Refrigeration.

[jansman]

Look up igloo maxicold coolers

Cheaper ones are the industrial marine range in boring white. Rather than posh decorative colours aimed at tge domestic / camping market.


Not cheap but 2 1kg bags of supermarket ice. Chilled 18 cans of lager/ 4 ltrs of pop and a pile of meat 2 days later there was still ice floating ! (Last summer in a tent when it was pushing 25°c)

http://m.costco.co.uk/view/p/igloo-51-l ... mbo-727014

Its a good standby!

[Arzosah]

I will be honest in that I forgot totally that we could have shoved the gear into our mini - root cellar. It holds at a steady 10 degrees C. ALL year and would have sufficed. Aah well!

Noooooo! You have multiple backups now

Though it bears out something I've been mulling over - a listing of our preps, even the very visible ones, is a good thing.

[Yorkshire Andy]

[General DeGaulle]

well, its 32 degrees here in Central France. And no, I am NOT lucky! Even the locals say it is too hot and no ones got the energy for anything because of the combination of heat and water vapour (we had a thunderstorm last night). My supposedly well made German fridge is struggling even to keep beer cool. I do however have a cool cellar. Has anyone here tried making a cold box out of plywood and insulating materials? I have plenty of marine ply and kingspan offcuts so was thinking of giving it a go. Once its cooler and I don't break out into rivers of sweat just walking to the shop.

[grenfell]

I've made a cool box from timber and kingspan insulation. I am involved in re-enactment and still have the need to keep some things cool so made a chest and have lined it with the insulation. I normally cool everything down in the fridge or freezer before placing it in the cool box and it serves to keep perishables much better over a warm weekend. Obviously it won't make anything cooler than it was before it went in but it does do a very good job of stopping stuff getting as warm as the rest of the surroundings.

[General DeGaulle]

Brilliant! So, its a goer, then A chest is a great idea - I was thinking of a box or two, but I may as well go large and using it to keep liquids (mainly water... and beer!) cool. By the way, what period do you re-enact? I used to do Anglo-Norman and American Civil War.

[grenfell]

I do medieval , 15th century. The chest is based on a flour chest , simple plank construction using 12" wide boards and simple wire hinges. The ends are "extended" so the chest as a whole is raised above the floor and can be used as a makeshift bench if necessary . It's not huge partly because we have to transport it easily and partly because we don't need one that's too big but some friends who ran a car club made one up with just the insulation , no box as appearance wasn't an issue , that was large enough for a load of people , something like 800mm square if I recall correctly.

[shocker]

As for tinned food, as Gunny Highway says, "improvise, adapt and overcome".

Another Hearbreak-er! "Its a clusterf*&k!" ...classic

[Deeps]

As for tinned food, as Gunny Highway says, "improvise, adapt and overcome".

Another Hearbreak-er! "Its a clusterf*&k!" ...classic

"This doesn't mean we'll be swapping spit in the shower".

[jansman]

I will be honest in that I forgot totally that we could have shoved the gear into our mini - root cellar. It holds at a steady 10 degrees C. ALL year and would have sufficed. Aah well!

Noooooo! You have multiple backups now

Though it bears out something I've been mulling over - a listing of our preps, even the very visible ones, is a good thing.

I dug the 'cellar' a while back for storing,literally,roots.Also trays of apple from my trees.Thinking on,the frozen pop bottles in there would have made it double bubble.

We have the original walk in pantry with stone floor.At the back is the stone thrall( cold slab) and that holds at a steady 13 degrees all year.No good for high risk foods,but perfect for fruit and veg AND my home brew ale! Refrigerated ale is a crime against humanity!

As I get older I seem to be reverting back to low tech solutions for problems.Its less aggro.Mind you,its nice to have that shiny new fridge.