A true food tragedy at Casa De Sparkly i Stinky

[Stinky The Clown]

So we're each in our offices, doing some lazy Saturday stuff. I walk over to Sparkly's office and ask her if she'd given any thought to supper. We chat about what we might want; what's in the freezer.

I go back to the laundry room and open the (32 year old) freezer. A smell tumbles out. Then warmth.

Every Damned Thing Was Thawed.

Not just thawing.

Thawed and on toward spoiling.

It was maybe four or five days since either of us opened it

5 lbs of salmon. 5 lbs of huge Texas Gulf shrimp. Maybe 3 or 4 lbs of pork chops. Two pork tenderloins. Four St Louis cut rub racks. Stuffed clams, pizzas, lasagnas, spinach pies, burritos, homemade soups, homemade pulled pork barbecue and store bought pulled pork barbecue, calamari, ham, skinless chicken breasts, and on ..... and on ..... and on.

We went out and bought a new freezer. $620. I bet we threw out more than that in spoiled food.

While Sparkly ran out to the hardware store to buy some super heavy duty garbage bags, I managed to get the freezer out of the basement and into the back yard, and got the door off. She got back and we literally filled to the very top a garbage can. It was so heavy I was barely able to move it. We had to empty it partially, move it up to the the front, and refill it. I'm betting a hundred and twenty, maybe a hundred and fifty lbs of food got tossed.

The new freezer is white, like the old one.

We went out for dinner.

[Lugnut]

1. Oh man.

I am crying for you. I got some great bargains on meat last week when I visited my daughter so my 30+ year old freezer is packed to the max. This morning I went to the basement to take some chicken out for our party tomorrow and the freezer sounded weird. I got one of those instant panic headaches before I opened the door. Everything is still frozen solid but you can bet I'll be keeping a close eye on things.

[Stinky The Clown]

11. Take this advice from someone who now has first hand experience:

Ours "made noise" for a while. A knocking sound. I knew damned well what it was (a dry(ing) bearing in the compressor) and knew damned well it was unfixable and knew damned well it could go in an hour or a year.

Replace the freezer now, Don't wait.

[Lugnut]

24. Oh shit.

I realized today that the freezer is constantly running and making a knocking sound. I was up to my eyeballs in food, guests and party all day so freezer shopping was out of the question. Everything is still frozen solid but I know we're on borrowed time. Hubs and I need to go freezer shopping ASAP.

[Stinky The Clown]

25. Sears is having a big sale on Energy Star appliances and also on all Kenmores

The place where we bought ours (a GE) quoted us a price below Sears' sale price (he is always the cheapest guy in town).

It is a buyer's market. Go forth and spend.

[grasswire]

2. oh lordy

I don't like the idea of anyone wrestling a freezer out to the back yard! Don't scare us!

I'll bet you lost some real goodies. There are always tidbits of duck fat and stuff like that, saved for enriching another dish and now lost forever.

What a shame.

[Mind_your_head]

3. Oh, that brought tears to my eyes (truly)!

We're such a blessed/rich nation, we shouldn't waste.

I know you couldn't help it, but 'watta waste', as you already know.

Long live your new freezer! :-)

[Tangerine LaBamba]

4. Somehow, and I'll have to think of this for a while,

but I'll get back to you, this is Glenn Beck's fault.

And John McPOW's.

It's a horrible, horrible story. Now you'll check your freezer every day for the rest of your life.

So will I.

Aaaaaargh. I hate situations where, really, there's no one to blame. It's so open-ended and shameful and just awful.

I am so sorry, Stinky.

So, where did you got for dinner? What did you have? I love that nothing stopped you two from eating. You are true foodies.

And, looking on the bright side, you get to fill up the brand new freezer with all new stuff!

Yeah, I know.............................................

[sazemisery]

5. I feel your pain.

This happened to us last year. It rips at the heart of a true foodie.

[eleny]

6. Oh no

[hippywife]

7. Oh no!

I'm so sorry to hear that. You must feel devastated!

I toyed with the idea of a chest freezer and Bill talked me out of it, especially after the 5 days without electricity we experienced a few years ago.

I hope you had a lovely dinner out to soothe your loss. :hug:

[Phentex]

8. It's risky here, too...

I do have an extra freezer and it's great for meats and veggies when I have stocked up. But we tend to lose power a lot! The good thing is that there's usually time to salvage stuff (like when the trees knocked the power out). But we do end up losing some stuff that can't be re-frozen very well.

And then there's the guessing game of "should we move stuff now or wait and see if the power comes back on?"

[hippywife]

10. At least if it can be caught.

some cooking can be done around here, anyway. We have propane so at least I could salvage some things by getting them cooked and some things on ice right away.

:hi:

[Stinky The Clown]

13. Our first thought was "Let's have a party" and cook as much as we can.

But the food was too far gone. It was at room temperature.

[Retrograde]

30. Ouch!

When our old fridge went we were at least able to salvage enough of the still-frozen meat trimmings to make stock - and can it the old-fashioned way, using a pressure cooker.

