5/09/2006 01:02:00 PM|||Jodie Chase|||

I don't know about yours, but my refrigerator is shrinking. When we selected the hefty thing, it seemed large. It was reasonably priced and it appeared to have ample space to store fresh food for a family of five. The problem, I've deduced, is that we bought the fridge at the wrong time of year.

In the middle of winter, when root vegetables, winter squash and cauliflower are about all you can readily find in the produce section, the fridge is just the right size. All of the lettuce and green onions and everything else cruciferous fits neatly into its assigned drawers, allowing other food and drink to occupy their rightful spots as well.

But come spring-into-summer, when the garden turns lush and green and everything is ripe and ready to pick, we run into serious refrigerator trouble. Giant bundles of mustard greens, multiple heads of lettuce, every color of green pepper, plus the requisite ingredients for mirepoix _ carrots, celery and onion _ just don't fit in the fridge.

We shove the foods this way and that, trying to organize every last bit of produce into the cold space. The sad reality is that yes, it is crowded right now. But it's only May!

The oranges, apples and bananas that we are eating now will soon give way to melons and berries and peaches, which must spend their day in the cold, lest they wither and mold.

I have to admit that my fridge space problem does have a simple solution _ I could nix the fresh stuff and opt for fruit and veggies in cans. They stack well, store well and are super quick to get on the table. In fact, I wonder if that's the reason it's so hard to find a larger fridge _ people just don't consume as much fresh food as my family does.
_Jolene Thym

|||114720508360861124|||The Incredible Shrinking Fridge