We just harvested our potatoes. Athough I'm certainly not an expert my experience is that they don't really grow any more after the foliage is going as this is their energy supply. It doesn't hurt to leave them in the ground awhile to 'cure' but I'm not one for mucking around out there once the rains come when I'm in the mood for potatoes. We have also had some gopher problems and I would like to eat them before they get chewed on! If you have a cool dark place to store them I'd say it's as good a time as any. We use five gallon buckets with a loose cloth draped over the top. If you wash them off make sure they're not all wet when you store them. Never refrigerate as this does alter the starch content.