Filling the fridge and freezer
Space in
our freezer is suddenly starting to get tight, something that never
happened last year. Pretty soon, I'm going to have to make a
decision --- stop freezing and start giving produce away, turn on one
of our inefficient freezers, or buy another energy
star model.
Such bounty!
I also harvested about
half of our potatoes Monday because I needed the space for fall
peas. The average yield per bed was about 6.5 pounds (from about
1 pound of seed potatoes per bed.) Yukon Golds aren't the most
productive potatoes, but I'm still a bit blown away at the sheer mass
of tubers I grubbed out of the soil. If we had only a tiny bit of
ground and were desperate to feed a family, potatoes would be the way
to go.
At the moment, our
potatoes are cooling it in our refrigerator's crisper drawer.
Even though we downgraded to a much smaller and more efficient
fridge last year, I still run the fridge about half empty most of
the time. I'm a strong believer in keeping close tabs on
leftovers and eating them within two days, so there's plenty of space
for a few dozen pounds of potatoes. Still, we're going to have to
excavate the refrigerator
root cellar soon and
put it back to work --- I've got three more beds of potatoes to
harvest, and the fall carrots are finally starting to germinate in the
garden.
Or explore more posts by date or by subject.
About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.
Do you guys ever pressure can?
I ask because I have a tiny freezer that fills too full every year, and a canner that needs a new seal, so I'm really hoping to learn to can meat and low acid veggies this year.
We were thinking about getting an upright freezer for the garage for the excess, but I do think the convenience of the canned things would be really nice.
Congrats on your great freezer filling harvest!
Is that "canning" as in metal cans, or as in Weck jars?
Metal cans are usually coated with epoxy resin on the inside to prevent corrosion, and I'm hearing more and more about potential release of bisphenol-A from hydrolisis of epoxy. Also, metal cans aren't easily re-usable.
I recently bought a couple of weck look-alike jars for storing leftovers in the fridge. I tended to use PE containers, but is it nearly impossible to clean plastic containers properly after storing stews that contain either tomatoes or curry in them. Both color and to a leser extent taste seem to seep into the material. The glass jars should do a lot better in that respect. They're easier to clean properly as well. Pretty much nothing sticks to glass when you rinse it with hot water and soda.
I've eaten stuff that has been stored in the fridge in a closed container for about a week without problems. And the two times that I contracted food poisoning were both from store-bought items!
My sister sometimes cooks home-made jam when strawberries are cheap. Best jam I've ever tasted. I keep a couple of real Weck jars on hand just in case she has any left!
Canning as in Mason jars. (A bit like Weck jars, but you buy a new lid each year to ensure a proper seal --- another reason I don't like them.) I know it's odd to call it canning, but that's what everyone says!
We use plastic containers for storing leftovers in the fridge and in the freezer. They're quite reusable, although I agree that tomato stains things.
My leftover policy isn't so much to prevent food poisoning as to prevent food spoilage. I've discovered that if I can't keep track of everything in the fridge in my head, some of it goes bad. Why work so hard to grow something then have to throw it to the chickens?
Why not just use a non-permanent marker to write the date and contents on the outside of the container? If the non-permanent marker won't stick try roughening the surface with scotchbrite or something like it.
A CD/DVD marker also works on PE containers, but is harder to remove.
Since I rarely have more than two containers in the fridge, I don't bother, but if you have lots it should work.