A few years ago, we spent a idyllic summer week in a small town about a half an hour south of Rome. Three of us were crowded in a small room with a hot plate in the corner. With no refrigerator, we assumed that meant we were going to eat out all week. Turns out, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't have to be refrigerated at all.
We lived on salads, pasta, eggs, fruit, bread and cheese. No, there were no cold beers or icy drinks (Italians are not big fans of ice) and we strolled out to get ice cream at the local gelateria at night. But we had butter and Nutella on our morning bread, big salads and pastas for lunch and dinner and we snacked on cheese and olives and dried salamis. We didn't starve and we didn't get sick. We realized that we put a lot of stuff in our fridge because it's convenient or because we keep it for too long. But, apart from milk and raw meat, we discovered that many of the foods that make up our summer menu and that will be eaten within a few days can be left out.
Could you consider turning off your fridge for a weekend? A week?
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I'm going to have to!! I just called a repair company to service my 15 year old fridge, which is not cooling below 50 degrees, and is not freezing either!! What a great coincidence to see this article!
I would love it trade out my large fridge, for a smaller version just for milk and meat. :)
Alas, renting.
But we don't keep much else in our fridge anyways so it's a very empty big fridge.
i'm not a fan of food and electricity in close proximity and always dreamed of a marble slab in a cool pantry to keep fresh food at a steady temperature...however! i've been without a fridge for 4 months and it's no use. i find my salads and greens turn to water far too fast, and mostly go uneaten.
the post where greens were stored in water like cut flowers made me hopeful though, thanks! also the portable herb garden!!! nice
A full fridge is more efficient than an empty one. Every time you open the door warm air enters and the fridge then has to cool it back down. If you don't have a lot in your fridge then fill some empty jugs with water and put those inside. Unfortunately I have a small fridge and a love of almost all things food, so mine runneth over most of the time.
Yes. I went several years with mine unplugged. Only turned it on recently because I had meat and cold drinks. It just takes more planning and thoughtful approach to buying and eating to go without a refrigerator. I found considerable savings in no electricity use and buying only what I intended to eat within 5-7 days.
What a great coincidence this article is to me!
Due to a temporary situation I have been living for the past 10 months in an efficiency apartment: One 10 x 20 room with a half divider wall, 2 windows, & a small bathroom. No kitchen at all! No fridge! And believe it or not I don't miss having a fridge at all. I'll be moving to a permanent place at the end of the month & will not bother getting a fridge after I move in!
I actually spend way less in groceries than when I had a fridge. When I had a fridge I tended to buy lots of cold items at a time (because I could) only to later pull out those moldy forgotten veggies & toss them in the compost! Now, I only buy the cold items that will keep me for a day or two. No more waste & I am able to really think about what I am buying (do I really need it today?!), and I've actually been eating much healthier!
Someone in an earlier post mentioned using a marble slab. That does work, but only if one has a cool dark well ventilated place to have it. I lucked out- a corner not facing a window, and it's a porcelain table, not marble. I have a little open wire shelf set up on the table & so that works fine for keeping veggies & fruit cool (air flow! Also, use a mesh curtain or tent to ward away fruit flies & insects). Because the veggies & fruit are right there on my table/food prep area, they are not "out of sight, out of mind" & not forgotten in the bottom of a fridge drawer.
I don't really drink much milk, so I find that a container of soy or rice milk keeps well if I just keep it on the porcelain table top away from direct light. I belong to a co op & so I can get small amounts of cheese cut to my need (and my budget!). I use a juicer to make my own juice every day & not only does that save money & is much healthier, but I am able to toss in anything that may be running out on it's "shelf life" (the apple that's got the bruise, even the leafy veggies that I haven't cooked will get tossed into the juicer!). If I do splurge & buy a bottle of juice, I am able to drink it within a day or 2 so I don't need to keep it refrigerated.
Being a vegetarian, I don't need to worry about meat/fish/eggs. However, I wonder if people could get away from the storing of huge amounts of meat in the freezer & just buy fresh (and local) what they need on a day to day basis? (I don't know, because I haven't eaten meat in 40 years, so I can't dictate to meat eaters how to buy & keep meat.)
But, OK, my weakness is homemade chocolate chip ice cream- but how often do I really need to eat it?! I don't need to pay for, and maintain, a huge fridge/freezer just to keep a container of ice cream for when the mood strikes! Going out for ice cream, therefore, becomes an extra special treat! I'm not just eating it because I am able to store a half gallon at a time in the freezer (and my thighs thank me)!
I have come to believe that having a fridge only feeds into (pun!) the obesity problem that we are facing. A fridge full of Sam's Club food, ever ready at our chubby finger tips, means that we eat more, and more often, than we really should. We justify eating it all because we bought it all because we could store it all. Buy less, store less, eat less, & eat better choices!
Only my humble opinion, but it's been working for me for 10 months & I will never own another fridge again!
I'm curious about where people w/o fridges live. We're in Miami and room temperature here, with our A/C running, is 76 degrees. Does anyone have experience with this sort of lifestyle in a hot, humid climate? Thanks for your input!
Since we live in Austin, Tx it's not really an option to leave anything out anyway, but I have to wonder where people store this stuff? My refrigerator is my pantry. HA
When I lived in England my fridge was about 3 ft. tall and it was perfect, but it was also 65 degrees outside all summer so other than milk, no need to store much.
