In article , NOdtgEMAIL wrote:
Today I harvested the potatoes and onions. I use a pitchfork and I can tell

when potatoes are ready to harvest for they seem to push the tubers
protruding
out of the ground, so dense underneath with tubers.

And I was wondering about something. I know dogs and cats and birds like
to get dusted and dirtied as to keep parasites off their skins and hides.
So I was
wondering if dirty potatoes store better than clean washed potatoes?

As a general principle washed spuds go off *much* quicker than
unwashed. This is certainly true of retail lines, but perhaps home
washing is not so bad.

Not sure why this is so. Probably something to do with both skin
damage during washing and spreading of disease spores during the
process. I gather that washing commercial eggs is forbidden in some
places for the latter reason too. (But in that case I believe it's
the probability of spreading nasties such as Salmonella through the
batch that is the cause for concern.)

[Snipped rest.]


Cheers, Phred.

--
LID