Oct 22 To prevent potatoes from turning black when preparing ahead of time, (for camping, foil dinners, etc) adding "fruit fresh" will help a little, but some blacking will still occur. Living in Idaho and having available lots of potatoes, we partially pre-cook them, then freeze for later use.
We usually lay in about 200-300 lbs of potatoes in the fall. But potatoes, even in a root cellar, seem to have the same energy as an over hormonal teenager when spring comes. Those eyes start to sprout and within days, they can grow two feet of vines, roots or whatever those shoots want to be.
So, in the later winter, we get out the deep fryer and go to work on the surviving potatoes, (most of what we stored away is still there) We cube some, french fry cut some, slice some and shred some for hashbrowns. After peeling, a five minute dip in the deep fryer, drain, cool and bag in serving size units, and into the freezer they go to be used all summer. We also dehydrate some for backpacking meals.
This has multiple advantages. Most of the work is done in the cabin fever winter months when boredom reaches a peak and leaves the fast paced, busy summers free of peeling and preparing potatoes. Remember, the potatoes are only partially cooked so will still need to finish cooking along with that omlette, roast, meat loaf or whatever.