What do you store in your freezer?

[Flagwaver]

We finally bought an upright, frostfree freezer. Since there are only the two of us, our freezer isn't large---just 14 cubic feet. It is empty right now, and I want to make the best use of it for long-term storage.

Up till now, we have been working on storing food in our large pantry. Our existing LTS will last for 6months and we are adding to it weekly with a goal of 1 year of stored food. We have water storage.

Realizing that electric power can go out in emergencies and that freezer space is limited, what do you store in YOUR freezer?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Water bottles on the bottom so it will last till we get home if the power does go down.
Deer meat usually up to 6 in Oct-Nov, I try and cook and consume at least one pretty quick. Then it is just regular food items from there. If it's SHTF my plan in to begin drying it out ASAP on my firepit.
I dont use my freezer as a real LTS option because of the electricity and the time it may take me to get home if vehicles arent an option.

[protus]

food.

i dont use my freezer for any "preps"

[goatlady]

I have 2 large chest freezers because they hold the cold much better and longer than other styles. That said, I use the smaller one for appropriate medication storage, goodies like chocolate, yeast both for bread and wines, fruits until I have time in the winter to wine and jelly, same with veggies and butter. The larger freezer is used for main meats/poultry, freezing grains/rice to kill bugs, lots of water. I move a weeks worth of frozen foods from the chest freezers to the house fridge freezer each week so that helps me rotate. I do have a generator and fuel to keep those freezers going for 18 months at least which gives me time to get stuff canned up when not in a panic if need be. When there is no longer fuel/power I plan to use them for home grown grain storage or maybe portable root cellers.

[Klayton]

A tin of non-hybrid garden seeds.
Several pounds of cheap hamburger (cheap as in higher in fat, because we DO need fat and in SHTF, may be hard to get decent fat)
Several pounds of lunchmeats (FYI military has used frozen lunchmeats up to 6 months past their best if used by dates for Korea and Japan stationed Soldiers for well over a decade).
One shelf of comfort food (frozen waffles, ice pops, etc).

Share your ideas everybody. As mentioned above, I am now thinking of getting some yeast to add to freezer stock... :cool:

[1Admin]

The little freezer area on the bottom of our ConServ fridge keeps most of the meat we raise. Right now their is some deer, some goat, rabbit and probably some chicken in the far back. Probably the last of some peppers from late Fall also. It usually varies throughout the year. We keep nothing frozen long term but freezing meat we raise is more convenient for us and doesn't give that "lab expirement" feel to it like glass canning meats do.

[Klayton]

The little freezer area on the bottom of our ConServ fridge keeps most of the meat we raise. Right now their is some deer, some goat, rabbit and probably some chicken in the far back. Probably the last of some peppers from late Fall also. It usually varies throughout the year. We keep nothing frozen long term but freezing meat we raise is more convenient for us and doesn't give that "lab expirement" feel to it like glass canning meats do.

1Admin: freezing for a minimum of two weeks is also a good way to kill any parasites your livestock may have contracted unknowingly.

[kappydell]

Non-hybrid garden seeds saved and dried down in a glass jar. Meats to be used in rotation, 3 to 6 months or so worth, so I only have to purchase meats at sale prices. Containers of ice, both to keep the freezer frozen in short term power outages, and to store potable water in containers. An area kept clear to freeze bulk grain and bean purchases before moving them to pails, just in case they picked up any bugs. Sale bags of frozen veggies and fruits awaiting their turn at dehydration. Jerky - a lot of it - my prep partner and I both like it from ground round. Frozen butter (on sale). Bags of tomatoes, frozen whole during a tomato glut - To use, just run under hot water, rub off the skin, chop and throw in the pot of whatever calls for tomatoes. They get mushy, so wont work for salads, but work great for cooking.

My freezer of choice is a chest type - I have one over 40 yrs old still going strong, so when I got another for backup I got a chest type. My parents said they just keep going and going, and they were correct!

