if I buy the package) or a cloth produce bag (if I buy loose ones).

I've never really seen them go rotten. Idk if its my storage methods or if I just go through them faster than you.

[midnightmare81]

I have to admit, we don't buy fresh onions. I am SO sensitive to them that I just can not use them. If I am in the room when H is cutting them, I can't see for the rest of the day. So we buy ours chopped and frozen. I know its not the best, but it's that or we don't eat them...

[aspentosh]

This is fascinating. I tend to buy what I need and use them within a week so I've never seen problems keeping onions near potatoes.

[Deleted]

Potatoes and onions are definitely separate; just like apples and bananas.

Potatoes are kept in our pantry. I take them out of the plastic bag from grocery store and have them in a colander style bowl. They seem to keep fresher longer if they're out of the bag.

Onions are kept in kitchen in ceramic bowl above microwave.