I have been wanting to make this leap for some time now…….the leap to the MINI FRIDGE! It seems like most American;s think that they need a big, cold, space-taking-up box in the middle of the otherwise lovely kitchen. I beg to differ.

If you are eating a mostly fresh, local diet of vegetables and grains, even some meat….you too can downsize to the mini fridge. Granted if you are a family of 4 and up, this might prove to be difficult, bit in my case, it is just the 2 of us and we eat mainly out of the garden and keep only truly perishable items in the fridge, milk, butter, cheese (although some cheeses taste better when you leave them unrefrigerated and eat them within a few days), opened jars of jam, sauerkraut, leftovers etc.

I have found the key to making sure I don’t run into a space issue is being on top of what we have, what needs to be eaten when and keeping staples on hand. And trust me, it is easy to do when we have 4.6 cubic feet of cold space.

Joe has been wanting to get rid of his gigantor fridge for a while now. I had been researching different sizes and models of Mini Fridges and finally I found one that I liked…..the GE Mini at 4.6 Cubic feet, it uses less then $20 a YEAR to run! We had taken all the steps to get ride of an old fridge………if yours is 12 years or older PG&E will come to YOU, PICK IT UP AND THEN SEND YOU A CHECK FOR $35!! Sounds like a deal to me.

We then went to Big 1 appliances and found the model we liked, for $179. Once we got there and saw it in real life, I have to say, it looked REALLY SMALL…..so small in fact that Joe wanted to go home and think about it and maybe look into something bigger. I felt a bit defeated seeing as this was all my idea….

I checked craigslist to see if anyone was selling a used mini locally…..low and behold, someone was selling the same exact GE fridge for $55! We jumped in the car and picked it up, thinking this would be a good way to try it first. We plugged it in and got our minimal, healthy, local and fresh food scene dialled! Honestly it has been really great, there is so much more room in the kitchen and we haven’t missed the old biggie fridge once! The only think to keep in mind is that there is VERY VERY limited freezer space. You might be able to squeeze a pint of ice cream in there, ice cream sandwiches work best.

Some say the eyes are the window to the soul…….perhaps the fridge is the window to the belly?

This past weekend the New York Times ran an amazing spread of articles about food activists and issues. One of the articles was focused on the young “food fighters” in the USA. The cover of this article was a friend of my from college named Severine von Tscharner Fleming. She is making a documentary on young farmers called “THE GREENHORNS” They have a great blog

There was a really great section in the NyTimes magazine where the young “food fighters” discussed what was in their refrigerator and why it was there. This inevitably gave way to their own perspectives on food and what we put in our bodies and the global implications of this choices.

If you are interested in hearing these interviews, click here

So in conclusion, to me the MINI FRIDGE is an experiment in living with less, living lower on the food chain and learning to not THINK that I need as much, space, food constantly stocked in the fridge, but at the same time knowing that there is plenty

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Uncategorized by Wendy Van Wagner