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Sunday, November 27, 2011

The Big Chill?

    We are getting ready for the long winter ahead.  I know it's not Little House on the Prairie and we can go to the grocery store instead of hitching up the wagon for provisions in town.  Dan has been splitting wood to stack up for the wood stove.  He's also got a five point deer that will give us plenty of meat to stock in the freezer.  This brings me to my debate: to buy the deep freeze or not to buy the deep freeze?
 
 We froze bags of peaches from our tree and a few bags of apple cider.  We have a refrigerator unit with the freezer compartment at the top, so there is just so much you can hold.  Dan suggested we get an additional freezer so we can save more of the peaches next year. If I was really ambitious I could blanch green beans and produce from the garden as well.  We did use much of what we had this year and shared produce with visitors, but there were a few eggplant that did not make it into the pot.  Maybe if I had extra freezer space I would be more inclined to cook them up to preserve for the winter months. 
 
 There's also the savings to be had if you buy in bulk.  There are two things holding me back here.  I picture a lone roast in the bottom of the deep freeze and me on my tippy-toes precariously balancing to reach it.  When I pull it out it turns out to be a roastcicle full of ice crystals after a 4 year storage in the bottom of the chest.  Also, I have heard that the electricity cost can end up outweighing or equalling out the initial food savings. 
  
 I'm going to need some help with this one before I can make a decision.  Please share your thoughts on the wisdom of buying an extra freezer verses staying with just our current unit.  I'll need opinions as well as important sounding research from Consumer Reports. Maybe you can thaw my extra freezer indecision.

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