Tuesday, March 24, 2009

More fridgeless living links ...

... for the doubters, much as I love them!

Little Blog in the Big Woods whose writer 'Greenpa' has been fridgeless for 3 decades.

'Don't Fight Room Temperature'
- an Economist article ensuing from the discussion Greenpa started on his blog.

'Trashing the Fridge' - the New York Times gets in on the act.

Sharon Astyk asking - how necessary are fridges and several other appliances?

Robyn M's blog post pondering fridgeless living.

Or just google fridgeless ...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cool! I don't have a fridge and it's always good to get new ideas on that. I find yoghurt the hardest thing to manage as it will keep but the taste goes strange. Still, yoghurt originates in fridgeless cultures (bad pun sorry). Also I buy raw dairy so am learning the old ways of keeping that that you can't do with pastuerised dairy eg clabbering cream (yummmm).

I do the reheating thing daily if the food is easy to reheat eg stews will get reheated for 3 or 4 days. They taste better and better too as the week goes on, that's the great thing about traditional ways of keeping food. Unrefrigerated yoghurt might be an acquired taste then?

Often I keep things in glass jars sitting in a stainless steel bowl with water in it. And I have an old metal meat safe. Mostly I don't like cold food - that's probably more of a motivation for me than saving electricity.

My mum grew up in a farm with no fridge so I'm picking her brains too.

And most of the year it's really not a problem anyway, eh?

Having said all that I do use a freezer because I don't shop that often eg the dairy I can only get once every two or three weeks so I freeze some. When we have house cows again I won't even have to do that :-D

kate.

Johanna Knox said...

Hi Karen - thanks for your great thoughts! Yes - I'm going to have o adjust to reheating rather than refrigerating and having leftovers cold!

What sorts of things do you keep in the glass jars in bowls of water? (Is it stuff like yoghurt etc.?)

I make yoghurt and cheese from raw milk, and enjoy them at room temperature, and will be counting on that as a way to have dairy all week round (we only buy milk once a week).

Interesting that you don't like cold food. I suppose in fact that cold food is quite unnatural in a lot of environments.

Johanna Knox said...

..Oh! And house cows! Yes! The perfect way to keep milk fresh. :o) Wish that was an option for us on our little suburban property. A mini cow would be nice. :o)

Anonymous said...

I'm counting on other people having the cows ;-) I just think it will become normal again to buy milk from our neighbours.

I keep soups in glass jars in water. Or any dairy. Or herbal teas and infusions. Sauces. Anything that is easy to get in and out of a jar. I'm big on glass jars, don't like keeping stuff in plastic so much and being fridgeless certainly suits glass better. Plastic tends to float and not be as cool.

I just came across a method of keeping cheese too, where you wrap it in damp cheesecloth, something like that. Haven't tried it yet.

Have you looked at the coolgardie fridges (australia)? And zeer pots (africa)? Both use evaporation to keep food cool.

Johanna Knox said...

Hi Kate - no I didn't know about the zeer pots or the coolgardie fridge. Thanks! I went and looked them up on your recommendation just now.

So that opens up some possibilities for going fridgeless in hotter temps then ...

And wrapping the cheese in damp cloth (presumably also the evaporation principle?) sounds interesting. Would love to hear how it goes if you try it. Would it work with other thngs too I wonder?

Johanna Knox said...

Oh! And sorry Kate for calling you Karen in my first reply!! Distracted ...

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