Living Without A Refrigerator

      Imagine on a hot summer day wanting to get a cold glass of water or a cold snack to cool off.  You go into the house, but there is no refrigerator with cold drinks or food.  The water is room temperature all the time, and all your food in the kitchen is dried or canned.

 A Permafrost Cold Storage

      Keeping food from spoiling was a great challenge living without refrigeration.  At least there was no refrigeration inside our shelter.  There was cold storage outside all year, however.  We had permanent frost under the ground that never thawed.  The only inconvenience was that it was outside a good distance from where I prepared meals.

     A large hole had to be carved into the hard, icy ground big enough to place buckets of food deep inside to keep cold.  A string was tied to each handle on the buckets to lower them into the hole and pull them out again when needed.

Heavy Door For Keeping Food Safe

    To keep the cold air inside the hole and the warm air outside of the hole, a heavy airtight door had to be made to tightly cover the hole.  The door had to be strong enough to keep wild animals out as well.

    Lifting the heavy door was no easy task especially while swarms of mosquitos attacked you from every side biting viciously.  Many times I could only grab just a few of the items I intended to get so I could quickly return to the refuge of the shelter.   Often the baby would be crying, and children needed my attention upon my return.

Planning Carefully Made Less Trips

    I quickly learned to plan carefully exactly what I would need out of the cold storage for the entire day.  I had less trips to make if I thought it out well.  Just picture opening your refrigerator in the morning and taking out everything you would need for the entire day all at once.  I still think of the cold storage hole at present whenever I open my refrigerator.

      In the cold winter months I used a large cooler that sat outside the shelter door which was much closer.  It held frozen items.  Inside the shelter, a metal box in the corner of our shelter kept things cold enough to use as a refrigerator during the winter months. 

     In my next blog I’ll continue sharing of how we stored garden produce, wild berries, and meat for a year without a refrigerator or freezer.