Winter
Food Supply
Copyright 2012 by Lori-Ann Willey
It is a completely different world in here come the time for
plunging temperatures. Winters can be
very long in Maine. I have literally
seen it snow every month of the year except for July. I have seen accumulating snow as early as the
first week of October, on through the middle of May. One stretch here at camp we were snowmobiling
to and from camp 10 of 17 months.
Unlike most people who use their coolers during the warmer
months of the year, living here at camp means that we use coolers throughout
the year. During the warmer months, we
use them to keep our foods cold, and keep things like fruits and vegetables
from bruising due to the bumpy roads, etc.
During the winter months, they keep our foods from freezing, too. We buy
frozen vegetables versus the fresh ones, with the exception of onions, celery,
squash, and potatoes. Paul makes sure he
always has fresh fruit no matter the time of year. We have so many coolers that I honestly have
lost count just how many we do have, but for the most part we use them
all. Coolers of all sizes are for not
only food transport as mentioned above, but also we have one that we use
specifically for our baitfish, etc.
Due to the cold winter temperatures, it is easier to buy and
transport ice cream, whereas during the summer, the ice cream gets very soft,
despite being in a cooler with other frozen items. During the summer months, it is easier for us
to buy boxes of freeze pops in the plastic sheaths or simply make our own ice
cream.
We use snowmobiles as our main mode of transportation once
the snow starts flying. We have to
snowmobile eight miles to our truck, park our sleds, shovel off and around the
truck and trailer, load our snowmobiles, unhook the trailer, and then head
toward town from that location. Our trip
back toward camp is easier because we already shoveled out the truck and
trailer. However, instead we have a
snowmobile tote (35”x74”) that we fill with supplies such as groceries and gas
upon our return. Messing with all that
is just about as tedious as the shoveling itself.
I prefer to bag my own groceries, because items need bagging
in a way to survive the trip behind the snowmobile. You have no idea how many times I have had to
re-bag groceries because of a bagger who insisted on bagging my groceries for
me. When asked if I need help bringing
out the groceries, I always decline their offer saying that I have to sort into
coolers, etc. Some understand this…most do
not.
If possible, we do not purchase foods in glass jars during
the snowmobile months, as we are afraid of breakage. Glass becomes another problem during the winter,
too. Glass does not any room for
expansion, so once the contents inside freeze, jars often bust. If given the option between two of the same
items at the store, I will pay more for the plastic container than for the glass
jar. Unless the contents inside the
glass have an alcohol content (I forget the percentage needed), or laden with
salt or sugars, items do freeze. Therefore,
storage then becomes an issue for us. I
know of no one that wants a busted jar.
Years ago, I gave up bringing eggs into camp via snowmobile. They never survived…neither did our
breads! Since then, I stock up on lots
of eggs for the winter months, and make our breads. I love a good fried egg in the morning, but
due to rationing out the eggs during those long winter months, we do not eat
many eggs, but I seem to get my fill come warmer weather! I also modify some recipes so not to use many
eggs even in my cooking. Luckily, most
bread recipes do not call for eggs, but I do like making our own pasta, and
that takes six eggs per batch. Each
batch is two large meals. It is cheaper
and easier to buy pasta already dried, but homemade….err camp made is always
better.
Foods such as potato chips are gently held in place by bungee
cords in the back of a snowmobile so they get a gentler ride. Since living here, I have all but stopped
drinking sodas or beers simply because they are just one more thing to have to
load into the tote and then unload and carry through the snow into camp on a
cold winter day. Then, there is that
whole thing of taking up extra room in an already too crowded camp due to
winter storage. When someone visits for
a few days during the wintertime, we manage to move things around to make room
for them the best we can. They never
seem to mind our winter crowdedness.
