Cleaning the freezers

Last Thursday, on the actual day of my birthday, I went outside to weed underneath the row cover and install the pea trellis. I got as far as uncovering the kale and peas (two rows) before it started to sprinkle. I figured I could at least get the trellis in, if I only knew where it was stored. That seemed to be more urgent than the weeding as the peas had tendrils all over the place. On my way to the outdoor storage area, which Terry calls “the bone yard,” I spotted a large patch of star thistle in the field. It was developing flower buds, therefore trumping the pea trellis. I had hand pruners with me, so I tromped through the tall grass and started cutting. As long as you deprive it of its photosynthetic surface, it will eventually die.

It sprinkled off and on while I was whacking at the thistle. I checked three other storage areas before finding the trellis in the greenhouse. I got the wires poked in the soil without breaking too many peas, covered the rows again, and headed in for lunch.

With the weather uncertain, I proceeded to indoor activities for the afternoon. I try to get my freezers cleaned before the harvest starts. It’s good to know what needs to be eaten and what needs to be thrown out.

When I told Hilda what I was going to do, she lamented that her freezers also needed defrosting. The upright was particularly bad, but she didn’t know where she would drain it. I explained my method of loosening the ice with a blow dryer and chipping it into a bowl. Usually the meltwater does not exceed the capacity of a single towel.

“But all the ice needs to come off the shelves,” Hilda said.

“Don’t they come out?” I asked. “You could put them in the laundry sink until they melted.”

“I don’t know,” she said.

I took it upon myself to investigate. I took the food out of the upright freezer and put it into four coolers. And I discovered the problem. At the risk of sounding sexist, my suspicion is that this freezer was designed by a man whose wife did all of the freezer defrosting. Not only did the shelves not come out, the freezer coils ran through the shelves sandwiched between wires about a half a centimeter apart. This was not going to be easy.

I considered leaving the freezer to warm up while I did my chest freezers but discarded the plan when I realized I didn’t have any other coolers to put my food in. I got my blow dryer, a plastic putty knife, a flathead screwdriver, and a hammer. I worked on it over an hour. I scraped and chipped the ice from the top and bottom of each shelf and melted and poked the ice from between the wires, all the while thinking dark thoughts about the person who built this freezer.

In the end it was beautiful, and I earned my mother’s undying gratitude. I let her put the food back in so she would know what was in there.

Worst design for a freezer shelf ever--coils between wires, and the whole thing ices up

I have one freezer for fruits and vegetables and one for meat. I started with the veg freezer, which now contained some overflow meat from the sausage-making extravaganza. Usually, I discard vegetables that are two seasons old. I didn’t find too much from 2013, just a few packages of corn and several containers of pumpkin puree. I’m not short pumpkin puree from 2014. I’ll have to make some pumpkin bars soon. Good heavens, did we put up too much corn last year! We could eat corn every day from now until the next harvest in August. But I kept it all, because you never know when a crop will fail. I had no idea I put up as much kale as I found in the bottom of the freezer.

By 4:45, I had all the ice out of both freezers, last year’s veg in one basket at the top for easy access, all the meat organized in the meat freezer, and a sizeable stash of Tundra Surprise—packets of ready-to-eat leftovers that were buried in the corners and forgotten. I won’t have to cook for a week! Tonight, we had pork roast with gravy from last November. Bean soup from January, 2014 is defrosting for tomorrow. And it will be fine. Have you ever seen remarks at the end of recipes that say, “keeps in the freezer for 3 months”? HA HA HA HA! Tundra Surprise lasts forever!

Filled with a terrific sense of accomplishment, I took a quick shower and dressed for dinner. Terry took me out to the Stage Stop in Wilmot. I had a Porterhouse, a lobster tail, and a baked potato. We took most of our dinners home (not the lobster tail…). All in all, a pretty good day.