what do you have in your fridge?

Pink.

Hi boredjellybean,

Despite having a fridge in the kitchen and another in the garage I still seem to need more space at Christmas time. My garage is my cellar. I Keep all fruit and veg there from November until early March. The cool dark atmostphere is as good as any fridge. Excess drinks that need to be chilled are often parked outside the back door (which we don't use much in winter) and even cooked meats and deserts (providing they're sealed/well covered) will keep well outside for a few hours at this time of year. My logic is that years ago they didn't have fridges and with a bit of common sense, at this time of year we can manage without them too.

If you think freezing is going to be a problem cover them in some bubble wrap during particularly cold periods. I imagine they'd be fine stored loosely in your shed. Potatoes will keep well anywhere cool, dry and dark as long as they aren't wrapped in plastic so they don't 'sweat'.

These previous threads may help:

storing fruit and veg

Help! How do I store potatoes?

Living without a fridge

Pink

Primrose

If we're going to have continued sub freezing temperatures over Christmas any vegetables kept outside in lidded boxes will probably get frosted and damaged unless they're well wrapped in several layers of newspaper. We do keep a lot of bottled drinks outside the kitchen door when it's cold but again, there's a risk of the bottles bursting in very low temperatures, so a shed or garage would be a better place if you have one.

Penelope_Penguin

We're lucky enough to have a pantry which keeps things at fridge temp (or below int he recent cold snap :eek: ) and is fabulous over the Festive Season We keep the fresh turkey in there on christmas Eve, then all the leftovers on the day itself. It alos keeps wine and beer cold.

If you need a temporary outside space to store food, the boot of your car is cold, secure and free from predators

mazroy

my greenhouse works well as a cooler for the beers...i just wish they grew in there to save me some dosh LOL

ALIBOBSY

another vote for garage here as well, but you have to watch out. Some bottles of pop we had stacked up near the doors had ice in them when brought in last week lol.

ali x

horsechestnut

In previous cold years I have kept the uncooked turkey locked in the boot of my car when there wasn't enough space in my fridge.

psso

boredjellybean wrote: »

nope no garage, we do have a shed though so I guess I could try that, though you do take your life in your hands even trying to get in there !!!

Oh that sounds like my shed DS keeps promising to tidy it but I`m still waiting.

If you`re keeping spuds etc in it you might wrap an old blanket round the bag to save them getting frosted.

valk_scot

I have a downstairs utility room with a concrete floor, 20 foot high ceiling and outside door which is ideal for food storage. It never freezes down there but the temperature is usually about 3-4'C down there in the winter and I put a fleece on before I go to use the washing machine! I keep my sacks of allotment spuds and onions down there, beer and soft drinks, other veg and fruit, bread etc. I've also got a second freezer down there, a small tabletop one that was given to me and which is great for overflow whoopsied meat or surplus allotment soft fruit. I also have a 3-way camping fridge, not huge but useful at this time of year for keeping extra milk and dairy stuff. At the moment I have the Christmas ham in it, waiting to be cooked.

If I didn't have this I'd probably buy one of these plastic garden boxes that you get to store tools in/use as a bench, so I could fit a lock to it. My friend has one and she put a layer of scrap polystyrene sheet in the base and lined the sides with bubble wrap, for insullation. On the top of the food she lays more bubble wrap, scrumpled up to fill any gaps and dead air space. She keeps her veg in it during the winter and they don't seem to suffer from frost.

LandyAndy

We have a second fridge in our utility room that is used all year round. However at Christmas it is particularly useful. Also our utility rooms are single glazed and have glass roofs so they are effectively two big fridges at this time of year.

deborah64

We have a fridgefreezer and a small fridge in our kitchen. At christmas though we store the pop in our porch which is really cold in winter.
The only downside is i have to bring the veggies in from there as they freeze and go off.