Keeping produce longer term in the fridge - without crisper drawers.

My fridge is dying, and I don't want to spend the money to replace it right now after a bunch of expensive things going wrong all at once.

It still cools, but the electronics are fried so I can't set a temperature. Anything in the bottom vegetable drawers ends up frozen in 1" of ice. I basically use the crisper drawers only for milk bags at this point (yes, I am in Ontario, why do you ask?)

Is there a way to store fresh veggies in the other areas of the fridge, and not have them go bad quickly?

My vegetable consumption has plummeted because veggies either go bad quickly in the main fridge, or freeze and go bad in the crispers. Without fresh veggies, I feel less inclined to cook.

Note - I grocery shop about once every 2-3 weeks. I know it won't be a big deal once my garden gets going again, and I start storing veggies for 1-2 days max...

Hello Catie!

I have been keeping root veggies in tubs of dirt on my porch this winter.   I have them tucked close to the house and cover them with a blanket.  It has been keeping them fresh and above freezing.   If it was super cold I would probably cover them with straw to give more insulation.  

I keep greens and celery on the top shelves with their stems in a dish of water and a bag over the leaves.  That way they stay fresh for days.  

Good luck!

I'm afraid my porch is far closer to freezer temps than fridge temps! Not consistently above 0C even in the day yet here, with most nights still -10C, and -17C in the forecast.  I can probably finally tap my maple trees this week...

I do have a cold basement - generally 5C to 12C, so I keep garlic, squash, onions and potatoes there.

But I need a fridge to get things like carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, to last a few weeks...

I was thinking along similar lines as Samantha... Do you or a family member have an old fashioned camping cooler? Since your fridge is clearly making ice, you wouldn't need to buy the ice.

What sorts of veggies are you trying to keep? Which ones do you depend on the most to encourage you to cook?

I agree with Jay, get an ice chest!

Any recommendations on how to use a cooler for up to 3 weeks, to keep veggies cold without freezing them?

I do have an old cooler and an abundance of ice packs, but I seem to remember veggies going slimy after a couple days from getting too cold on camping trips. Maybe I just haven't mastered using a cooler?

As for what I want to eat more of - I am craving  greens, and brassicas, celery, cucumbers, and carrots. Obviously I tend to eat through the more perishable stuff first.

Part of what's going on is I've discovered I'm probably intolerant to nightshades, so my frozen and canned tomatoes and peppers are suddenly useless to me.

Catie George wrote:Any recommendations on how to use a cooler for up to 3 weeks, to keep veggies cold without freezing them?

I think it's important to have an air space between the ice and the veggies, and for veggies, the ice needs to be on the bottom. If you had cooling racks like for cookies that you could prop up on something, so you can put the ice at the bottom and be able to lift out at least some of the veggies easily to refresh the ice as needed?

I suspect that it's going to take some experimentation. It's been years since I did much camping myself.

That sucks about nightshade sensitivity - I have heard of people with that, and it's a big family to have to avoid.

here's a question- how cold is your house? because most of those things on your list (carrots, cucumbers, broco/cauli, celery) are things i keep out of the fridge in the winter. if you have one room that is a bit chillier but at least stable, i would consider keeping the stuff in there.
Otherwise, I have to agree with the cooler idea. Put a frozen bottle/pack/whatever or two in the cooler, put a towel or two over them to make sure nothing gets frozen from being too cold, throw in those veggies and bob's your uncle (I have fabric bags for brassicas and especially leafies, but you can also roll/wrap in a cloth napkin or kitchen towel). I don't see any good way to keep veg in a fridge that freezes them.

The 'keep in another room' idea is a really good one to try.

I heat mostly with a pellet stove which I turn off overnight, so my kitchen fluctuates between 14C-22C on a daily basis. Horrible for keeping veg out, even potatoes. I seem to be able to keep fruit (apples, oranges) on the counter for about 1.5 weeks.

The bedrooms are further away, from the pellet stove, and colder. I could maybe put a box in my office/spare room, which I normally close the door to and is probably more like a consistent 10C (except when I go away and turn on the boiler, but if I'm away I set the boiler to 13C-14C anyways...) I struggle to go downstairs and grab veg from the cold storage area, but the office would be much more convenient! And then, by late April when that room is likely warmer from the sun, since it is south facing ,I will have the start of fresh garden produce.

Maybe my issue with coolers is I usually use them in high summer and use way more ice than I'd need to indoors in the winter? Worth trying my cooler with only 1 or 2 ice packs.

The main area of the fridge doesn't freeze thankfully, it just dehydrates things at it attempts to defrost itself, and then drips water on the shelves.

Sorry about your fridge. Been there, it's a pain. Heads up, during its last gasp it may suddenly invert its operation and turn into a "warmer" overnight and spoil a lot of stuff while you're not looking.

Sometimes you can get a free fridge from local online sites. People keep them in their garage for a bar fridge after an upgrade and eventually give them away.

I wonder if yours could be plugged into a timer so it runs 15 minutes and turns off for an hour? Tricky but possible.

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To the point of your post: Veggies keep in a climate of controlled temperature and controlled humidity. We keep all our garden root veg in a regular fridge space, in heavy plastic bags with paper towels that we periodically change out to remove excess humidity. These last us until the next fall, so this system works. There's no reason it couldn't be done with big glass jars with boiled-and-dried cotton cloths for those who prefer a plastic-free approach.

supposedly 3C is the ideal fridge temp, and the crisper is supposed to be a bit warmer. admittedly 10C is not 4/5C, but it's better than a 14-22C roller coaster every day (and probably worse, the dehydrating effects of running a stove).
Hopefully a box in the office gives you some sort of happy medium. I'd definitely keep a good eye on the things that go bad first (and definitely, DEFINITELY wrap up everything in towels or fabric or newspaper or whatever, which I find makes a huge difference in preservation time.
Good luck and keep us posted!!!

As for a new fridge - I hope to get a used fridge this summer when I can remove my trailer from the snow bank it currently sits in (if I can find someone to help me move fridges).

Or buy a new one I suppose, from a company that does free removals, but I really would rather use the money for a number of other things on my list that would bring me more long term joy than a fridge. Fixer upper houses are expensive!!

As an aside:

I was wandering about Costco the other day (killing time, waiting for a prescription) and saw quite a number of mid-size refrigeration appliances that were purpose built to be *either* a fridge or a freezer on demand. The settings were right there on the controls. That struck me as brilliant -- there's no reason you can't convert the same unit for either use; it's just about the control systems needed to make it work. These have it right from the factory.