Anyone do Primal/paleo with no fridge? page

[DharmaBunny]

I've been reading about going fridge-free, sounds like my kind of challenge, but most of the proponents seem to be veggie or low-level meat eaters.

I can shop daily, or nearly daily and am happy to do so, which is essential if buying meat I guess, but I wanted to know if anyone did fridge-free with a meat-filled diet or had any ideas about how it could work?

Living without a Fridge and Beyond is the main blog I've seen about this and she's veggie,so doesn't have much to offer on meat preserving tactics.

Eggs don't need to be refrigerated and butter and cheese are fine on the counter if it's not too warm. I'mtrying not to rely on tinned foods, only have occasional tinned tuna and mackerel, and my coconut milk, so I wouldn't be happy with tins of minced beef or spam.

[iniQuity]

What's the point of it, though? what do you get out of it except for a challenge?

It's doable, look up different techniques for preserving food, but keep in mind that a lot of them went away when we were able to refrigerate. I just don't see the point to this one, it's not as though you stand to save an outrageous amount of money or anything.

[DharmaBunny]

It saves a little energy, saves a little money, promotes a sort of mindfulness/awareness of food, in that you have to have enough, but not too much,and take conscious care of it, not mindlessly filling up the fridge, because you can.
Also, shopping daily feels like hunting and gathering. :-D

I like the idea of actually being able to turn everything off as well, hate everything being on standby, and why am I using electricity to cool a big box of air because I bought too much yoghurt?

[meeshar]

I haven't gone completely fridge free, but we only had a tiny fridge when we lived in our RV for 9 months. It was a challenge even with that, particularly because the farmer's markets where we bought our meat were only weekly, and we weren't always close to places to get good food. We did use our cooler as a root cellar during the fall/winter/spring (summer was too hot), kept our eggs, butter, some vegetables, and most condiments out of the fridge, etc. but we still very much relied on it for meat, milk, etc. In fact, if/when we do it again, I want to have an extra (small) freezer for grass-fed beef, pastured chicken, etc. Buying it weekly in small quantities was a HUGE budget drain, much more than the $ we would have saved (in a house) not using the big fridge.

[SeaHorse]

The temperatures in the fridge (not the freezer part) are usually around 5-7*C. Back in Latvia where I used to live it was a common practice to put food out of the window in winter or even autumn and spring. Just make sure its safe from birds and rain. I still do it here in Luxembourg if the weather permits. At the moment its around 0-5*C and I have a big pot of pumpkin soup and a box of vacuumpacked (now open) fresh apple juice. Both too big to put in fridge. In Latvia we once put a hot pot of soup in deep snow, the snow melted under the pot and overnight it disappeared in the snow completely, had to ask the dogs to find it

[primalton]

I've been living without a fridge, altough not really voluntarily, for almost a year, most of that time following a primal diet.
I go food shopping daily, which means lots of fresh veggies, canned fish, dried fruit, nuts, smoked meat, and other things the like. I also buy a lot of dairy products and regular meat and then just eat it on the same day.
Living like this has been easier than I would have imagined, but I can't really understand why you would want to do this, if you don't have to. My next living arrangement will definitely have some sort of fridge in it.

[sakura_girl]

If I didn't buy such large portions from the farms I visit that I keep in the freezer, I would.

My fridge is always empty except for some jarred sauces, kimchi, and defrosting meat. Sometimes my purchased vegetables for the day last longer than that day, and I keep them there too.

No fridge wouldn't be foreign on this end. My relatives in China don't know how the heck to use them. Every time we visit, we get leftovers from the countertop from the day before, and the fridge is full of nonperishables they bought the day of and consume later in the day.

[Chaohinon]

Do you not understand the tragic, full-circle irony of privileged white people giving up refrigerators as part of a blog challenge?

[Wulf]

first world problems

the challenge

First World Problems meme | quickmeme

[DharmaBunny]

I'm unclear, am I not to bother trying to change anything about my life simply because I live in a First World country?
I've come across blog challenges where people line dry their washing for a month etc. which I find hilarious as tumble dryers are still a luxury here, yet I have no concern about health insurance. Privilege is relative.

Thank you for your experiences though,food for thought.

Primalton, what smoked meats do you get?