Traditional Food Storage

Here’s an interesting idea, instead of having a refrigerator the size of a small car in your kitchen how about whittling it down to file cabinet size? Sounds crazy, but that’s exactly what some people are doing in an effort to “get back in touch” with their food while saving space, money, and ultimately food. Be honest, how often do you loose track of what food is in your fridge, or can’t identify it when you do find it hidden in a back corner on the bottom shelf? Many people would be surprised to learn that the majority of their food doesn’t really need to be kept in the refrigerator, it just needs to be kept in the proper manner. Most fruits and vegetables would fair better not being put into the fridge. Our grandparents and great grandparents relied on traditional techniques for food storage, such as keeping root vegetables in a box in a well ventilated and cool dry basement or root cellar, and onions in open weave baskets. Bananas, citrus fruits, melons, and winter squash were stored at room temperature, and even before they knew about ethylene, people knew to store their fruits and veggies separately, otherwise they ended up with rotten produce.