Have you ever suffered from a long-term power outage or been evacuated from your home due to a natural disaster? In the event that nothing catastrophic ends up happening to your family, you will probably end up in a frustrating situation that many find themselves in after power has been out for a prolonged or unknown period of time:
You don’t know how long the food in your freezer has been sitting in a freezer without power.
So, the reason this might be relevant to homesteaders is if you are working on getting off-grid or already living this way, live in a rural area with frequent power outages or rely on unreliable sources of electricity like generators or solar panels, this could be insanely useful for times when your freezer for whatever reason loses power.
It’s very important for food safety to be able to determine whether or not food in the freezer has completely thawed, so what you do is this:
- Find a small, freezer-proof container that you can keep in the freezer without taking up too much space. A small plastic Tupperware or disposable plastic cup would be perfect.
- Fill the container with water.
- Place in the freezer, and let it sit overnight, or until the water freezes completely.
- Place a coin on the top of the frozen water.
How It Works:
This is now your handy frozenness indicator. When your freezer loses power, over time, the water (and all your food) will begin to thaw. If the power goes back on before you are able to check, the water will freeze again. So, if the coin is sitting on the top of the water when you are able to get back to your freezer, or when the power goes back on, your food has remained fully frozen and won’t be spoiled. However, if it is sitting in the bottom of the cup, the food has thawed completely and is most likely spoiled.
This is handy even if you remain at home, because in order to keep your food frozen as long as possible in a freezer that is not receiving power, you will want to keep it closed for as long as possible.
Freezers are wonderful modern inventions that can keep food fresh for long periods of time! It’s important to have a backup plan in case they lose the power that makes them work.
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