If you’re going to pick a single component, a single fixture, and the average home that would be the beating heart of the house, what would you say it is? I would make a case that it is the refrigerator.

My reasoning is simple enough: the kitchen is the nerve center of the home in more ways than one, and the refrigerator is the most important appliance in the kitchen.

Without the refrigerator, so much of the food we keep on hand would spoil in days if not hours. That means the variety of food we’re able to keep at home for subsequent cooking will shrink dramatically. Or will it?

The refrigerator is so ubiquitous it is difficult to imagine life without it.

But life indeed went on for a very long time before it was invented, and around the world in many places, life still goes on just fine without them.

If you live on a homestead, by intent or necessity you might be considering getting rid of your refrigerator. If that’s the case, you’ve come to the right place.

I’ll tell you how to live without this seemingly critical appliance in the rest of this article and do so without living on rice and beans.

Canning

You know it, you love it. And if you don’t love it then you should! With a pressure canner or water bath canner, a little bit of elbow grease, and plenty of know-how, you can preserve delicious fresh or prepared foods for many months, potentially even years, on end.

You can do this with very little risk of spoilage, and they will be ready to eat right out of the can just like anything you buy at the grocery store.

Canning is a lot of work, and you’ve got to have a mind for both logistics and process if you want to make it a reliable part of your pantry life.

That being said, it’s a highly rewarding one. But canning is just as much art as science in my opinion, and it definitely pays to learn from a seasoned master.

If you don’t have anyone in your family who’s a prolific at-home canner, consider asking around with neighbors or look for classes put on by colleges and other institutions in your area.

This is one of the most rewarding ways to preserve food that will help you ditch the fridge almost immediately.

Drying

People have been drying food to preserve it for millennia, at the very least.

By greatly reducing the moisture content of fruits, vegetables, meat, and more, you essentially eliminate the chances that bacteria could flourish in it and begin the process of decomposition and spoilage.

At the same time, the food is still usually safe to eat as is despite a significant change in texture and sometimes taste.

Dried foods are typically thought of as rations for long journeys or survival, and they definitely excel in that regard, but they can also be rehydrated and used in recipes normally, often with a minimal loss of quality.

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One of the best things about drying is that it is so adaptable. You can use ancient techniques that rely on nothing but the sun and favorably dry weather, or invest in an inexpensive and highly efficient food dehydrator for the purpose.

Yes, that’s another electric appliance but I promise you one that uses dramatically less electricity than a refrigerator. And aside from prepping the food to go into the dehydrator, it needs very little actual work: just time.

Freeze-drying

You might think of freeze drying as a subset of dehydration, and it is in a way, but it is a supremely high-tech variation and one with even greater effectiveness.

Freeze-dried foods are first frozen and then placed into a vacuum to allow the frozen moisture to turn directly from a solid into a gas when it leaves the food. The result is food that is absolutely dry and has a tremendously long shelf life even at room temperature.

These foods may or may not be nominally edible in this state, but once again, they can be rehydrated and used in recipes or eaten normally with very little loss in overall quality.

The major advantage of freeze-dried food is that when it’s properly prepared, packaged, and protected from moisture the shelf life is almost indefinite.

The downsides are that, one, this is another electric appliance that you’ll have to invest in and power and, two, they also happen to be very expensive compared to common dehydrators.

Nonetheless, for folks who want maximum shelf life for room temperature storage conditions freeze drying cannot be beat.

Plenty of Foods Don’t Need Preserving!

I want to take a moment to remind you that lots of foods don’t really need preserving. Or at least they don’t need it in the timetable that you’re likely to eat them in. And yes, that includes all kinds of foods that we stereotypically associate with refrigerated storage.

My favorite examples are fruits and vegetables. Most do not need refrigerated storage, and often refrigeration is actually bad for them.

Your leafy salad veggies and basically every kind of fruit will do just fine at room temperature or in a cool spot of your home. Keep them away from heat sources and out of direct sunlight, and keep them dry to prevent mold.

Eggs are another good example, along with all sorts of condiments and sauces. Hard cheeses are also fine in simply cool temperatures as long as they are kept dry.

Again, refer to my advice above about only buying or stocking what you will eat in a reasonable period of time. Assuming, of course, it isn’t being kept preserved for long-term storage.

And because you’re on a homestead, assuming you have poultry or dairy animals fresh eggs or fresh milk can be had basically on demand, so you don’t need to worry about spoilage if it is “on the hoof!”

Still Need Chilled Storage?

Now, let’s get real. Refrigeration, or at least cool storage, is a major asset. There’s a reason the refrigerator is so revolutionary. But you should know that cool storage was achievable again for millennia prior to its invention!

That’s right; there are refrigeration alternatives to the refrigerator! If you still don’t want to give up entirely on the certainty inconvenience of cool storage, you are in luck, because there are lots of ways to achieve it.

Store Perishables Outside in Colder Climes and Seasons

The first and in many ways, best way to cool or even frozen storage is simply to keep the stuff outside if you live in a suitably cold region or have adequately cold fall or winter weather.

Sounds crazy, but it works just fine and is again something that your great-great-grandparents probably did themselves including with things that are more prone to spoilage like dairy and meat.

You can keep the food outside in protected boxes or other enclosures, or rely on a convenient option in the form of a window ice box, easily reachable from inside your home just by opening a window.

Protecting the storage location from sunlight and using a good thermometer to ensure adequate temperatures inside is all it takes for safety and certainty…

Try an Ice Chest or Cooler

Well before the refrigerator became a fixture in every home, the ice chest and its less effective, portable cousin, the cooler, were the staples for keeping cold goods cold. Turns out an insulated box would keep ice frozen for a good bit, long enough to reliably chill food good and cold.

They definitely work, but there is just one problem: they require ice!

Again, if you live in a truly frigid climate you can “mine” or even make your own ice in various ways, otherwise you’ll need to pick up a supply of ice once or as much as three times a week depending on the efficiency of your ice chest.

If you have a gas station, country store or supermarket nearby this is still an entirely viable option, especially if you just have a few things you like to keep in cold storage.

Zeer Pots are Ancient Refrigerators

I wasn’t kidding when I said that ancient peoples got to enjoy refrigerated storage of a sort well prior to the advent of electricity…

These ingenious devices were called zeer pots, basically, a type of evaporative cooler made from two nesting clay jars with a layer of wet sand packed in between them.

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