We bought our 20 cu ft upright freezer over 20 years ago. It’s been through five moves and spent the first few years of its life in garages that got pretty warm in the summer and cold in the winter. Though we haven’t had any problems with it, I fear it could die any day now. I need to have a plan for when it happens so that we don’t lose that valuable food.
Like others who have dedicated freezers, we use it to buy our meat once or twice a year straight from the rancher. Right now based on what we paid for the side of beef last month, that freezer is holding over $2,000 in food. What would I do if the freezer decided to die overnight?
What would you do? Do you have a plan? I mean, after the screaming is over.
Plan A here involves a quick trip into town to buy a new freezer—a chest freezer this time. They are so much more efficient than uprights and you can pack more food in them without risking injury from a large roast falling onto your toes when you open the door. (We got the upright freezer because I decorated wedding cakes professionally at the time.) But what if Plan A isn’t an option? What if, like last year, there aren’t any freezers for sale? How do you keep from losing all that food?
Checklist for Before the Freezer Dies
- Ice chests
- Canning jars and new lids
- Pectin
- Sugar
- Pressure canner
- Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers
- Dehydrator
- Food Saver and bags or attachment for using with canning jars
- Crockpot
- Smoker
- Salt
With any luck, it will be winter and the cold temperatures will give us some more time. Here are some other thoughts to keep in mind in your quest to preserve as much food as possible.
Alternative cooling options
- Dry ice, about 2.5-3 pounds per cubic foot.
- Friends and family may have spare freezer space and could help you out for a little while. It may cost you a package of steaks.
- Rent commercial freezer space.
- RVs. If you’ve got a trailer or other RV with a refrigerator or freezer, fire it up and fill it.
- Ice chests. Fill ice chests, packing as compactly and densely as possible. Put the ice chests in a cool, shady area out of the sun and protected from breezes. Cover with blankets to help insulate even better.
According to the good folks at the Clemson Cooperative Extension, a full freezer will keep food safe for 2 days. A half-full freezer will do so for only one day. The longer you can keep everything frozen or really cold, the more time you have for preserving what thaws in the meantime.
Most of the following suggestions for saving food from a dead freezer assume that there is still electricity.
Now take a look at your most expensive foods, the ones you most want to preserve. For many of us, that’s going to be the meat. And what are your options for preserving it?
MEATS
- Can. Make sure you have canning jars and canning lids available at all times. If your jars are full, are there any you can empty so that you are able to can the meat? This is a good option for hamburger, stew meat, and roasts. Of course, you aren’t limited to these. All cuts and types of meat may be pressure canned. Do not use a water-bath canner for this. Be sure to follow the instructions in an approved canning guide.
- Bake. This is my favorite way to cook bacon. Place the strips on a cookie sheet at bake at 275-300°F until they reach the desired doneness and then pack them in Tupperware or freezer bags. You’ll get a few weeks from them in the refrigerator, perhaps enough time for you to acquire another freezer.
- Brine. I haven’t actually done this yet, but my husband does it every Thanksgiving with our turkey. It buys you a little time.
- Smoke. Smoking the meat will give you a few months.
- Dehydrate. This is a really good option for hamburger. Roasts can be thinly sliced for making jerky.
- Freeze-dry. Do you know anyone with a freeze dryer that can help you out? They can’t put more than ten pounds of food in there per load, but still, that’s ten pounds that you didn’t waste.
- Crockpot. Ribs take up so much space for the amount of meat on them—they go into the crockpot for dinner that night and perhaps the next night as well.
I think I would cry if I couldn’t get a freezer in time to save the steaks. If that’s the case, they can be canned just like any other meat, or you can have everyone over for a barbecue.
FRUITS
Fruits are next on the list here. (Really, what are you more attached to—the home-grown strawberries or the shredded zucchini?) Unfortunately, we don’t have as many options for preserving them. Fortunately, the options we do have don’t take as much time and effort as meats do.
- Can. Can the fruits as is or turn them into jam, jelly, preserves, or syrup.
