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I thought upright freezers were not as efficient since cold air sinks? I guess that's not an issue for you upright folks. I would hate rummaging around all bent over, now that I think of it.
The thing is, I like to make broth and it's a process that makes a lot, so I like to freeze some but it's bulky. I forgot my elementary science and used quart canning jars in the freezer.
Broke them all. Not such a tragedy (I saved the broth by straining it) BUT cannot buy canning jars here. No one cans, LOL. We don't can, but use them for everything (storing sauerkraut we make, etc.)
Ive always raised my own meat, so a freezer has always been a necessity. A home garden will make a freezer useful. I freeze asperagus, snow peas, peppers, rhubarb, and fruit.
I no longer raise meat, although it is a brief interlude and I'll be back to raising chickens and turkeys soon. 50 dressed fryers don't fit in the fridge freezer.
I home cook dog food and buy meat 50-60 pounds at a time. I buy meat for the humans in large amounts in order to get a good price on it.
I've got a source of excellent gluten free pizza crusts, but I have to buy them in a box of 25. I buy cheese in 10 pound chunks.
I bake goodies and portion them and put them in the freezer. There is no good reason to eat an entire pan of brownies in one day. Freeze and hand them out over a couple of weeks.
How useful a freezer is depends upon how you shop and how you cook. It also depends a lot on how organized you are and whether or not you can keep track of what is in the freezer.
I barely have anything in the freezer attached to my refrigerator. I go grocery shopping 2-3 times/week and pick up just what I need for the next day or two.
It depends how you use it. If you can legitimately save enough money by buying a butchered steer, hog, etc., or frozen foods in bulk to cover the cost of owning and running it, sure, providing that you eventually eat everything that you put in it.
But many people don't. They'll buy a steer, for example, and when they've used up the cuts they like they buy another steer and just pile it on top of the stew meat or whatever is left from the first steer. Then they do the same thing again and again until the freezer is full of stuff they don't like (that's mostly freezer-burned by now anyway). And rather than clean it out they buy a second freezer and start all over again.
We raise pigs. My wife took a class on how to butcher a pig, and she loves it. Whenever we butcher a pig, all the cuts go into one of our freezers.
We also raise meat chickens. We have found one breed that we like, they grow quickly. We can buy them at one-day-old and we butcher them at 10-weeks old. If we raise 50 meat birds that provides us enough chicken for 2 years. Ten weeks of tending them is well worth having 2 years worth of chicken.
Sometimes in January or February, my Dw will take out a few frozen chickens and cook them down to meat broth, which she cans. She likes canning, but only in winter.
There are a few things that we harvest in mid-summer that we freeze, and then can later in Winter.
Elderberries are a good example of that. To harvest them you must freeze them to get the berry free from the umble. If you try when they are thawed they will release all of the juice and your hands turn purple.
We were doing fine with three freezers, but then our breeding boar turned mean. We had to put him down, he kept trying to chase me. He was huge. He ended up being over 750 pounds. That was when we bought our fourth freezer, to preserve his meat.
Ideally, they should all be kept empty most of the year, and only used for immediate storage.
What do you think? Do you have a stand-alone freezer so you can freeze your extra meals, broths, soups, buy a half-pig or preserve your hunting prizes?
If you do, is it distance from the store, or what was your main reason? Is it worth it to you, having it?
We are thinking about a smaller one to put in the office, for the above reasons.
Your electric costs are going to be different from most who reply, I think your power costs will be quite a bit higher than most in the US.
I am not certain about that, but you need to figure it into your calculations.
We have a small 5 or so ft3 freezer in the basement, mostly full of meat got at a discount. It's not real convenient, but it probably saves us some money. But our power costs in the PNW are quite low.
I thought upright freezers were not as efficient since cold air sinks? I guess that's not an issue for you upright folks. I would hate rummaging around all bent over, now that I think of it.
The thing is, I like to make broth and it's a process that makes a lot, so I like to freeze some but it's bulky. I forgot my elementary science and used quart canning jars in the freezer.
Broke them all. Not such a tragedy (I saved the broth by straining it) BUT cannot buy canning jars here. No one cans, LOL. We don't can, but use them for everything (storing sauerkraut we make, etc.)
That is correct, particularly if you open the freezer door often. An upright trades convenience against retaining the cold air when you open the door. A frost-free will use more power than a manual-defrost.
With your high power costs and warm climate, and being just 2 of you, possibly a small chest type freezer makes the most sense?
We don't really freeze food, it loses its quality yet, we have 3 large refrigerators. HUge one built in kitchen one. Two large ones in garages. Built in one simply is not made for cooking wife, pots don't fit too well. Main garage one sides as one for weekly food supply - we go shopping Saturday am and stock what we need for week. Lots of fruits and veggies, they take space. 3rd one we had to buy because of the wedding 2 months ago, was filled with pastries and such. $40 g sale. DW now keeps cabbage for chickens in it, we have decent poultry farm.
Is it frugal - sort of. I wish, they had refers designed well enough to put in home cooking, not just a few pieces of Tupperware with some leftovers and two pizza slices.
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Not such a tragedy (I saved the broth by straining it) BUT cannot buy canning jars here. No one cans, LOL. We don't can, but use them for everything (storing sauerkraut we make, etc.)
