# Life without a fridge



## I_don't_know (Sep 28, 2012)

I am kind of new to this cooking thing. The standing joke with my family is âI can build kitchens; I just canât use them.â I helped my dad build a new kitchen for my mom when I was nine. Since then I have set the stove on fire six times and burnt the house down once. :runforhills:


:huh:Well I am trying to turn a new leaf. I have made bread, and canned soup and fruit. The home is now in foreclosure and I may be soon be living on one burner, propane, with no refrigeration. So any input on life without a fridge would be appreciated. :shrug:


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Coolers.


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## tkrabec (Mar 12, 2003)

Root Cellars & fermented/preserved food.

Keep as much food alive as you can. (doesn't need fridge then)


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## Rick (May 10, 2002)

A few thougts:

Cooler inside another cooler with blanket or towel on top works well.

The bigger the ice block the better- if you can find a place to freeze 5 gallon buckets you can put that in the big cooler. 

We have had a 5 gallon bucket outside cooling food, refreezing on freezing nights and days for 4 weeks now.

Summer we can get 8 days in July as we eat the food, and eventually go shopping for produce.

This year we have only purchased 3 blocks when guests were coming to stay - we have a 12 volt freezer that we keep three pairs of frozen mixed nut containers in, and we rotate them 3 times a day. 

We have not had a rotten item since we left the civilized, huge box with chilled air blown on food days.


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## PlicketyCat (Jul 14, 2010)

We haven't had a refrigerator for 5 years. We do have a freezer though (DC/Solar).

We limit the amount of perishables that we have on hand to only 2-3 days worth and keep it in a cooler with blue ice blocks which we rotate through the freezer. We also have an evaporative chiller for things like butter and cheese -- a glazed terra cotta pot inside of a larger unglazed terra cotta pot filled with water or wet sand. Nearly everything we eat is either fresh that day/week, canned, dried or frozen. 

Since you won't have a freezer either, I recommend getting a 12v portable fridge or solar power cooler rather than relying on purchasing regular ice at the store every day (unless you have somewhere to swap out your blue ice blocks). Or just get fresh at the market in small quantities every day.


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## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

This might help for "long term cooling"
As a kid I helped my grandfather with this. He had a trench about 8 ft wide and 3 ft deep behind the house. He would pick stuff from the garden and put things in rows across the width of the trench. He tried to "mix" the produce as much as possible. Then he would cover with about 2 ft of saw dust.The trench was long enough that his whole garden would fit in it, and as soon as one row was done he'd start another until the trench was full and covered.
He also had a cistern in the basement that he kept things like milk and butter etc by lowering them into the water.
Once winter set in and there was little in the garden they would start using the produce in the trench and as much as possible they would have a great variety . He would dig the first row he had put in and it would have things like cabbage,lettuce raw green beans,carrots,apples you name it and it all kept pretty fresh. After digging about 10 feet up the trench the ice had set in on the pond and we would cut out slabs of ice about 8x8 ft and back the team of horses up to it and drag it to the trench where it was placed in the space the veggies had been and covered again with sawdust so that in the summer they had ice for their needs and the cycle continued in this manner. By the time the veggies were gone it was spring and by the time it got hot he had fresh ice.


Wade


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## jwal10 (Jun 5, 2010)

Springhouse, cellar and fresh each day as possible. Milk, butter and other dairy products are made every other day. Produce in the ground until used, covered with hoops. Life and food storage is not as tough as people think, they have gotten used to a fridge and take it for granted, that it is a necessity. When cold, use it to your advantage, hot eat as needed. If you work with the seasons, eat with the seasons it gets much easier....James


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## secuono (Sep 28, 2011)

Dig a big hole, 4-5ft deep. It'll stay relatively the same temp. Obviously, make an insulated top to keep it closed and cold. It'll stay about 40-50F year round.


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## I_don't_know (Sep 28, 2012)

Some Great Ideas, Thanks again.


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## mathchick (Aug 13, 2013)

cheese doesn't need to be refrigerated - starts molding after 3-4 days, but you can scrape the mold off. dh & I did this for a summer, worked great and have discovered how much better cheese is at room temp. 

Eggs fresh from the farm that haven't been washed also don't need to be refrigerated so long as they haven't been washed (which is why you'll run into problems with store-bought)

Same goes for a lot of things that people keep in the fridge. We're back to having a fridge since we're in an apartment, and I'm looking forward (I think) to being fridgeless again. It changed the way we thought about food - mostly fresh produce and dried goods (beans, lentils, rice, etc) and made life simpler. I hope you find it to be a positive experience as well.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

with no fridge you just have to plan or no leftovers . canned goods don't need refridgeration and as this is winter a cooler can be kept out side to keep varmits out of your milk . if you are on a farm fresh meat(things like chickens n rabbits) can be kept on the hoof till your ready to cook it same with milk . my anseters kept salted pork- side meat and ham; hanging in a smoke house . they had a spring house to keep things cool but they never kept milk long because they milked every day sold cream or made butter and fed the skim milk to the pigs . they canned a LOT even though they had a fridge they didn't want to put much trust in a freezer as rural power gos out a lot . sounds like it may be a while till you will be able to have a fresh produceing garden . so just plan dinners around canned goods also powdered milk can be made as needed . hope things look up for you in the new year


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## I_don't_know (Sep 28, 2012)

Thanks for all the great ideas! When I lived on board I coated the eggs in Vaseline. They lasted about 4 months. You did have to turn them over every few days. I kept them in Tupperware down in the bilge. 
Thanks again.


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## Rick (May 10, 2002)

I wonder how much electricity is wasted ($$$ flushed)

in climates where the fridge could be built into the wall, super insulated all around... Winter cold thermostically allowed in, and electrically chilled as needed in warm weather?


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## StaceyS (Nov 19, 2003)

Our fridge just went out last week, and I am not as freaked out as I thought I'd be, we do have a cooler with some ice for meats that we cooked not knowing we wouldn't have a fridge. Have a freezer downstairs in the basement and all my "fresh" produce is being kept in our unheated spare bedroom.


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## I_don't_know (Sep 28, 2012)

Rick said:


> I wonder how much electricity is wasted ($$$ flushed)
> 
> in climates where the fridge could be built into the wall, super insulated all around... Winter cold thermostically allowed in, and electrically chilled as needed in warm weather?


In thinking about building a home I have planed to put the fridg. on the outside wall. I planed a door so I could get to the coils to clean them. then solid foam insulation on the inside walls that would project out just a bit to meet the insulation on the door. 

Your right the fridg can be a great wast of money. But they do come in handy.


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## jeeper55 (Feb 24, 2008)

You might want to think about building you next kitchen outdoors.lol. just kidding.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

jeeper55 said:


> You might want to think about building you next kitchen outdoors.lol. just kidding.


 instead of a deck I have been working on my out door kitchen for over a year as timeand money allows' and have finnaly got to use it ,a summer kitchen is nothing new really in farm homes wherea lot of canning is done its a life saver . with mine built on the shady side of the cabin I hoked uu a salvaged SS sink for washing veggies ect built a table for chopping and clamping tools to added a hand me down propain stove built a big ply wood canit to get all the canners and MT jars out of my interior space along with the freezers .and now its my favorate place :hysterical:


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## postroad (Jan 19, 2009)

I have wondered if I should take all my coolers and fill them with water in the winter, let them freeze and then store them in an insulated building for the summer time.

I have 80 coolers so that would be a fair amount of ice for summer.


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