- Dehydrate. Dehydrating fruits as is or turn them into fruit leather. Pureeing them into leather will let you preserve more fruit more quickly. Dehydrated fruits can also be powdered in a blender or food processor. The powders can them be added to yogurt or smoothies.
- Freeze-dry. Again, if this is an option, you can only do about ten pounds at most per load. And you usually can’t run more than one load per day.
VEGETABLES
The options for vegetables are about the same as for fruits, with an important exception.
- Can. Vegetables must be pressure canned.
- Dehydrate. Vegetables should usually be blanched before dehydrating for best results. Dehydrated veggies can be used as is in casseroles and soups, or they can be powdered and added to thicken soup. They can also be added to breads to change things up a bit. Tomato and spinach powder are both good for coloring tortillas.
- Freeze-drying is also an option for vegetables.
There are a number of foods that we often freeze but which can be kept safely at room temperature for a few days:
- Butter
- Chocolate
- Grains
- Hard cheeses
- Nuts
If you happen to get your freezer repaired or get a replacement delivered in a timely manner, the following foods are safe for re-freezing:
- Those that still have ice crystals in them.
- Those that have not been held at temperatures above 40°F for more than 2 hours.
- Those that have been refrigerated at 40°F or less for less than 2 days.
· Note that raw chicken should never be re-frozen.
Links to related posts:
References:
https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/food-safety-in-freezer-failure/
27 december 2021
Perhaps I miss your point? You're waiting for failure and have several ways to preserve before spoilage? OK.
ReplyDeleteBUY a REPLACEMENT Chest Freezer TODAY. One is NONE, two is one. Power requirements for a decent chest freezer is tiny compared to an upright refrigerator.
Have you forgotten how hard it is to get a freezer when everybody is getting one? Or the "Supply Chain Issue"? Or that your new freezer *might* be a dud and you need to use the return policy and hope for better luck next time?
Why? Have you noticed prices on anything going DOWN in the recent history? There WILL BE A reduction in the price of Beef due to the massive (arson?) fire in beef country TX.
Lack of grazing will FORCE Beef Ranchers to sell what they CANNOT FEED. Smarter ones will preserve their best breeding stock and those will not go to market. Flooding the market with beef will force a drop in prices until excess beef is adsorbed by the market.
THEN the price of Beef will rise dramatically.
Sort of like the "price of gasoline" going "Down" to boost a political parties' polls briefly.
They just eliminated Federal Taxes on Gasoline. Since that PAYS for Highway repairs and bridges I suppose they will just Print MOAR money instead of those taxes.
Please buy yourself a good freezer, put in on an uninterruptable power supply that PROTECTS your freezer from power surges and dirty power.
Well, sometimes I guess I just don't get the point across very well.
DeleteOf course, we should already have the replacement freezer. However, at the time I originally wrote this article, my husband wanted all the spare cash to go toward a desperately needed car, and he wanted to pay cash--which we eventually did. Sometimes we need to compromise with our spouses. (And then hope for the best.)
However, the real point is, we are not all in the same situation in life. As you know, I started this blog mainly for my children. Only one son is married with his own home. That family has one freezer, with plans and funds to purchase another if he gets an elk tag this year. Another son is married, trying to go to school (but had to drop out again this semester due to illness), and living in a very tiny apartment. There's realistically no place for a spare freezer. Lydia is getting married in less than three weeks, and she and her husband will be living in a tiny apartment as well while he finishes putting her through school. They probably won't have any place for a spare freezer either, and even if they did, as newlyweds they might have different financial priorities. Do these couples just throw in the towel and throw that food away? Or do I share some options for how they might preserve it?
What about any number of other families that aren't as far along as we in our preparations? What if they are lacking in space? Finances? Spousal support? What if they chose to prioritize water preps (filters, well, etc.) before getting a freezer, and then their freezer died? I think we all need solutions.
Sometimes I write, "You need to do this. You need to do that." But I don't like to do that a lot. It gets old. I wrote this article in the first-person, what "I" personally could do if my freezer suddenly died. What I hope is that my children and other blog readers will see what they could do if they found themselves in a similar situation.
