Quote:
Originally Posted by penguinz
Refrigerators are also used to keep food from freezing in below freezing environments.  |
True but in talking about winter survival, having your food freeze is better than having it spoil. You can always thaw it.
My grandpa was born and raised in the mountains of northern Idaho. They didn't have power and once the snow started, the roads to town were impassable.
For winter, they had a building with screened in sides. They would hunt deer, dress them and then hang them in the meat building. You wanted them to freeze solid so that they would ride through the occasional non-freezing day.
They would also slaughter pigs in the fall. Some of the pork could be cured and smoked but most of it would go to making and cooking up a shit ton of sausage patties. The patties were then layered in big crocks. The pig fat was rendered down to lard and then poured over the sausage patties. This preserved them through the winter.
Meat was also canned but mostly as a survival measure. Grandpa said it wasn't very good.
Fruit and vegetables were canned except for things that stored well, like apples, potatoes and onions. Flour, sugar and stuff like that also stored well in large bags in the fruit cellar.
ThaVirus said:
Quote:
|
How do you even survive a winter up north without a refrigerator? I feel like you'd have to kill an animal to eat everyday with no plant/berry life..
|
It's definitely do-able. It's just a ton of work, You also have issues if you have a warm winter (that's what the canned meat is for).