Defreezing the freezer

Over time, freezers will build up too much internal ice and need to be defrosted.  It's one of the absolutes in life.  Birth, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, defrosting the freezer, death.

We have three upright freezers in our unheated, attached garage.  This may seem excessive, but they are almost always filled.  We buy pork and beef in bulk, chicken and butter when on sale, and freeze a lot of goodies from the garden and orchard that take up a lot of space.  I also like to make gallons of stock and soup at a time and then freeze them for later.

Turning frozen tomatoes into sauce.

Yesterday we decided to defrost one of our freezers.  A smart person would have done this when the outdoor temps were above freezing.  Unfortunately, we are not smart.  And we didn't have have enough room in Freezer B and C to hold the stuff from Freezer A while it was defrosting.  But now we do, so now we're doing it. 

Tonight's supper.

This task was also inspired by the fact that we are getting another half a beef (that's half of a butchered cow) next week.  We buy our beef from a local organic farmer, who sends it to a local processor who butchers it to our specifications.  This works out to be much cheaper than buying beef in individual cuts from the store.  The last time I ordered, I priced it out to $5.15 a pound including the processing fees.  That's for everything - ground beef, chuck and arm roasts, sirloin steaks and roasts, T-Bone steaks, rib steaks and roasts.  All organic.  Depending on your farmer, you can buy 1/8s or 1/4s or 1/2s or whole beefs.  If you have the freezer space and think you can eat that much in a year, I highly recommend it.

Tomorrow's supper.

Anyway, we've been trying to eat a lot of freezer food over the past few weeks.  And yesterday we crammed most of the remaining stuff from Freezer A into Freezer B and C.  There were some things that didn't make it in.  Those items are being dealt with in various ways.

9-month old bread, going to the chickens.

The chickens will also get the last bags of 2018 frozen apples.  Our two mature trees are biennial bearers, so we didn't get any in 2019.  Which means our 2020 harvest will need to last until 2022.  USDA freezer storage dates be damned.

After unplugging and emptying the freezer Hubby propped open the door, set up a space heater in front of it, and covered the opening and heater with a tarp.  Sounds unsafe, but it was totally fine.  Unless you work for OSHA, in which case look away.  It took over 12 hours to defrost, but defrost it did, and now we can refill it with fresh beef next week.

I've just realized that in this post I've flaunted USDA food safety laws and OSHA space heater laws.  We're living life on the edge, I tell you.  Who knew I was such a rebel?