You may have an excess harvest of potatoes or, like me, bought a bunch at a ridiculously cheap price and don’t know what to do with them before they rot – do I have a solution for you!

With a name like Lemonade Lessons, you really can’t expect that all these posts come out as planned, right?

This was definitely a trial and error, but I’m very glad that it was a relatively cheap ERROR.

During a trip to our local Costco before the holidays, russet potatoes were on special for $2.36 for 15 lbs – that’s less than $0.16/lb! I may have bought 6 bags (90 lbs of potatoes for $14.16)! What do you do with nearly 100lbs of potatoes before they spoil?

Potatoes can be frozen, but that takes up valuable space you can use for meat. So what can you do?

With this predicament in mind, I had a feeling I could dehydrate them, but hadn’t tried it yet…Challenge accepted.

There is a reason this site is called Lemonade Lessons – not everything is perfect and this was DEFINITELY a lesson!

My smallest human really hates two things – eggs and POTATOTES. Recently, we discovered that he will eat hashbrowns – WIN! With the current surplus in mind, I delved into researching how to dehydrate potatoes (because even if the smallest human won’t eat them, we could still mash them and make them into other eats).

The information that I found said that you MUST blanch the potatoes or they will turn gray (doesn’t that sound appetizing?). Armed with this information, I peeled the potatoes, shredded them in the food processor, and boiled them for 5+ minutes before draining them and placing them in the dehydrator.

At first, they looked great, but after a while on the dehydrator, they started looking gray – which means they weren’t blanched sufficiently. I think the potatoes were packed too closely in the pot of boiling water and didn’t blanch sufficiently. Regardless, I could’ve used them, but they looked nasty so I tossed them into the compost (luckily it was only $1.50 or less loss).

After my initial failure, I looked for more information and found another method – instead of shredding then blanching, they cooked the peeled potatoes, then shredded and dehydrated, so I thought I would try it.

Success!!! (kind of…)

First, I peeled and boiled whole potatoes (I lost track of time, but it was around 20-30 min then turned off the burner while we read stories before naptime (adding additional cooking time)). After cooking, I attempted to remove the potatoes from the pot and they fell apart – too cooked…well – work with it!

The potatoes that cooked too long, I simply mashed them and put them on fruit roll sheets in the dehydrator – instant mashed potatoes!!!

I processed the second batch of potatoes (half a bag – 7.5lbs) the same way –

I peeled and boiled the whole potatoes for 20-30 min, drained immediately and cooled them in the fridge overnight and shredded them in the food processor and tossed them in the dehydrator at 125˚F for 14 hours (or until crispy).

After they were done in the dehydrator, I put them in an airtight jar with a dessicant pack and we’re ready to make hashbrowns – even if the power goes out and we have no freezer!

Here’s to potatoes without the risk of freezers or spoilage!

This whole experience shows that it may not always turn out right; if it doesn’t turn out right, you learn something; and you can always make something out of a less than ideal situation.

In a world of frustration, be flexible – turn upsets into growth.

Learn, grow, and enjoy!