Here I am, a single man in China, faced with the thorny problem of how to keep my butter, milk and cheese for more than a couple of days, when I don't have a fridge!
Do you know how to do it?
Well, in the past I've had some experience involving the use of a Coolgardie Safe. Now, anyone who's anyone would know that this is an evaporative cooler that relies on firm scientific principles to keep dairy products in reasonably usable condition in 30+ degree heat for more than a couple of days!
[I see I've lost a few of you already - the term, science tends to do that! he he...]
Ok. So in a nutshell, heres my situation. I recently spent about a month in Beijing during a lovely constant weather temp of around 30 deg. C to 38 deg. C
I was on the 5th floor, had no fridge and no way of keeping my dairy products in any other way. Even eggs became useless after 3-5 days!
So what to do? I made a Coolgardie Safe!
Ok, so what's a Coolgardie Safe? Well, older Australian's will know. Yonger Australian's may know of it's reputation but not have any experience of it. fortunately, in my youth I had the chance to play with a couple, although I never really could work out how they worked - I now the theory but never really had the need to make it work in practice, well, until recently.
A Coolgardie Safe consists of a tray of water with a mesh box immersed in it and a cloth covering to wick the water up and through evaporation, create a low temperature environment within the mesh box. Often a terracotta brick is used to add thermal mass and to keep the cooled products out of the water.
Now, here's my problem. I'm in the middle of China. Everything I take for granted, doesn't exist, or is and adventure worthy of a Greek Epic in order to reach a satisfactory conclusion. e.g where do you get a metal mesh box from? Or just some mesh t make a box? What about the tray, or the brick or shelves if it's large, or even the fabric to cover the safe? Simple issues with non-simple solutions.
Here's what I did.
I bought a rectangular plastic tray, about 1 " deep. I also bought a plastic mesh basket which fitted comfortably into the tray when placed upside down. then I bought two packets of dish cloths and cut and stitched the clothes together to create a cover for the mesh basket. Lastly, I found a flattish brick on the street, washed it, doused it in boiling water and then placed it inside the assembly. Once fully assembled, I poured water into te tray and allowed it to sit on a window ledge in the breeze.
;-)
I hope you are able to use this idea and find it informative. All the best. this has been a 'Survive China' announcement!
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1 comment:
How interesting! I grew up in London after the war and refrigeration was non existent; but every house had a slab of tiled concrete in the larder and that was used to keep butter etc cold as :) Now I have a house where there is little electricity, so I am going to revive my Coolgardie safe that I bought some 40 years ago and has been used as a balcony garden mini shed until now...can't wait to see how effective it is though and looking forward to getting back to basics and not relying on the big fridge I had before. By the way, the Coolgardie safe I have is designed to collapse as all the metal pieces slot into each other so it can be taken apart easily. This is so it can be dismantled and strapped to the side of a horse, so the cattle drovers would have some cooling container that would keep the bugs out when they stopped for the night. I do love your solution though I am definitely going to give it a go! Thanks for posting :)
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