A long time ago, we used to dream about moving to the country (for us, we dreamed of moving to PEI). We used to pore over Greenspree’s blog and try to get a sense for what it was like on Prince Edward Island.
Somewhere along the way Greenspree wrote about converting a chest freezer into a super-energy-efficient fridge, and we thought it was a great idea. (Greenspree has lots of good ideas.)
All fridge, no freezer
A few months ago, we bought a chest freezer and reduced the freezer’s temperature, which, in effect, turned it into a fridge.
As a result, we had a big fridge–but no freezer compartment in which to store such necessities as ice cream healthy frozen fruit and frozen pizzas frozen items involving lentils because we’re really healthy like that.
So, without a freezer, we have just been staying away from frozen foods.
But now that the temperature has dropped below zero–sometimes dropping as far as twenty celsius below zero–we thought we’d buy a frozen pizza and store it in a box outside.
Well, it turns out that twenty below is a little too cold for frozen pizza. After a few days out in the cold, the pizza got all…freezer-burny.
But it still tasted good.
The other night on the show “the week the women went” they showed a woman who buried a metal garbage can in the ground and used it for a freezer in the winter……..no freezer burn. Might be worth a try…….except for the fact that right now the ground is to hard to dig LOL. In the summer she used it to store her “healthy” vegetables :0)
Delissio Ultimate with tomato and spinach. Looks good and tastes good. Sounds like just the treat for -20 weather. Enjoy…
Pizza parties are the best! ;-)
@Nora – Ooh, that’s like a root cellar! That is totally in our five-year plan. Not that we have a five-year plan, but I don’t imagine that we would get to root cellaring for a number of years yet. I’ve heard about the show “the week the women went,” although we are without television so I don’t actually get to partake in watching it.
@Gary – Thanks, Gary. Yes, a good pizza is sometimes in order. We used to get pizza delivered a lot when we lived in urbanity, but now that we live in the country it seriously costs almost $45 to get two pizzas delivered to our door so we’ve never done it here on PEI.
You don’t live far enough out if you can get delivery………I totally miss delivery. I’m going home for a visit in February and I’m going to order out everyday and eat at my favourite restaurants …….. this will not be a calorie free vacation :0) We have a root cellar but unfortunately the rats from the barn find there way into it…….so that went out the window very quickly. So we have two freezers for our garden vegetables and the chickens that we grow……..not much of a garden this year though……but I’ve found if you go to the local farmers you can get bulk bags 50lbs of produce for pretty cheap….where I work 50lb potatoes $8. But we are saved by the front porch its pretty cold in there so we use that.
Cool…. (sorry, no pun intended). Tell me (and that includes you too Andy) – what size freezers are you using? Aside from the lack of a place to store frozen pizza .. er… frozen wholesome foods, what are the drawbacks?
HA! We used to store stuff outside int he winter all the time growing up in Pennsylvania. My parents still do as it remains cold there (though not usually -20). My favorite was to use snow to chill the ice cream maker…hard to beat!
I’m curious – is that minus 20 C ? If so, that’s only minus 4 F and most home freezers are set at 0° F .
i cant believe it got freezer burn outside!! haha. frozen pizza is the BEST!
http://www.cbc.ca/thewomenwent/
Haven’t watched it yet but here is the link if you wanted to check it out.
Whilst living in the travel trailer, the fridge packed it in so I put all the meat outside in a plastic bag for the night.
The next morning, it was all gone, about ten packages, vanished mysteriously into the night.
I’m sure it was a raccoon, the little varmint!
@Nora – If you can’t get delivery, you’re too far out in the country! That’s it, that’s the threshold! I’ve just figured it out. :)
@Jypsy – Hmm, freezer size. Cam, where are you? You’re good at sizes. I think it’s an average sized freezer. (I know, that doesn’t answer the question.) The biggest thing that we miss is being able to keep frozen fruit, because we used to use it all the time–especially frozen blueberries, my favourite fruit. I would anticipate that once we get a really good garden growing we will need a freezer, but for now we don’t miss too much, actually.
@Warren – Ooh, ice cream making! I’ve never done it, to my knowledge. But I have eaten ice cream that has been created. (Does that count?)
@Kathy – Yes, I should mention which temperature I’m in, shouldn’t I? (I’ll edit the post.) But to answer the question, that’s minus twenty celcius, which is darn-tooting cold!
@Christy – Hehe, will wonders never cease! I really need to start discovering more interesting things other than discoveries involving frozen food…
@Amber – Thanks Amber, I’ll have to check it out. I’d like to be on a reality show. It might have to be an expose on women who are in all other respects rather normal, but they have issues with cleaning. Oh dear, wait, I have a million different ideas for terrible reality shows that I could be on. I must stop thinking about this now, or else I’ll get depressed.
@Kim – Blast! Darn animals! Aah well, I’ll bet the varmints enjoyed themselves immensely. :)