If you have a large garden and you freeze a lot of your homegrown fruits and vegetables so you can enjoy them during the winter months, your freezer is probably bursting at the seams right now just like mine is. Or was.
Not only did we clean out our two chest freezers to make room for our fall crops, but I also needed to see how much bread we had in there before I did my back to school grocery shopping this weekend.
To say I was shocked to find over a dozen bags of bread/bagels still in there would be an understatement.
And the fruit! Holy smokes, I think we’ll have enough to get us through until next summer for sure.
Meat? Not so much. It appears I’m going to need to do a little more bartering with Chino the Handyman and the Hunter pretty soon. But I’m not worried, We already have tomatoes and potatoes coming out of our ears, and as long as we don’t get an early frost, we should have plenty of pumpkins to trade as well.
After re-organizing the freezers, I now have about a half of a freezer left for our fall crops.
Mission Accomplished!
Are you ready for fall? When was the last time YOU cleaned out your freezer?
~Mavis
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Sara says
Awesome!!!! but out of curiosity why does the meat have NOT FOR SALE on it??
Kim says
Usually when hunters send something to be processed by a butcher, the bags will say “not for sale” as the items were processed for a private order. Same thing when you order a 1/4, 1/2 of full cow to be processed for your freezer. HTH
Donna Jantzer says
Usually, that just means that you had an animal custom cut and wrapped for you. If you buy a whole or half cow or pig, or if you have a game animal cut and wrapped, they put that on there. For your consumption, and not for resale.
NormaJean says
I assume the picture you are referring to is meat that was packaged from hunting; such as venison. When someone hunts a deer they can take it to a local meat shop, and have it cut, labeled and packaged. They have to stamp that on there as the animal is not raised like cattle it cannot be USDA certified. The butcher has no idea what the animal has eaten for example. Farm raised cattle and fish from fish hatcheries can be USDA certified. Meat from animals killed in the wild cannot be sold. *You can batter with friends for services, etc. You cannot hold anyone liable for a meat that has been traded either.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yep, the meat was game either Chino the Handyman or the Hunter caught and had butchered. 🙂
Erika says
We’re moving at the end of September, so a freezer cleaning is on the agenda for the beginning of the month. We need to see what all’s in there and use up as much as we can.
Lisa says
Holy Cow – that’s a lot of food! Good for you! 🙂
Madam Chow says
I am exercising my right to remain silent.
Mavis Butterfield says
Oh please don’t. 😉 C’mon…. speak up.
Madam Chow says
OK, about 2 years ago. BUT, I am planning The Big Purge of my 2 freezers for the second week in September. Finding a 2 year old frozen pot roast was my motivator.
Crystal says
simply put if you have meat done up for your family they don’t want you selling it to someone else. Great job on the clean up and now I need to go do my freezer. 🙂
Heidi P says
My freezer is bursting as well. I really need to buy another small chest freezer but it’s not in the budget right now. My garden is bursting at the seams. I tried canning the bazillion tomatoes that I have but what a chore it was. Not sure canning tomatoes is for me.
On a sad note: Your bread reminded me that yesterday I learned that our Orowheat bread store is closing Sept 14th. Ahhhh…I love their dollar bread deals.
Shirley says
I live in the Bellevue area and our Oroweat discount bread store closed some months ago. Sad.
renee says
I have a small chest freezer and I hate it because I can not seem to organize it. I don’t like pulling things out to see what is lost at the bottom. Any suggestions on how to organize it? I do not have those handy baskets on the top like you do, just one endless pit.
Heather says
Renee…I have a small chest freezer and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to find the bottom items either without digging in deep and pulling everything out. I solved my problem with two things: a list of contents (updated as I use and purchase new items) and fabric shopping bags (those recycle type shape/size). I put all my bagged fruit in one, veggies in another, fish in another, and then I have 2 bags for both chicken and my beef and one or pork items. I stash it in those bags and when I need something I just lift up the bag. The cloth never freezes together and it works. We keep dairy, like cheese, ice cream, yogurt, etc in our main freezer in our home that is a side-by-side to our fridge. Hope that helps.
Madam Chow says
This is a FANTASTIC tip! Thank you.
Michele says
I use bankers boxes, they aren’t too big and have handles. I have two rows of plastic organizers in mine and a row of bankers boxes at the bottom. You could use the lids and stack two high!
Kendra Puzzo says
I check it all and write what I have in it down. Then as We eat it I cross it off, Every two month I go thru it to see if I missed anything and add what I may have bought or froze to the list. These next 2 months I and not going to shop for anything so I can clean it out completely and start fresh. It is not to late to have people over for a cookout on the weekend….I could d o that thru October. Have fun everyone.
Lisa says
I only have the freezer that’s with my refrigerator, and it’s not a big one. When we moved in it came with the house, and a larger one would keep us from being able to get to the kitchen light switch.
I don’t have a garage either, so no freezer for me!