I put all sorts of bulk foods in the fridge/freezer especially nuts, oils, and produce. Here in Austin it either has to be still in the ground or in the fridge or it is going to go bad within a day. I can't imagine not being able to make stuff like beans/broth/pesto/soup and not being able to eat it all week, I would spend so much money!
I'm definitely not a fridge fanatic. But didn't your butter melt in Rome in the summer? Or were you eating it fast enough that it wasn't an issue? I remember in South Carolina where I grew up many people keeping the butter on the table all the time, but it was consumed speedily enough that melting wasn't a major issue.
I would love to live without a fridge! But it's 80 degrees inside my apartment right now and everything has to be in there to stay good.
I would love to buy food the day we eat it, but we buy local everything and the market/co-op is only around on Saturday.
I don't understand how someone in warm climate who buys ingredients (not prepared food) could ever do this? And who has time to shop every day? Surely it's more energy efficient to turn the fridge on than to drive to the store or market every day!
This is a great idea and we've certainly been willing to sacrifice other conveniences for healthy/responsible living, but this one just doesn't add up in many situations. :)
I was raised by hippies, and for a while, we lived in a converted school bus. We used kerosene lamps for lighting, and there was no fridge. It certainly imposes limitations on what one can keep on hand, but it's doable. The only thing I truly missed was ice in my water!
This was the topic of a NY Times article last year. I heard it on The Splendid Table this weekend.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/garden/05fridge.html?_r=1
I don't think this would work for me either. It's very humid where I live and my apartment faces the setting sun! It gets really hot here at least in the summer months. I might be able to pull it off in the winter, but I go through about 6 liters of milk a week!
I also agree with directornikki: having to drive to the market every few days is a waist of time and fuel. I supposed if you lived right by a market and could walk it would different, but what if you have to drive half way across town, and don't get me started on not having the time, lol.
to all the people who live in miami, austin, etc.... yes, it is possible to live in a tropical climate without a fridge, and without going shopping every day.
i've lived without a fridge on several occasions,for months and years of my life, crossing oceans on small boats (as crew) - so you can't go shopping whenever you want - and in fact, you can have a healthy diet.
common things that keep well without refrigeration:
onions
potatoes
cabbage
squash (butternut keeps for months, even on the equator)
fruits (apples, citrus, melon)
tomatoes (as long as they aren't touching each other)
eggs (can keep for weeks, but you need to turn them regularly to keep the membrane from drying out)
most condiments don't need to be refrigerated, as long as you don't contaminate them. always use a clean spoon for mayonnaise, mustard, jam, etc.
lettuces keep for a couple of days if you keep them out of the sun and covered up so they don't wilt. a short soak in fresh water perks them right up again.
peppers, eggplant, zucchini all keep for a week or more.
butter and cheese will sweat a bit but keep quite well.
milk: the solution is small containers of UHT, to be consumed in less than 24 hours.
soups, pasta sauces etc can be left, covered, without refrigeration overnight, but then should be heated up and eaten the following day. leftover rice becomes fried rice or rice pudding, potatoes become fried potatoes or mashed potato pancakes, etc. basically, instead of forgetting it in your fridge until it becomes a science experiment, you recycle it the next day.
you do eat less meat, however... not necessarily a bad thing. and home-grown sprouts are your friends! ;)
(nb- i live on land now and have a fridge... cold beer is a good thing.)
For those who were wondering about "humid climates, I live in Florida without a fridge! I should have mentioned that in my original post.
To those who think that it would be inconvenient to drive to the market every few days, I guess it depends on your comfort level & circumstances, but I stop on my way home from work (when using my car, & that's the best time for when I need to stock up on non-perishables), I ride my bike when & where I can & I always try to do all of my errands in "one fell swoop".
I know it sounds really inconvenient, or takes too much time for planning, etc. But when I get in that mental funk I think "What did our pioneer forefathers do when there was no mall right up the street?!" Yes, some things take planning & doing without, but it does help me to organize my priorities & time better.
With a little creativity it is amazing what one can accomplish if they set their mind to it!
Here's a tip: I swap out shopping trips with like-minded friends & neighbors. Once a week one of us does the shopping for all of us! Saves on gas, sanity, & bulk items, like a case of toilet paper, is much cheaper when split three or four ways! Coupons (like buy one get one free) really rack up in the bonus points department! If I have to buy a few tomatoes for myself, it's not that much more difficult to pick up a few more!
This also helps foster a community spirit. With such easy access to email we are all able to send an email to each other putting out things we need (like to borrow tools or services like house cleaning, babysitting, laundry, etc.) & what we need on shopping day. It's almost like our own little freecycle group. When it's my turn to shop I gather up all the shopping lists that have been emailed to me, I check if I have any relevant coupons, & I stop on my way home from work to shop. When I drop the groceries off I am almost always offered a free meal or drink. Each of us returns the "favor".
Gotta be creative. What would our pioneer forefathers have done if they were hitching up the team to head to town, maybe a full day's trip, for supplies? They may have stopped off & picked up or dropped off someone's mail, or picked some supplies at the mercantile for a neighbor.
Uncluttering means being creative with our time, space, and resources.