Food vs. Energy

We've gotten to the point in our freezer where something's got to give - we're pushing capacity here. We've canned as much stuff as possible, but some things are just much better in the frozen form - eggplant for instance. Besides everything we've got stuffed in there already, there's our new batch of produce from PA that's got to fit in there as well. What's a local eater to do?

I've been contemplating the idea of getting a small chest freezer for the garage. I went back and forth on it for awhile - is the amount of additional energy expended to run the freezer worth the amount of food that we're putting away for the winter? It would be kind of stupid to try to use up all of the energy we've saved from buying local produce on storing it for a couple of months. Plus those freezers aren't exactly cheap, so we would have to factor that cost in.

To complicate things, I was looking for no-refrigeration food ideas for a three day canoe trip we had planned, and came across Little Blog in the Big Woods. This guy and his family don't even have a refrigerator, and haven't had one for 30 years. Hmmm. That really got me thinking about the possibilities of living totally green and how much further we could take it. Don't get me wrong - we're not getting rid of our fridge - it's just that the thought had never even occurred to me. Ever. It really does make a lot of sense, though, especially for people who live in cities and can walk on down to their local market to pick up fresh food every day. It's a little different if you're in a rural or suburban area and have to drive into "town" to get your food, or if you rely on the twice a week Farmers' Market. I wonder if the fuel you'd use driving around to get all that food every day would negate the energy expense of the refrigerator. It's an interesting thing to ponder, and that's just what I plan to do - you can do so as well by reading his post.

As a side note to my "To Freeze, or Not to Freeze" dilemma:
I was mid-deliberation the week before we left for PA, when our neighbor called and wanted to know if we wanted the free freezer her friend is giving away. I kind of took that as a sign, since she didn't know we were thinking of getting a freezer, just thought maybe we'd want it. And it's free. So we've decided to go for it - Sal's picking it up this week and we're going to work on packing it full, since a full freezer actually uses less energy than a kind-of-full one. I'm going to do some research on the energy use and let you know how it goes...