I have a few bags of my green beans, blue berries and dehydrated tomatoes in it, but that’s all I can hold and leave room for the everyday stuff like ice cubes!
couponclipper says
lisa- I live in a small 2 bedroom apartment, so I put my deep freezer in the guest bedroom. It is on carpet (I was hesitant about that) and have not had any problems, its been in the same spot for 1 year. I have a smaller one that has two top baskets.
Patty P says
I inadvertently “cleaned” one of my freezers a few weeks ago when the door didn’t get shut all of the way 🙁 Luckily, there wasn’t much in there because I had already cleaned it out (moved the good stuff to the chest freezer) and was slowly moving beef back in. I only really had hamburger and some swiss chard in there…so the hamburger got cooked (it wasn’t defrosted all of the way yet…and still frozen for the most part) and the chard was enjoyed by the chickens…I’ll be doing a final cleaning when I move everything back into the upright freezer!
renee says
Heather, Thanks for the great ideas. i have a number of those bags and will sort it all this weekend. I will try the bag idea for a few months and see if I like it. I thought about buying an upright but I hate to spend the money on something that I already have that is not broken. I asked friends to keep their eyes opened for a used one for sale.
Michele says
When we decided between the two types, we chose chest because it keeps things frozen better and the energy price was lower. I’d like one an upright though, for things we use more often (and only for a couple of months) as our kitchen fridge/freezer is small.
andrea d says
I just cleaned mine out last week…but mostly because it died and i had no choice. I think the delivery guy thought I was pretty strange being so excited over a new freezer. Usually it gets cleaned/re-arranged 1-2x’s a year; whenever i get my order from the butcher.
Susannah says
Okay, you’ve hit upon a topic that’s been gnawing at me for awhile. See, I have this freezer in the garage that I’ve NEVER used outside of a (very) brief period of domesticity a few years ago. Well, recently I opened it out of curiosity and found three- and four-year-old bags of berries, plums, squash, etc., along with a shameful number of ice cream pints (the HORROR…how did I forget those?!!) Not knowing if the stuff was any good, I did the only thing I could think of…closed the door and ignored the problem for a few more weeks. Now your blog entry’s got me thinking about that stuff again. Grrrreat. I know I’m dragging my heels on this task for the simple reason that I don’t want to be reminded of how wasteful I was (am). Any ideas on whether any of this stuff is still good or not?
Lynne says
I am in jealous awe of those two massive freezers! I am looking to get a small one myself as the freezer compartment of my fridge is so narrow and it really holds enough just for day-to-day use. I’m thinking a chest freezer in the basement (or is the garage a better option?) How do these things do in power outages? I never seem to go a year without losing power at some point. Most of the time, we lose power for a few hours, maybe overnight. If kept filled and shut, will a chest freezer keep its contents frozen for 24 hours?
Danielle says
Lynne, we have our chest freezer in the garage. First of all, getting it to the basement in our house would be a giant pain in the butt. And second, we usually take our groceries in through the garage, so the chest freezer is on the way into the house. Also, we pick up our 1/4 of a cow every year and it’s just easier in the garage, than having to traipse downstairs. We lose power here at least every six months. The chest freezer is fine, as long as you don’t open it, for at least 24 hours. After that it may start losing the chill factor.
Lynne says
Thanks for the good advice, Danielle. Maybe I could get a bigger freezer, if I don’t have to factor in the admitted challenge of getting it downstairs!
Kim says
I’ve declared September as Freezer Month. We’ve got to eat some of that stuff!
Kelly Allen says
My stand up Frigidare freezer just died so we are looking for a new one. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good chest freezer? I am not wanting to get another Frigidare because this one only lasted 5 years and had a hard time keeping food frozen. I just looked at a Kenmore and the top was so flimsy and Kenmore’s are made by Frigidare. Help!!
Mary says
I have a stand up freezer, but I find that freezing bread products are difficult. Ice crystals on inside of the bags. Mavis, how to freeze bread products?
Mavis Butterfield says
I double bag them and then toss them in the freezer.
Rita Chiricuzio says
Food his safe in the freezer for practically forever if it hasn’t thawed but texture and taste is another thing altogether. My bet is summer squash will not be palpable, winter squash might be. My tip for testing whether food or veg is worth eating that was forgotten, is to break off a chunk, rinse off the ice crystals, and let thaw and taste, then you will know if it’s worth making into the smoothie the soup or an oven roasted jam. Here’s a link.
http://m.almanac.com/content/freezer-storage-how-long-will-food-keep-chart
To keep your freezer at maximum chill, keep it full. When your inventory is down fill plastic bottles three fourth full of water cap tightly and place in freezer. They will help keep your food cold during short power outage, and easy to grab one and throw into an ice chest if you are traveling any distance with food or going to shop or pick.
Mavis says
I like the tasting a chunk idea. That way you don’t waste the effort to prepare the entire items only to discover it’s awful.