The best way to store yams so they do not rot

You know how when you stack crops on top of other stuff, the bottom ones are always going to get bad first, right? And by the time you realize it, the ones on the bottom has already gone dark and wet and made everything above it weird too. That's the problem with yam storage.

The trick with storing yams is to put them on a wooden rack where you can see every yam and touch them with your fingers to see how they feel. A yam that's starting to go bad doesn't show it with color, instead there's a small usual spot on the outside of the yam, when you push on it, there's too much that makes it obvious, the skin looks fine but underneath the skin it's breaking down.

Sometimes you might think that putting yams in the fridge will help them stay fresher longer, but they usually come out after you've waited too long and are bad. Not rotten really, but something about the cold has done something weird to them that even cooking won't fix.

If you spread them out to give them good airflow, it doesn't cost any money. So why don't people do it? Because to do it, you have to check them every few days. It takes real discipline to go check them instead of assuming they're fine. The yams you don't check are going to teach you the most.

Price is an important part of it too. Right now it costs a lot to buy a yam and any time you lose three yams to rot because you weren't paying attention, that is a very specific type of waste, it's waste because of laziness. But this whole strategy of storing them on racks has been around longer than any prices. There's somebody in this world who has figured this out by losing as many yams as they'll ever lose to know how to do it right. Don't let experience teach you when examples can