[Phentex]

9. Oh, yeah, that hurts....

especially the meats. I would have cried.

Enjoy your new feezer!

[CTyankee]

12. Oh, god. This is the reason I don't do the big freezer thing. I just KNOW it would happen to me.

The worst of it is the utter waste and I know you people are not wasters.

Does ANY freezer ever have a "back up" system? Not sure I know how that would work but boy would it be ever worth it...

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

14. They should at least have an alarm system, shouldn't

they ? I work in a hospital and I think we have an alarm system on our fridges where medications are stored. I think its linked into our computer system.

[CTyankee]

15. I guess if you have one at the hospital there is a way.

But I also think a back up generation system of some sort could be invented.

[grasswire]

16. I think the backup system exists.

It would merely be to develop the habit of opening the freezer daily. A nuisance, I know, but it would prevent the loss.

[Stinky The Clown]

18. Your hospital kitchen also has high temp refrig and freezer alarms, and they're probably also on the

emergency generator. I am pretty sure that's a JCAH requirement. I know that when we design hospital kitchens we always put the refrigerators and freezers on the emergency generator and provide a way for the temp controls/sensors to be wired back to the building's alarm systems.

[csziggy]

26. Inexpensive freezer alarms are available - just do a search

Amazon has models as cheap as $10.

I know that had to be painful. We've twice lost the contents of a full freezer - both times from storms and lost power, so we did what we could to give away the best food and use what we could ourselves. The first time what hurt were the gallons and gallons of wild blackberries that we spent the summer picking and had planned to can when the temperatures cooled down. And those were the hardest to clean up after.

Last fall we lost power for four days after Tropical Storm Fay drowned the area. I had filled our new freezer with really good deals on meats and vegetables to save money over the winter. We managed to haul most of the stuff to a local homeless shelter before it defrosted. Two hours after I got home from taking the last load in, the electric co-op guys got here and got our power back on. :eyes:

[Stinky The Clown]

17. This was not the result of a pwer failureThe compressor failed

After 32 years of non-stop running, I'd say that's pretty damned good, actually. But no power back-up would have saved this. It simply died of old age.

I'm not aware of any freezer having a back-up system (apart from dry ice!). What would help is a high temp (say 25F) alarm system. At least then one could take steps to save the food before it reaches 32F and thaws.

[ginnyinWI]

19. mine has an alarm built in.

and it's just a scratch and dent little cheap-o 15 cu. ft. chest freezer. After reading your story, I'm really glad we have one.

[sandnsea]

20. Your insurance will cover the loss

That happened to my sister. I think I'd sit down and cry me a puddle. :(

[Stinky The Clown]

21. Wow. I need to look into that.

I mean, while it was a "natural" death, the loss of the freezer cost us a lot in lost food.

How did your sister demonstrate the value of her loss? Our food is gone now and we didn't take any pictures or anything.

[sandnsea]

22. It was about five years ago

I don't remember the details, don't know if I ever asked. The loss of the food is what she collected on, I do remember that. Maybe a receipt for dumping the old freezer along with a receipt for the new one would help.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. What's your deductible?

If it's low, check out your homeowner's insurance, absolutely. I thought of this today, when I was peeling a sticker off an apple, and thought of you, of course.

It might be complicated, since you have absolutely no proof of what was in the freezer, and the freezer itself was old, which means its natural death could have been anticipated. In that case, your insurance won't cover it.

As I recall, you said the freezer was really old, right? If so, no insurance against that sort of thing. Although I'd argue that it should, and you never know what a worn-down insurance adjuster will agree to, so go for it.

But, if you could demonstrate that something - a storm, an electrical failure, some celestial event - caused the freezer to malfunction, you might have a shot.

Won't hurt to give your agent a call. After all, you got a new Brita faucet filter last week, just by making a call, right?

Good luck, Stinky.......................................

[hippywife]

28. Do still check into this but

I'm thinking it will not because it was a failure of the old appliance and not due to an insurable event such as fire or wind damage to your home that knocked out the power. I was in the casualty insurance industry servicing these types of policies for homeowners many moon ago and I'm pretty sure this will be the case, if I remember correctly. But don't rely on my old hippie memory, do check it out.

[katkat]

27. Cash for clunker appliances

I believe I read a short while ago that there was a Cash for Clunker Appliances or some such coming down the pike. Might be worth waiting.

Stories like this are why I don't have a freezer, besides being too cheap to pay for the electricity. We have a power failure in my area 1-2 times a year. Plus as a vegetarian, I don't need to store all that meat, canning is fine.

[Brewman_Jax]

29. Sorry to hear

my folks had that happen some years ago. My dad got a temp alarm for it that hangs outside of the freezer and the sensor is inside connected by a thin wire that allows the door to seal correctly. I'm sure that they didn't file an insurance claim because they had a high deductible. Also, it probably isn't worth the hassle for an old freezer.

32 years of good service is fantastic! :thumbsup:

[tigereye]

31. oh no! That's terrible.

[BarbaRosa]

32. ouch