[monkeybird]

I have frozen several cans of Cristco, a pre-packaged tub of survival garden seeds, seeds from last years garden. I ended up with an extra frig. freezer, so I fill that space with food storage.

[Flagwaver]

Great suggestions. I think I will focus on vegetables, fruits, meat, and butter that are on sale. That will allow us to rotate good food and to save money long term. I have a FoodSaver, so I can vacuum pack the meat etc. in smaller portions. I really like the idea of freezing containers of water to protect the food in case of a power outage. That is something I never would have thought to do. Thanks!

[goatlady]

hat really handy is using some of those frozen 20liter bottles of water from the freezer in an ice cooler in the kitchen to act like a refrigerator during the day. Just keep rotating those bottles, or when they completely thaw you have some water to be using. Saves leftovers, and prevents opening the refridgerator during the day. Open once, load the cooler, and your good go do for the day.


BTW, remember cold air moves down, so I keep those frozen bottles at the top layer of the foods in the cooler and that way they all stay cold as the cold air sinks to the bottom.

[All Talk]

1) Remember there are many events that might disrupt food supply that won't necessarily disrupt elctricity that are still worth being prepared for holing up during (pandemic, civil unrest, martial law/curfews, trucker strike). Frozen foods still good for that.

2) Preps with limited shelf life can have suspensed "degredations" while frozen, so you could freeze iiems now and when the SHTF, shelf-life countown only starts then

3) See the ice-house discussion in another thread (homestead, I think). A chest-type freezer would be awesome for temporary refrigieration after loss of electricity if you occassionally put some big blocks of stored ice in it.

4) a broken chest freezer (with its insulation, etc) might make a poor-man's icehouse per that thread.

[Climber]

I have two very small chest freezers. 3.5 cf each. I bought these unit for one main reason. Together their startup and run wattage is lower than a 7 cf single freezer.

Having been without power in the past four or five times, I know that chest freezers are much better at keeping frozen than Upright freezer. After Elania in '85 we went four days without power and no genset. Our freezer stayed frozen from 11am Monday Labor Day till 8pm Thursday. 9 cf chest. Had maybe 6-1 gallon jugs with water on top. That was covered with 3" of news paper and then a heavy blanket. Then LOCKED. It was not opened, period. Had we gone longer without power, we would have opened it on Friday evening. It would have ok then.

When I leave overnight or longer, my two little freezers now are hooked to my homemade solar powered UPS. It has a set of batteries than runs a 1K inverter. They are charged with grid power or solar power if the grid plwer goes away. It ain't cheap, but not super high $$$$. It will run indefintly on the solar setup.

Thought my goal is to one day be all the way off the grid, I do what I can figure out for now.

Jimmy

[Klayton]

OK who is the engineer here?

Can you purchase the condenser and coils seperately in order to build a refrigerator/freezer?

Why? I am thinking the MAIN reason most of us fear an overnight power outage is because most freezers' lack adequate insulation.
I was looking at some old photos of me in the meat cooler back in the military days, our coolers had over 6 inches of insulation on all sides. I might even agree with 8 inches if someone stated it. The point? My current SHTF freezers both have less than 1 inch of insulation on the sides and back, and the front "may" have a full 1.5 inches of insulation.

How hard would it be to MAKE a seriously insulated freezer unit?

[All Talk]

I would look into the restaurant supply industry. Walk in coolers and freezers are common in many restaurants. they are probably sold by the component since layout and space differ so much.

A big thing about overnight power outages is not only insulation but maybe even more something called "thermal mass". Air has little thermal mass, so when the power goes out, it can only absorb a little heat before the temps start to rise (heat and temperature are two different things). I would suggest filling any excess space in your walk-in with barrells 90% filled with liquid water (which would become solid ice). For coolers, even liquid water helps.

Wine cellars stay cool even if you go in anod out a lot because the thermal mass of the wine more than makes up for the loss due to exchanging (low-mass) air.