Anyway, as with most purchases, I embarked on a lot of research before selecting what we were going to buy. I’ll admit I’m a little OCD on the pre-purchase research. Perhaps it’s the engineer in me. I generally buy things new and keep them forever, so I want to make sure I’m getting the best product available at a given price. From flashlights to power tools, and from knives to drip irrigation, I read comments on product websites, join forums devoted to enthusiasts, and watch YouTube reviews.

Anyway, I thought I’d share my fridge research results, written from a homesteading standpoint, as it might prove useful to someone else. Refrigeration options are presented from most efficient to least efficient. My definition of “efficiency” will most likely differ from yours. For the sake of this post, efficiency is: “minimizes the cost to purchase, operator, and maintain”.

The Options

• 1st Place: No Refrigerator – This may seem extreme, but hear me out. Humans have somehow survived for 1000’s of years without mechanical refrigeration, and despite all the scary warnings on product labels and food safety bulletins, you can too! The first online anti-refrigeration voice was perhaps GreenPa, so I’ll just post a link to his post: No Refrigeration for 30 Years. Our experience agrees with him. Many people use their fridge as a cupboard for items that don’t need refrigeration, such as condiments and oils. Many vegetables do well without refrigeration (such as onions, potatoes, and tomatoes) and others do fine if you keep them wrapped to retain moisture (brassicas, greens). We haven’t refrigerated butter for the last two years and it’s fine. (We leave a pound out at a time. The rest is in the freezer. It does get a little soft on 95° days, and a little hard when it’s 37° inside.) We also let meat defrost on the counter (no fridge space) and we’ve occasionally used GreenPa’s method of keeping leftovers sterile .. although usually in the winter. Admittedly, we’ve never been truly fridge-less, but I think we could manage. There would be some complaining (sorry Robin), and some wilted celery (and green peppers), but it would be efficient! (It would also be much easier if we kept our chest freezer, which I find to be very useful.)
  • Purchase: free
  • Yearly: free
• 2nd Place: Passive Refrigeration – Most people are familiar with the root cellars of the early American pioneers. These were passively cooled high-humidity food storage structures. We once talked about building a root cellar here (an earth bag dome actually), but the reality is that Oregon’s moderate winter temperatures make it largely unnecessary. Storing food in the outbuilding which will house our well pressure tank should provide a temperature moderated space. For indoor passive cooling, an icebox is your best bet. An icebox might sound hopelessly antiquated, but a modern version could use high R-value foam and gaskets to be extremely well insulated. If you have a chest freezer like us, then frozen one gallon water jugs would provide a convenient source of ice. I like the fact that an ice box can look like a piece of furniture instead of a big metal appliance. Other options for passive cooling include the cold pantry (built over a stream or earth buffered) and the Coolgardie safe (an evaporative cooler). Passive cooling systems generally have no moving parts, can be built from readily available materials, have low operating costs, but require regular interaction to maintain. The icebox would provide the most consistently cool temperatures, but relies on a working freezer (small chest freezers are cheap though).
  • Purchase: free – $500
  • Yearly: free – $30?
• 3rd Place: Converted Freezer – Freezers are cheaper to buy than refrigerators, better insulated, and cool more quickly. The next most efficient method of refrigeration is to buy a freezer and convert it to a refrigerator. For some upright models, this is as simple as flipping a switch. For a much more efficient refrigerator, you can buy a chest freezer and convert it with a simple control circuit. The resulting chest refrigerator is about 10x more efficient than an equivalently sized modern upright fridge. (Less than $5 a year operating costs.) I was a big fan of this option, but Robin held out on the negatives: a chest fridge would take up more floor space and much of the space is hard to access. True. Effective use would require some form of pop-up racks like the fridge in William Lishman’s house.
  • Purchase: $400
  • Yearly: $5
• 4th Place: Used Refrigerator – A good deal on an older model refrigerator seems like the perfect homestead solution, but not so fast! Refrigerators of 30 years ago were built like tanks and many are still running today, but their operating costs can be very high. Even 10 year old refrigerators (the ones that haven’t quite worn out yet) can cost twice as much to operate as a new fridge. Ultimately, a bare-bones new fridge and that cheap used one are likely to cost about the same (when averaged over their lifespan). The other concern with a used fridge is that you may be buying someone else’s lemon, and repairs can be expensive.
  • Purchase: free – $1000
  • Yearly: $80 – $200
• 5th Place: New Refrigerator – It’s certainly the most convenient, but buying a new refrigerator is probably the least efficient option. All the various brands of refrigerators are made by only 3 or 4 companies, and they know that you won’t buy a new one until your last one wears out. As result, most refrigerators built during the last 20 years are pretty much disposable. You can check Consumer Reports and read reviews online .. I did until my eyes watered .. but every brand has it’s share of horror stories, and historical reliability is almost meaningless since companies regularly change suppliers and move their manufacturing sites to save money. My best advice is to pick something by the current reliability leaders (Whirlpool and Samsung at the moment) and hope for the best. Extended warranties won’t help — they expire before the problems usually start.
  
