The Goods Are Odd

I loved the small flurry of attention to the tiny kitchen a few months ago and I definitely feel the constraints of space don’t constrain my ability to cook big delicious meals. I even appreciate the limits as I must have less tempting and expensive kitchen gadgets and it takes less time to clean. Living well with less is just what we are doing now, but there are certainly things I would change if I could define exactly what I had less of. In the “I would choose to have more of this” category would absolutely go Freezer Space. There are some things that make living well with less just way WAY easier. An efficient and well-designed work and living space is pretty key and that includes good storage.

Traditional preserving methods require good storage for canned goods, ideal places to ferment, and cool dark places for dry goods. Not as traditional but very acceptable to me is the freezer. Probably the best modern strategy for keeping fresh foods available throughout the year. Freezing makes sense for us because we just don’t eat that much, so to not let something go to waste, it goes in the freezer.

Or it would.

I made stock (that I think I could have just canned??), we have meat scraps for the dog, meat for us, coffee, strawberries, apples, and thats about it. If I could I would have bread frozen to have on hand, sourdough starter, a ton of fruits, veggies, and fresh herbs (frozen in icecubes) from when they were in season, pasta doughs. The list is long, and the freezer is tiny.

So important to eating well in a more whole and local way is the freezer that even those who gave up their daily use of the refrigerator are still likely to have a freezer buzzing away in the basement. The New York Times just did this story about environmentally minded folks who have given up their fridge and are doing just fine with the change. They have essentially an “ice box” instead and they don’t keep cool many things that really don’t need it. Eggs, butter, certain condiments like homemade salad dressing don’t need to be kept chilled (if their ingredients of oil and vinegar don’t why should the combination?).

This is one of those lifestyle changes that would work a lot better if you could go to market everyday and had a garden in which to keep your vegetable and a cow to keep your milk. Much traditional processing that makes food even better comes from the need to preserve, like culturing dairy and fermenting or pickling fruits and vegetable. The more of that you do the less fridge space you need. But I would say that scale down is probably easier than a total removal.

So using energy may not be the greenest way to preserve food, but I think of all the culprits of things that make us wasteful and not as healthy it is pretty low on the list. And if I could I would use even more energy on a new big freezer.