Just this past year, I’ve discovered what a good storage candidate sweet potatoes are. I’m in the south, near Austin Texas and find that “Irish” potatoes do not keep well, a few months, and can not be reliably used as seed stock. Sweet potatoes seem much better. They will keep at least 8 months, probably much longer. And they reliably produce plantable “slips”. Nutrition is said to be very good, probably better than white potatoes. Up in Idaho, your mileage will almost certainly vary.
I offer this as a suggestion to whoever wants to do a more extensive write up.
Oh! I regularly shop for long term shelf stable store foods. I find almost without exception that sodium contents are unacceptable. Another suggest for someone else to write on. – M.W.
We’ve been growing sweet potatoes for several years now. We usually finish up the previous year’s crop just before the new crop comes in, of the raw tubers at least. We slice some into 1/2″ thick slices and dehydrate them, which, when stored vacuum sealed, gives virtually unlimited shelf life. The slices can be re-hydrated by adding boiling water. The tubers can also be canned, which we do also.
As for storing “Irish” or white potatoes, my granddad had a good method which I use today. He would select a place in the woods under tree cover and clean out any brush, then put down a 2-3″ layer of pine straw. The white potatoes were placed on the straw and liberally coated with powdered lime, then covered with 2-3″ layer of pine straw. He then put a water proof cover over the top (he used sheets of roofing tin but a tarp would work too) to prevent rain/snow from wetting the straw and washing away the lime. When you want to get some to use, you simply pull back the cover, move the top layer of straw to access the potatoes, them put things back when you’re done. Potatoes last for months stored this way for me and I often get viable shoots for planting from them in the spring. We just cut the shoots and eye off when we eat the potatoes, put them in a plastic bag with damp sawdust, and they keep for several weeks that way until I can set them out. I store the bag in a cool, dark place while collecting the “eyes”.
Unless you have sodium-related hypertension, there’s no reason to restrict sodium intake. None. Absolutely none. Sodium is a vital electrolyte, and your body regulates its levels naturally (not getting too graphic, but when you have too much salt, unless you are dehydrated, you pass the salt out.)
If there is someone in your family with hypertension, and that hypertension is sodium related (I have hypertension, but it doesn’t respond to sodium restriction or high sodium intake) then don’t worry about it. In fact, you might end up needing to supplement sodium depending on your weather (you are likely to not have AC when you are into your long-term food) and activity levels (you are also likely to be doing a lot more manual labor.)