Excellent response Jennifer. Compromising with your beloved spouse IS Indeed an excellent thing. She supports my homesteading (indeed enjoys a lot of it, still on the fence about butchering) and I support her vacations. I've trusted friends that homestead sit for me and I for them.
DeleteI could offer solutions to every situation you described but they would be variations of FAMILY SUPPORT.
I've done a fair bit of canning, dehydrating and such. Never found the funds to buy a freeze dryer but they sound interesting. The solar firewood/food dehydrator seems to handle my needs well enough.
Tiny apartments and small tight budgets don't do well in the let's can a whole freezer situation.
Having trusted friends and family to transfer the soon thawing meats IS efficient.
Part of my own chest freezer is full of a friends processed deer he shot on my land. It's his family meat and I authorized him a year of space in my chest freezer before a new agreement is required. I've found over my 60+ years that firm agreements keep friendships strong. Otherwise, He said, she said destroys them.
Priorities are essential. Should I buy a 2500 dollar (current price Before accessories and supplies) small Harvest Right Freeze Dryer or 2500 dollar's worth of 5 gallon pails, lids and shelf stable supplies?
I could list things like water filters and so on, but you already understand my point here.
I'm pretty sure I've mentioned having a place to go to if trouble occurs as not to become a refugee. Someone living in a tiny apartment is not likely to be well outside a city or large town. Both subject to serious social unrest issues.
And thus, having supplies and extra clothing already at your place of refuge (yes, I'm literate of BOM and Pearl) helps you to not be an empty handed refugee.
Enjoy the blog. Did you see my answer to the Dunning-Kruger Effect? Doing is my cure.
Yes, I finally went and responded over at that article. Sometimes I miss comments. Sometimes I'm tired and then forget to go back. And sometimes I can't think of anything intelligent to say.
DeleteWe learned the importance of having clothing and medications at our son's house 10 minutes away from here when the bomb squad was called out to the ranch at the end of our street--the only way out from here (other than on foot)--for some old, sweating dynamite. They closed the road for several hours, and no one was permitted to pass for any reason.
If the freeze dryers are down to $2500 for a small (the old medium), that's a pretty good deal. But again, depends on your situation. For my husband, a type-1 diabetic, being able to preserve eggs, cheese, other dairy, and meat is a huge blessing--one my daughters chose to gift us with for Christmas a few years back. I really love it.
However, I feel a lot of purchases take priority over the freeze dryer. Food storage staples, canning jars, a pressure canner, water filter, freezer, solar, yeah, a lot of other things come first.
Agree about that 2nd freezer. Mostly though... There are refurbished freeze dryers available now that can help with the hefty price tag. I bought mine in 2017 and it has been workhorse. I use the freezers for interim storage only.... and freeze dry meat, veg, fruit and culinary/medicinal herbs, and sometimes prepared meals. I have enough solar power to run it if I am careful so that I can protect my future harvests. What I don't have is a backup FD, which I really need to fix. Today i have a load of berries processing that I'll powder and store for smoothies, etc. (Love your blog, very grateful for the time you put into it.)
ReplyDeleteI have been looking at our upright freezer as just interim storage as well. I much prefer have our food already processed--canned or freeze-dried--as I feel that having to put less time into meal prep in the challenging days ahead will prove to be a huge blessing.
DeleteLucky you berries to process. All I see outside is melting snow around my berry bushes.
ReplyDeleteFrozen berries stll left from last season... we have a bull going to.slaughter on Sat and need freezer space. Our first one, so this will be a new experience. Our garden is almost half laid in already (TX) and will be a much bigger harvest if we are fortunate... takes a bit of planning to get it all done.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree with the comment about two is one and one is none, I don't have the budget of the US military at my disposal. I agree with the premise of the article that having a plan B is essential and that plan B should not have any of the same components of the plan that just failed.
ReplyDeleteWhile the author's assumption is that the freezer itself has failed and needs to be replaced, let us take that one step further and say that it failed because there is no power available or the failure occurred during a SHTF scenario. My plan B is to can everything possible, smoke or dehydrate what I can, and share with my tribe what I can't preserve. My plan C is to use backup power sources to intermittently run the freezer if it is still functional to buy some time until the contents can be preserved or consumed.