I've never had to start sprouts/slips by placing SPs in water, it can become a stinky mess with nasty slime/mold rotting away at the potato. Periodically changing the water may help to hold down the growing mess. When I dig up mine in the fall I'll wash them off and store them inside on a multi-rack for future use. By about this time (Xmas) many will start sprouting slips without the need of water or anything else. By Spring they're loaded down with slips and I'll carefully carve off the slips and insert/plant them into old used cell packs with a mixture of seed starter and garden soil. Within 3 weeks they're ready to transplant outside. Plus I can still use the SPs that the slips were taken from. No mess, no fuss.

I'm going to try the frozen hash browns next season. I didn't know potatoes could be frozen and maintain quality! Sounds like a great idea! I do can most of mine. Our climate is too warm (hot) to leave them in the ground. I can in the sizes dictated by NCHFP and use them for anything I would normally use potatoes for. I add them to stews, French fries, hash browns, soups, mashed potatoes, etc. I just cut them to size, if needed, after opening the jar and rinsing and then prepare the dish as usual. I try to can as many items as possible because I have more pantry storage space than freezer space, plus shelf stable is more reliable as freezers have been known to go out.

Dorothy, To the best of my knowledge, Nesco is the only one with the heating elements in the sides which they call circle of heat. So it is really an oven, not a slow cooker, but can be used for that type dish as well. I made a mistake above and told you it was six quart, and that is wrong, it is five quart. The 6 quart is an oval shape and I wanted one that I could put a pan down inside, so the 5 quart worked better for me. There are some very good deals on this site but they don't seem to stay on the special page very long. I bought the little red one on the attached page because I wanted the porcelain cookwell and not the non-stick one. I was excited to find it for $30. Here is a link that might be useful: Nesco

Here are a couple of my favorites. Both could be made with ground turkey or chicken. Vegetable Burger Soup makes 10-12 servings 1 lb. ground beef or pre-cooked frozen ground beef 2 lbs. can stewed or diced tomatoes 1 1 lb. can tomato sauce 4 cups water 2 10 oz. pkgs mixed frozen vegetables (carrots, peas, corn, green beans) 1 envelope dry onion soup 2 t. sugar - white or brown Brown beef and drain off fat if using fresh. Thaw beef if using frozen precooked. Add rest of ingredients to soup pot or slow cooker. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer one hour if in pot on stove. Cook on low for 8 hours if in crock pot. I add diced cooked potato cubes to this after thawing the soup and before heating. Sometimes cooked potatoes become soft with freezing. You can use diced fresh onion if the onion soup is too salty. Taco Soup I used less meat and it was great; subbed some bulk sausage for some of the ground beef. I did not include the can of hominy. You could use no salt versions of the tomatoes and tomato sauce. Not sure what you could sub for the Ranch Dressing or taco mix. Maybe garlic and parsley for the Ranch and chili powder for the taco? 2 pounds ground round 1 large onion, diced 1 packet taco seasoning 1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch original dry mix salad dressing 1 can kidney beans (with liquid) 1 can pinto beans with jalapeños (with liquid) 1 can yellow hominy 1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies (Rotel) 2 cans stewed tomatoes (I use Mexican stewed tomatoes) 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce 1 cup of water Cook beef and onion until beef is browned, drain excess grease. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.