Sorry it's been a while. Should have something to say. Life going on as usual. Loving the change from summer to fall. Cool nights and warm days. Family is great--though sometimes we are frustrated with each other. Garden is doing really well. The greenhouse is pumping out tomatoes which I have to get around to canning. Some interesting ferments on the way: pickled beans, kraut made from kohlrabi.
Our fridge broke which has been a challenge. Annoyingly it's only 4 years old which pisses me off. But it's now been two weeks and more since we've had it. There's always something else which needs a new part. I'm at the point where I think we should just forget about a fridge but that's a step too far (for now).
We've been living out of a cooler and our chest freezer. We freeze yogurt pots full of water and use them to keep our food cool. Inside the cooler we have dill pickles (cucumbers), miso, almond milk, mayo (always!), earth balance, butter, fish oil and a few leftovers. We have given up refrigerating ketchup and tamari and all that. You know that in the UK it doesn't say 'refrigerate after opening' on ketchup bottles.
We have stopped making leftovers which is a challenge for me since I like to make big meals and make them stretch over a few days. Sometimes I freeze things but our freezer is quite full (and disorganized) too. I know a couple of guys in Halifax who do without a fridge happily and just do the same thing. They have been doing it for years now. A bit more organization but way more energy efficient (not that that means the big corp that runs the power here will be burning less coal and that's the whole efficiency problem).
I read this interesting book called World Made by Hand, imagining a future without the oil economy. In it the characters had this interesting stone house near a stream which was essentially like a refrigerator. They even kept a human body in it once before burial. Makes me think that would be an interesting idea since our brook never freezes and runs cold all year round. But going out to the brook for butter seems painful.
Oh such spoiled humans!
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Hi Thom,
ReplyDeleteI was just cleaning up my Mail and came over the one with the link to your blog.
I really like to read about how life is going on over there ,-) We came back to Austria two weeks ago and are staying with Hannas Mum now for a week.
You write that going out to the brook for butter seems painful. Why don´t you bring the brook into the house? I know it sounds crazy, but that was the way people refrigerated stuff for centuries. They made a ditch from the brook upstream to a room attached to their house and from there back to the brook downstream. In the room you have flowing water to cool stuff and when you insulate the room right you can use it as a fridge altogether, like a little walk-in-fridge. I hope you get the concept. Maybe you find something in the Internet about ,-) I read a book about it ... can´t remember the name ´... if it comes back to me (i have written it down somewhere in my stuff, that I will sort in the next months) I´ll send it to you!
Hope you guys are doing well!!
Laurenz (Greets from Hanna as well)
P.S. Could you send me the vegan recipes sometime ... would be great!