About this time last year I asked advise about buying a freezer. Several
kind souls insisted that I needed 12 cubic feet for two people. I got a look
at that in the appliance store and it's HUGE! Now after a year of use I
almost wish I'd gone a little bigger. It's amazing how a freezer changes
kitchen life. I thought I'd let y'all know what a newbie freezer owner
learned in the first year.

* Organic meat doesn't cost more than storebought when I get it direct from
the grower in bulk - a quarter of beef, half a dozen chickens, a couple of
turkeys. In some cases it costs less. It tastes noticeably better than
storebought, especially the hamburger.

* It isn't easy finding organic farmers! Lots of them don't have web pages
or advertise except by word of mouth, but they're the closest, the smallest,
and offer the way better prices than the better advertised ones. I had the
best luck calling local custom butchers and asking if they knew anyone.

* It's amazing how much I've had to learn about meat now that I can't shop
for little packets of familiar cuts. I'm learning to cook all over again.
It's great fun.

* I used to make a pot of soup for two, eat some one night, some the next
night, some for lunch, and watch the last of it grow fur in the fridge. Now
I make huge kettles of soup, eat it once, freeze half a dozen boxes, and
always have a variety when I go to the freezer to thaw something for lunch.
Homemade soup has plenty of good veggies and meat, too. The last of the
Campbell's went to the foodbank.

* Our little organic vegetable garden - a circle with a 12 foot radius - can
put out 200 lbs of vegetables a year without much work or French intensive
gardening or bed raising, just a little hoeing and a lot of picking and
freezer prep to be sure that no bean goes to waste. The cost savings in one
year paid for the seed, the seedlings, and the freezer. (I admit, the root
crops and cabbages are wintering over in the garage in old cold chests. 12
cubic feet isn't enough to fit everything.)

* Extra lemon peel gets frozen and comes out to sprinkle on green beans.
Extra lemon juice goes into the ice cube tray one tablespoon per cube.
Cilantro and jalapenos go into the ice cube tray with a drizzle of water and
then go into the crock pot for chili. Little bits of all sorts of things are
worth saving.

* We don't buy bread any more (I make a heap every couple of months and
freeze it). We don't buy convenience foods (I make meat rolls and casseroles
in bulk and freeze meal-sized portions). But a lot of cooking all at once
makes a lot of convenience later. We eat more homemade food with less work
overall.

* Cookies go into the freezer as raw dough bits ready to bake by the dozen,
so we have them hot whenever we want and don't have many leftovers around.

* Baking mixes made from whole meal and olive oil will keep in the freezer.
Now I can have the convenience of a Jiffy mix on a sleepy morning without
eating junk food.

* Dad says freezers aren't efficient because Mom never knew what she had in
the bottom of the old Amana. Someone here suggested an inventory. (Thank
you!) A whiteboard works really well. Anything in or out gets noted by item
and date. I can peruse dinner possibilities from the board instead of
staring into the open freezer. (I label plastic freezer boxes with the
board's dry-erase marker, too. It stays readable in the freezer but it
washes right off for re-use.)

* A local farmer showed me that cardboard boxes are great for keeping a
chest freezer organized. Baked goods in this, chicken in that, steaks in
another, the right size box for each item. If it's on the inventory board, I
know right where to find it.

Just thought I'd pass this on for anyone else who's wondering about that
first freezer.

Kathy