  Once you’ve selected a brand, you now have to sort through a pile of different models with varying features. The cheapest fridge models have a top freezer (starting at $750). This is a classic design and the most reliable, but it hasn’t become any more convenient over the years. Putting the more useful part (the refrigerator) on the top adds about $250. If you can’t choose between or left or right swing and would like double doors on the top add another $400. If you don’t like opening the door for ice and would like a dispense add $500. (Also expect this feature to break first.) If neither white nor black matches your decor, you can have stainless steel for another $200. All prices are based on similarly sized Whirlpool models at a local big-box store. You might think that you can save money by picking a smaller model, but expect the quality to go down considerably. Our review of several brands suggested that the smaller volume, the more fragile the drawers and shelves. There is one exception: counter top depth models give you smaller volume but with nice hardware. For this privilege add $1000.
  • Purchase: $750 – $3000+
  • Yearly: $50 – $90

The Purchase

So, those are the options we considered. We philosophized about refrigerator-free living. We talked about iceboxes. Okay, I talked about iceboxes and Robin raised an eyebrow in a disapproving manner. I enthused about freezer conversion, and the eyebrow become more disapproving. I briefly considered a used model, but lemon risk turned me off. And ultimately, that’s how we ended up with the 5th option — the least efficient.

In fact, it’s worst than that. We didn’t just buy a new one, we bought a huge 25 cu.ft. fridge-on-the-top split door stainless elephant. Why would we do such a thing? Well, it was on sale with a good warranty, few likely-to-break features, much nicer hardware than the human sized model (19 cu.ft.) … but ultimately, when your house doesn’t have a light switch, a refrigerator that doesn’t require stooping is living the high life.

So I scrubbed them up and we started the process of boiling them outside on a big propane burner. We ended up having three large batches to boil separately. Inside, I had my favorite pickled beet wine recipe simmering on the hot plate. Then I peeled each batch of beets, sliced them, filled pint after pint, poured the wine concoction in it, screwed on the lids, and got ready to can them in a water bath.

“Robin, where are your canning utensils,” Lee asked me at 2:00 am in the morning as he was getting the canner ready.

I looked at him blankly and then with dawning horror.

It was most definitely an “oh crap” moment. I did all my canning last year down at my mom’s house and just used her tools. I had never bought a set of my own. So off we zoom to Walmart as it was the only thing open around here that late that would have canning supplies. We got there and then walked around the store for about 20 minutes before we finally found a set. Walmart employees are really, really scarce that early in the morning to bug with innocent questions from bleary eyed canners.

So we get home around 3:00 am and started the canner going, and by 6:00 am the last batch came out. I got 19 pints of the most glorious red beets canned. The 6:00 am time was so not worth it, but oh those beets (when I open one up three weeks from now) will very much be worth it. I didn’t bother to can any plain beets as the wine recipe is so ding dong good. Lee, who hates beets, will eat these because they taste that good.

I was sleeping you moron. Go away.

BUT JACK JACK!! Okay fine, I’ll stop pestering you.

Oh Yum! It’s the first cucumber of the season for us here. They are almost ready. I can taste it in my mouth already. It may just not make it back from the garden one day when I am out there watering. Lee will kiss me and then get suspicious of my cucumber breath and then want to know where his is. Then I will have to tell him that I accidentally ate them all while I was standing there bored watering the cucumbers. There is a lot of produce that seems to get munched on out in the garden, and then Lee wonders why those Sun Gold tomatoes are not producing very well this year…

I try not to burp too loudly when coming back from the garden.

The tomatoes seem to be doing awesome this year. When my mom comes over she laments on how well our tomatoes have set on while hers are behind. Hopefully all goes well as I have plans. BIG PLANS! Okay, well just plans of making salsa or pasta sauce.

I’ve been snacking on those too while out in the garden watering. Well, just the early one and the Sun Gold. Sun warm tomatoes are just meant for munching on. I eat them in front of the chickens and don’t share with them either.

I have already harvested a few zucchini and it looks like we may have better pollination this year. They were good also.

There are a few pumpkins starting on the vine. I have been watching over them like a concerned parent. Sometimes I take my finger and stick them in all the flowers to help with the pollination in case the bees are having a party somewhere else. Lee raises his eyebrows at me dubiously.

Some of my seeds for my winter garden have sprouted. YEAH! Now if I can keep the slugs away from them and remember to water them I just may have something going on this winter other then garlic. Not that I have a grudge against garlic, it’s just that while I am out there watering it’s not something I want to munch on.

I need to get on the ball and plant some more. I need some more prepared beds. Maybe if some more potato rows die…

Lee is putting together some drip irrigation for me. This is going to help immensely as I think some of the plants aren’t getting enough water by hand watering. That and maybe he hopes to cut down my munching while watering, so he gets more of his beloved Sun Gold tomatoes.

The row in the front is entirely certified potatoes and still looks very healthy. The next row, where part of it is missing, isn’t doing well. The Red Norland (farm store seed) is completely toast (as in, no longer exists) while the very end of the row is a white variety and is hanging on barely. The last row looks really rough and is also trying to hang on. So the moral of the story for us is: next year pay the price for certified seed and don’t save potatoes and replant them the year after (even though some people swear by it). You live and learn and experiment and try not to cry when your crop goes completely bust.

We do have a new problem though. Today we found a trail of ants robbing the sugar water.

These are some after pictures.

But, you can’t have a cleanup job around here without finding some hidden treasure. Somebody needs to think of a story that somehow ties these items all together.

A one armed teddy bear.

One pry bar.

One ski pole.

One ski glove and one bottle of baby oil.

And last but not least, two balls. (What? Did you think we could do a cleanup project without finding a ball?”

I also had to pull a beet so I could look at it better. Sometimes you just have to be a little crazy and do something like that.

Tonight I planted kohlrabi, rutabaga, and broccoli for my winter garden. Hopefully I can get the seeds to sprout. I plan on taking over the potato bed that got decimated by blight and planting some more winter garden stuff there.