time for a clearout
"There's stuff in there that has been in there for years," I told J.
I was moaning about not being able to fit anything into any of the three drawers that constituted the freezer compartment of our fridge freezer. That was about four weeks ago. Neither of us had got round to doing anything about it until yesterday, when I was wanting to strip some sweetcorn cobs while they were still fresh, and freeze the kernels.
I couldn't find the space. So I took the bottom freezer drawer out and started sorting through the ancient contents. I needed to throw something old away to make space for some of this new content. And I knew there would be something old in there.
May I introduce the bag which formerly contained the most ancient foodstuff found in the freezer so far. (This is 'so far' because there are obviously another two drawers in similar need of sorting, but I only did the one yesterday)
Yes, that says 14, as in 2014
It does have the distinction of being properly identified and dated, which in a house containing two ADHD adults is a notable departure from the many bagged, half used items – not properly closed and therefore heavily freezer burned – in now unidentifiable and anonymous solid icy lumps in assorted colours.
The bottom of the drawer was also covered in ball bearing-like loose blueberries. A bag of them had split in some historical rustling about in the drawer at some time, and spilled the berries, where they had sat on the bottom, bullet hard and unseen – because neither of us had actually seen the bottom of the drawer for a loooong time.
We actually moved to the house we're in now in 2016, so this half-used quantity of bacon was put in the freezer about one and a half years before we moved. And then, somehow, it came with us when we moved.
It was only about an hour and a half drive between the two places — I can't remember exactly how the removals firm moved the fridge-freezer and still retained some frozen contents now.
Anyway, we have apparently cared for this pack of smoked bacon for over eleven years. When we put this bacon in the freezer, my son, who has just turned 21, was only 10 years old.
We have eaten so much bacon since then, but this poor 300 grams of smoked bacon still lay in the freezer, forgotten, suspended, but ready and waiting to be used someday.
Now, I have unwrapped it, finally released it from its icily solid existence, and chucked it into the food waste bin, which will be collected by the council recycling lorry tomorrow.
I don't know that there's a moral to this story. But it is kind of heartening to think that this is what might actually happen to cryogenically-stored billionaires.
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