Each time we leave camp for more than a day, the entire camp
has to shut down due to no constant heating system. I will get into that later. Thus, any jars that are “bustable” from the
freezing temperatures, we try to find room for them in the refrigerator. This is also where the extra coolers come in
handy. We place the coolers in the warm
camp for a few hours before placing glass jars into them and then covering the
coolers with a wool blanket, and then set them near the sunniest window. So far, all that has worked.
Part of shutting the camp down also means to
fill the teakettle, and a few pots and pans with water. Upon our return, we will simply have drinking
water by turning on the gas-cooking stove and starting a fire in the wood
stove. Our current cooking stove does
not have a pilot light that stays lit like our previous stove. That pilot light kept the oven and stove top
at about 90 degrees so that was perfect for storing my oil paints, etc. when we
left.
Before we decided to purchase a laser printer,
we had an inkjet printer. Those
cartridges couldn’t freeze, so each time we before we left, we’d remove the
cartridges, place a piece of scotch tape over the ink dispenser part, place them
into a zip lock bag and they’d go into my pocket and travel out with us to the
truck that way so they wouldn’t freeze.
Unbelievably, even our propane refrigerator has issues during
the winter months. Due to limited “electricity”
from our solar panels, our gas stove, chest freezer, and refrigerator runs off
propane. Because the refrigerator is an ammonia
system without a thermostat control, if the camp does not stay above the
freezing point (32 degrees), the heat from the pilot light will cause the ice
in the freezer section to melt. We
discovered that the first time with a freezer full of foods. Therefore, if we are to leave for more than a
couple of days, we empty the freezer section.
We tend to stock up on many soups for winter meals. Soups are great for lunch, and each day we
spend out at the ice shack our main meal is a can of soup each along with a
couple slices of bread, both of which heat up on the heater that heats the ice
shack. I prefer beef soups to Paul’s
preferred chicken soups, but we take out with us what we choose. We simply put the can on the heater and when it
is hot, we crack the seal if it gets too hot before we are ready to eat, ‘because
otherwise, that top lid will start to heave up on us. When we are ready to eat, we pop the lid and
eat from the can with spoons. One type
of soup to stay away from is any that is milk based such as chowders or creamed
soups. Once they freeze, they separate
into clumps that are impossible to smooth out again. We have thrown away many of such cans due to
that. Nowadays, we just avoid those
types of soups altogether except for maybe a can or two during the summer
months.
The best part about the wintertime and food storage is when we
can place leftovers outside in the wood crib, which does freeze, but usually
not within a few hours. Often I fill up
ice cube trays and set them outside on the deck to freeze that way. They seem to freeze more quickly out there
than in the freezer itself. I think that
whole evaporation process speeds things up, because if forgotten, the next day,
having ice is not a problem, it’s having enough ice because those cubes will
evaporate rather fast and you’ll be left with ice cubes half their thicknesses
otherwise.
Then, there is the issue with the chest freezer. For a few years, we had that outside in one
of the sheds. This was perfect during
the dead of winter because we would simply shut it off and let the cold from
the elements keep things frozen for a few months. However, we discovered the HARD way, that
high winds when turned on, would blow out the pilot light through the vented
pipe. We have lost a LOT of food once
because of that. Luckily, we had the
means to get out to town and resupply albeit during the wintertime. We were NOT happy, and what a mess that was!
Food storage at camp can be iffy simply because if there is a
crack somewhere, a mouse or mice will find their way inside. Canned goods are safe on the open shelves,
but anything in boxes or plastic must go inside a metal cabinet. Things like
flours, sugars, etc., are stored inside a huge cooler as I buy that stuff in
bulk sizes if I can. We like to buy
gallon jars of pickles during the summer months and keep the jars for things
like dried macaroni, spaghetti (broken down to fit), noodles, oatmeal, cereals,
popcorn, etc. Therefore, scattered about
camp we have gallon size jars filled with foodstuff to include our supply of
candies, dry drink mixes, etc.
I
am sure there is more I could write, so if you have any further questions, or
if I think of something later, I will mention it in another blog segment. Feel free to ask questions of any type. I will try my best to answer.
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