A Summer Without Fridges: What Would It Look Like?
What Would Summer Look Like Without a Fridge?
In 1834 an American inventor by the name of Jacob Perkins astounded crowds of people in London’s Fleet Street when he demonstrated, for the first time, the prototype for the World’s first refrigerator. In 1748 a Scotsman called William Cullen had shown how his vapour compression system could keep things cool but, like his device, the people whom he showed it to were cool on his idea to start with for some reason.
It wasn’t all plane sailing though after 1834 with many deaths recorded by blaming the chloride gas for the individuals' demise. In fact, it took the World to 1930 to produce a device similar to what we may envisage a fridge to look like today with the introduction of widespread available electricity. Even so, in 1940 there were still only 2 million fridges in the population in the USA and in the UK hardly anyone had a fridge or indeed saw any need for one. That changed, in the UK, in the summer of 1959 when temperatures soared into the mid-’30s and suddenly the pantry or cold store was deemed no longer up to scratch and thus the boom for home refrigeration started with these isles.
So back to the question of what would summer look like without a fridge, which by going by the information above means we shouldn’t have to look back that far in time as it wasn’t until the ‘60s that fridges took off in the UK.
Before Fridges Invention
Larders were the cool room under the stairs in most houses where perishables were stored so that they could last the longest out of the sunlight. That small cupboard stroke room in the house that the temperature was at the most constant throughout the year. Today we still get confused about which type of produce or condiment goes where, should it be in the fridge or in a shady cool place? Many discussions are had about where the salad cream goes once opened, where do you store your eggs, for example, most store them in the fridge but they are not stored in the fridge in the Supermarket so why at home? I’ve even seen bread kept in the fridge, strange.
Summer Without Fridges In Modern Day
How on earth would you cope in the summer without a fridge if you are planning on having a few cold beers and a nice, chilled bottle of wine, I can’t imagine it myself and of course, you could count out using items like butter or margarine, salad items that need to be kept as fresh as possible would be really difficult to keep from going off. Fish would go off really quickly.
Unbelievably there are still remote areas of the world where communities live, not only without a fridge but without electricity too. If you purchase your products from a store that has a fridge but then you do not have the facilities, as some in the Far East, parts of Asia and Africa, to refrigerate at home then the food you buy, having been refrigerated already will go off twice as quickly if it’s not continually refrigerated. This is especially hard on areas of the world that are poor and fresh food is a luxury rather than a nice to have. Over 98% of the UK population has at least one fridge in their home, other places in the world are not so lucky so let’s not take our fridges for granted, shall we.
Fruit can last surprisingly well out of a fridge though with the following dates being attributed to the following fruits from buy to use-by dates when not kept in the fridge. Apples and other citrus fruit can last up to 5 weeks out of a fridge and pineapples around 2 two weeks while bananas and melons generally last less than a week if not in the fridge. We keep our bananas on the side at home, perhaps I move them to the fridge if they last longer but again, they are not refrigerated in the shops? Oh, the confusion!
Vegetables can last longer and therefore make up a vast amount of the diet in places without the ability to refrigerate, take potatoes, garlic and cabbages, for example, they can last up to 6 weeks, not in a fridge. Condiments can last outside of a fridge very well indeed with mustard, ketchup, mayo and peanut butter lasting months and months into the future without going bad.
Now we are getting somewhere to see if we could survive a summer without a fridge, I’m still not happy about the cold beer situation but let’s try to find out more.
Milk, a fridges best friend and one of the items that will not see out the day unless it’s refrigerated. Some solutions for this would be either to get your own cow or goat as most people who live off the grid do or use powdered milk instead. I prefer the goat option if I’m honest, they can mow the lawn too.
For our staple diet for most of us then we have to consider how we would store meat and fish without a fridge and much like the idea above with our milk-producing friends' many people own their own pigs, cows, fishing lakes where you can have access to these products, fresh, whenever you want, you have to be either a good fisherman or women or a cowboy or cowgirl of course if you do not want to go hungry. Smoking meat is also an option as this will keep the meat edible for much longer than normal storage methods and produce a tasty option for later meals. You could even think of selling the produce to help pay for the other types of food you will need to buy. A cheaper way to consider is to become a vegetarian, which if you look at many places around the world, especially India, where meat is so expensive, they have a wonderful selection of vegetarian dishes, many of which are nicer than the meat alternatives.
Fridges South London
So, in summary, if you planned correctly for your upcoming summer then we could make it appear almost normal without a fridge. The benefits too would be far less wastage of food as you prepare what you eat the very same day. If you have the where with all to kill your own livestock then the BBQ could happen every night with fresh meat, the beers would be warm, but I would suggest we dig a nice hole in the ground, down far enough that it keeps things at a chilled temperature or even find a net and let them soak in some cold water. Our summer is looking ok if we had to survive without a fridge, to be honest however the likelihood is that we won’t need to survive without a fridge so let’s not panic yet. Just keep an eye out for any goats for sale and dig your hole for the beer just in case. Thanks for reading our article on what summer could look like without a fridge, we hope you have enjoyed it.
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