The Great Freezer Eat Down

It’s time to begin The Great Freezer Eat Down, a time honored mid summer tradition meant to make more room for the produce that will soon be rolling down the hills, ready to be processed and save for winter, I hope.

It also coincides with my kids’ constant cries of, “I’m hungry.”  I hear it in my sleep.  With football practices running nearly all day long, it seems that they only come home long enough to eat and make a new mess.

We cleared out the freezer yearly, but there are always a few mysteries in there.  This morning I found a very large bag of raspberries.  Those will make another batch of raspberry jam.  Score!  I swear my dad slips in extra packets of game every time he visits.  They are rarely marked, so my boys are never sure if they’ll get venison burgers or loin steaks (the filet mignon of the venison world).  Meat, vegetable, or fruit, it’s all vacuum-sealed and as fresh as when it went into the freezer.

There are a few dogs in there (not literally).  That experimental stuffing recipe that I tried last Thanksgiving wasn’t good then and I’ll probably sacrifice that to the chickens.  There are the banana popsicles that no one liked.  Those will go straight to the garbage.  Thankfully, tomorrow is garbage day.

But there are some jewels in there too, like the extra turkey that my husband bought and promptly forgot.  We’ll grill that this weekend, eat what we can, and use the rest for lunch meat.  We still have the ribs left over from the half a pig we ordered last year.  Those will go on the grill too.  Leftover packages of corn and edamame will become succotash.  I think there is a package of green peppers in there too.

It’s an ideal time to have a freezer eat down.  I could go for days without major trips to the grocery store and all the money we save can go to school supplies and new shoes.

Everyone seems to need new shoes and multiple pairs.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I found shoes in the back of the freezer.  I found a football shirt my son had put in the freezer to cool it down for a hot summer day.  The same son throws his clothes into the warm dryer while he eats his breakfast on cold days.

Maybe some sweet elf will put a new pair of shoes in there, or a Rep. Jefferson stash of cold, hard cash.  Either would be helpful.