I am trying to get all my annual jobs done which includes defrosting the freezer before I start preserving stuff in 2019. I also take inventory of what I need, what worked, what didn't etc.
I have more than enough meat portions preserved from cooking a family size meal and then freezing the extra. I was buying frozen veggies when on special and decided today that no more can come in the house until the current supply is all gone.
Do you defrost the freezer each spring?
As Cicero said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
I don't have a freezer so I haven't defrosted anything since my first apartment post college that had a non self-defrosting fridge. When I was a child my mother used to defrost the fridge weekly, on thursday morning, since she went grocery shopping thursday evening, and therefore it would be almost empty that morning. (She did her shopping on Thursday because the newspaper coupons came out every wednesday. She was a housewife who was highly organized...)
edited to add: I apologize for semi-hijacking your thread. It seems like every post on here is reminding me of my mother, who passed away over a decade ago. Perhaps because mother's day was two days ago.
Mine don’t need to be defrosted thankfully.
Our freezer is in the garage, so I leave it off in the summer to save electricity (plus, in the summer we have the garden). We're still eating it down but I hope to turn it off and defrost in 3 weeks. This cycle has worked well except for the years that I had a crazy job, when the freezer was an absolute necessity all year.
We never defrost our freezer because we never reach the bottom of it. I imagine there is still applesauce in there from 20+ years ago. That is DH’s realm, not mine,. He is the squirrel around here.
A number of years ago I bought an upright manual defrost freezer, since I've heard the auto defrost ones can really dry out food. I try to defrost it every May, but I'm not sure when I'll get to it this year. I have to clean and bring in about 3-4 coolers, to keep the food in. I put a box fan in front of it to speed up the process. I try to catch most of the water with tupperware containers on the shelves.
It's a good feeling to get it done. I usually try to get it done before early season fruits come out. I freeze a lot of blueberries/peaches, etc.
It would be nice if someone else would do this for me though. haha
End of the month. Farm food starts last week of May, 1st week of June.
We got rid of our old energy hog freezer recently and got one I can convert to a fridge for the three months I’m drowning in veggies jun - aug and then turn it back to a freezer for winter/early spring storage again.
There’s very little in it really and I need to work at reducing it a good bit more, soon.
I become resigned, I was going to have to live with a dedicated freezer, but DH found this for the same $ so hurrah!
When we had one that required defrosting we ate it down once a year and then cleaned it out.
I did not know this existed! What are these called?Originally Posted by NewGig
Look for “convertible” freezers or refrigerators. They can be more money. Ours has a temp readout on the door.
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