OLD FREEZER AS STORAGE UNITS.

Most times when we think of wildcrafting, pictures of medicinal herbs or small edible plants come to mind. In the fall fruit is falling on the ground and going to waste. I knew there had to be a way to preserve it without spending thousands. But first, let’s go back to early last spring.

(Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the freezer as a nursery. I'll use it as one again next spring, take some pictures and post them when available.) Some friends had an old upright freezer they were going to take to the landfill. I thought it might be useful as a small nursery for starting plants. I took it home, put on its side so I could open the door and have the interior facing toward the sun. All it took was a sheet of 8mil plastic that was hooked to the top and, when the door was open, tucked under the door. At night I simply untucked the plastic from under the door and closed the freezer/nursery for the night. Where we live, February and March temperatures can still be single digits at night. I started 200 plants on shelves I built and when the ground was warm enough the plants were transplanted. Using the freezer, even with transplant shock, the garden was about 2-3 weeks ahead. After the first cold crop starts were out, I started tomatoes and other warm season plants. Occasionally during the days, I had to remove, actually open, the plastic to cool it down.

This fall another friend had a chest freezer go bad and it ended up on the edge of my garden close to the other one. With all the fruit available the freezers are seeing double duty as cold storage units.

My article on the 21st of October covered Jerusalem artichokes. I had a bumper crop and we had more than we could use before they spoiled. Here’s where they’re spending the winter. You can see a few of them in the upper half of the picture. The apples were put in before another layer of sawdust was added.

A friend has a small sawmill and we get sawdust for the pathways in the garden and as decorative mulch in the flower beds. There were some extra bags left over at the end of the season. The extra sawdust is now in the freezers to help regulate the temperature and keep the humidity at the optimum. I placed a layer of sawdust on the bottom and then a layer of Jerusalem artichokes, making sure they didn’t touch each other. That way if one rots it won’t transfer the rot to any of the others. A layer of sawdust was followed by a layer of Jerusalem artichokes, etc. When we want some to eat, we just go out and root around until we find however many we want. They’re as crisp and fresh as if they were when they came out of the garden in August and September.

Then came October and November and a glut of apricots, pears, peaches and apples. We’d had the dehydrators running 24-7 processing cherries, plums and early Bartlett pears from July and August. We ate as much as we could fresh, froze some, made sauces and still had way more than we could use. One of the freezers was only about half full, so I got more sawdust from our friend and layered apples and sawdust. This gives us time to dry the other fruit and not have some of what’s still waiting its turn on the dehydrator end up spoiling before we can get to it. This picture shows the straw bale greenhouses I used last spring and this fall. When the nights were cold, I'd put the glass on top and in front and they helped extend the season. I got old windows that had been replaced for free. All I had to do was check around and I ended up with so many, I had to construct another row of straw bale greenhouses. Look around, they're out there and are free.

Now, the first part of December, the Jchokes are still crisp and juicy and the apples taste as if we’d just picked them off the tree. I’ve already started to pass the word around: I’m in the market for another freezer or refrigerator. Better to make use of them as nurseries in the spring and storage units during the fall and winter as opposed to having them end up in the landfill. This freezer is the one we store the apples in while they're waiting to be dehydrated. I believe the sawdust, from pine and fir trees, helps to discourage bugs and preserve the items in the freezer. Also, pycnogenol, a procyanidin, is an extract made from pine bark. Grape seed and wine is touted to be a good source of procyanidins. Apples contain five to eight times the procyanidins, depending on the apple variety, of grape seed.

It’s important to keep the freezer in a cool place, mine’s in the garden and it was 10 degrees F. the other night. Be sure to keep the fruit, etc. separated and covered with sawdust for best results. I checked the interior temperature the morning after it was 10 degrees F. and it was 35 degrees. You want to keep the humidity high or the produce will dehydrate. I read that potatoes are stored with the humidity in the high 90 percent range and use that as my guidelines. You can purchase a cheap hydrometer to check your humidity in the freezers. The sawdust I use has plenty of moisture but if that's not the case, you can sprinkle a small amount of water on your sawdust, leave it overnight and check again. Go slow, it's easier to add water to the mix than it is to remove it. I haven't tried anything besides sawdust as the insulator. We have access to lots and there is no reason for us to try anything else. But, if sawdust isn't available or is expensive, I'd look around to see what is available and give it a try. Necessity really is the mother of invention and innovation. This is a view of the same freezer but shows the collector parts that also make it a dehydrator when the days are warm to hot. It doesn't work when the sun is low or on very cold days. The glass is some of the extra windows. The PVC pipe is covered with a sheet of 8mil plastic which increases the heat. Under the windows is a bed of black tock. The rock heats up during the day and gives the heat back at night. The system works well and costs nothing to operate. It's not as predictable as an electric dehydrator but it's bigger, will start the drying process until an electric dehydrator is available and sometimes it's finished before an electric one is available plus costs nothing to run.

Many of the apples had to be shaken out of the trees, where we get apples the trees grow wild and can be quite tall. When the apples hit the ground, some of them get bruised. When I'm filling or getting apples out of the freezers, if I find one that's too badly bruised to be worth cutting up for dehydrating I give them to the neighbor's horses or donkey. Now, every time I go out to the garden they come to the fence hoping for an apple or two. The horses haven't been in the pasture for a week or so and I wasn't able to get a picture with 6-7 horses, a donkey and a turkey who also knows what apples are.

This is another view of the black rock filled pit that's covered with window glass that can be used as a dehydrator. I cut a large hole in the side of the freezer that's facing down and secured a screen over the hole with a frame to keep bugs and critters out. The heated air trapped in the rock compartment passively rises up and through the freezer. I leave the door open slightly by propping it up on the edge of the latch/lock hinge. When used as a storage unit, I place a piece of plywood over the hole to seal it off and put a layer of sawdust over it before adding any apples, Jerusalem artichokes, potatoes, etc. The racks in the picture are shelves with plastic screen in them. When used as a dehydrator, they fit in the freezer and items to be dehydrated are placed on the screens. Don't use screens that are made from aluminum.

If I can find another old freezer, I'll experiment with winter squash, root vegetables and other items that will keep well in cold storage or root cellars. If anyone has an opportunity to try the other items this year, or any other for that matter, please let me know and I'll pass the information along.