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What happens between the field and your door
Grading is the part that matters to a kitchen. Everything else is housekeeping, but the housekeeping is what stops a sack going soft in your store.
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Lift and cure
Lifted, then left to cure for ten to fourteen days so the skin sets. Cured skin is what lets a sack sit in a hot kitchen store without sweating.
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Wash and sort
Washed, then run over a sizing grid into bands. Anything cut, greened or soft is pulled by hand at this point rather than passed on.
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Store and load
Held dark at 8 to 12 degrees. Loaded the night before your delivery slot so nothing sits on a van in the sun.
Storing potatoes in a working kitchen
What is the correct temperature to store potatoes?
Between 8 and 12 degrees, dark and dry. Below about 6 degrees the starch converts to sugar, which makes fries come out dark and taste sweet — this is why a restaurant chiller is the wrong place for a sack of potatoes.
Why do potatoes turn green, and is green potato safe?
Green is chlorophyll from light exposure, and it appears alongside solanine, which is bitter and can make people ill in quantity. Cut green parts away generously, and store sacks in the dark so it does not happen. We pull greened stock at sorting.
How long will a sack keep in a Lahore kitchen?
Three to five weeks in a cool dark store, less in summer if the store sits above 20 degrees. Order weekly rather than monthly in June and July — the money saved on a bulk order disappears the moment you bin a sack.
What we will not send you
- Greened or sprouted stock
- Anything soft, hollow-hearted or cut in lifting
- Field-run sacks sold as graded
- Wet-washed potato loaded the same hour, which is what makes a sack rot in your store