I know there is a few things in there that need used or removal. LOL

It's nothing to old, because about a year and a half ago. I had a forced meltdown, throw away. One of the boys left the freezer open then.

The oldest thing for us is normally like frozen vegetables or packaged hashbrowns or something like that. Because I normally only eat those things when I have to make them for a casserole or something where a large quantity is needed:) I try to clean it out about every six months at the most. Everytime I do it my husband says, 'didn't you JUST do that' so I know it is easy to fall into the idea that you only did it the other day. I'm kind of touchy about letting stuff get too comfortable in there though and am constantly sifting through the contents of our freezer.

Kate

I found another kid in a Closet, didn't know I had.
he was 5 years old.

Afraid to look in the freezer.
Lou

Due to Ike nothing in my freezer is more than one year old. And since Ike I've been hesitant to stock up too much again! So, right now, I'd say nothing is more than 6 months old, and more likely even, nothing is more than 3 months old! Yeah, throwing out a lot of food like that really made me skittish about having too much in the freezer so since then, my turnaround time for freezer stuff has gotten considerably shorter.

However, my pantry is a different story! Lack of power did not cause THAT stuff to go bad. In fact I'm currently on a mission to clear out the old stuff. It's amazing what piles up, huh?

Lou,
My advice: don't look between the seat cushions in the couch. No TELLING what's lurking in there!

Lou, May's right about not looking between the seat cushions in the couch. And Whatever You DO, DON'T LOOK UNDER THE BED!

I seem to be really good about stuffing things away...not so good about rooting them out again. I'm not buying another thing for my freezer until I see empty space. I forget that it doesn't need to be fed, but rather We Do!

I emptied out the small chest freezer last week, digging all the way to the bottom. I swore I was out of venison, but found 2 roasts, 2 packages of steaks and the prized backstrap(tenderloin). The oldest was a roast from 2005. And in my big upright, a small pack of turkey gravy from 2004.

I do love the foodsaver...all was still well sealed.

How gross can you stand. I was trying to rearrange my upright freezer so I could fit 2 baskets in to store flat ziploc bags of food in a file like position. I'm as bad as anyone else, meaning DH, to just push things back to make room for whatever I'm trying to add. I found a glass container with a white plastic lid and when I took the lid off there was a plastic wrapped package of meatloaf dated March 1997. I jokingly asked a friend if he thought I should throw it out and he suggested I have it bronzed, meatloaf being one of his favorite foods.

I probably should have just kept that little tidbit to myself, but, hey, I have no shame.

jude

It's OK Jude, I can take it! You Win...1997! Twelve years is a long time ;). I would never judge you for it! I'm just wondering if you were missing your glass container?

Peppi, it all started when I was looking for some ham I swore I had...somewhere. Yes, I found it, plus a hambone, and a nice big chunk to use for something.

Terri, Kate and May, I admire that you do this on a regular basis. I'm going to have to put it on my calendar to keep it up I think.

LOL! Believe me, it's not something I do because I'm being good! It's because I'm emotionally scarred! LOL For the first few months I refused to buy more than about a week's worth of food! So the fact that I might actually have stuff in there that is 3-6 months old is a real step forward in my emotional recovery. :)

However, you might not be so impressed if you saw my wine colletion. It's not that I'm some kind of collector or conesseur, it's just that I can't resist a reasonbly priced (read: cheap) bottle. I have a lot of ~$5 bottles, which might make you think "eww!" but most of them are pretty good! The HEB by my house one day happened to have Black Swan Chardonnay on sale for like $2.99 a bottle, like on clearance! I bought one bottle and tried it that night. Went back the next day and bought all the rest. Got a 10% discount for buying more than six bottles. Incredible.

And the best part, if a hurricane hits again, it's one thing I'll be able to consume without fear of it going bad! Bwahahaha!

Sorry, I got OT there!!

You all made me feel sooooo... normal =o) A couple of months ago, I purchased a used freezer. It gave me a chance to sort out and clean out old dated stuff. Now, with 2 freezers, frozen items are more organized and easy to see what's old and new.

Currently, the oldest I have is frozen lemon juice from 2007. The lemons are homegrown from my neighbors. Each year we pick some, juice them out and freeze them in bags to use throughout the year. Do you all think I can still use the 2007 frozen lemon juice?

OT is good! I can relate to the wine cellar, as we have a quite serious one ourselves. (It was only a problem when I started getting skin rashes from drinking wine and had to quit. Menopause BITES.) Anyway, I can see buying all the clearance bottles (and calling around for more), and wouldn't have a bit of trouble with that!

We had a similar problem with the freezer, not because of a hurricane, but because of a SubZero defective part. I lost the contents of the freezer which was traumatic until SubZero gave me $300 insurance to cover it. So I guess I didn't have any real emotional ''recovery'' issues because of that, since I've let it pile up again. My ''issues'' have more to do with living miles from town when I was first married, and needing to keep the larder stocked because of it. Never mind I have three grocery stores within 4 miles of here...Old habits die hard!

ntt hou, Yes, I suspect you can still use the lemon juice. Make some lemon curd. (I have some lemon juice...I think I'll make some.) That brings to mind that although my freezer is quite big enough, there are times I wish I had a ''back-up''. Am I Sick? (Yes, I think I need therapy.)

Claire, I didn't even recognize the dish so obviously I didn't miss it. In my defense, if I even have a defense, the date was hidden inside under the white lid.

I'm not much to gamble, but to be honest, I figured I'd win!!!!

Although I have a chest freezer and things migrate to the bottom, the oldest thing in my two freezers is the apple cider from 2007, I was busy with the farm auction, etc., last year and never pressed apples at all. I have ONE QUART left, LOL. I have two packages of blueberries too, also from 2007.

I'm not even close to organized but since I raise my own beef, pork and this year, ducks, I make sure that I take EVERYTHING out of the freezer, defrost and put the new stuff on the bottom, old stuff on the top.

THat's why I just canned all that beef and chicken stock, it's last year's soup bones and chickens....

Oh, and ntt hou, the lemon juice is just fine and will be for another year if you don't get to it this year, LOL. Quality degrades in some items, but it's still perfectly safe as long as it's frozen.

Annie

Annie, my ''farm'' freezer was a big ole' chest...a behemoth I cleaned out once a year too. It was very hard to reach down into the darn thing, and I was so happy when I graduated to the upright that is now in my kitchen. Thanks for the memories! (I'll bet that last quart of apple cider tastes divine, especially since you're at the end!) BTW, canning last year's soup bones and chickens sounds Very Organized to me.

Peppi:
I don't think you should use the Venison Tenderloin.
It may be bad but I'll sacrifice myself and test it for you
Lou

I'm afraid to look in the bottom of the freezer..who knows what's there and how old..
well I guess that's a project for next week....LOL
I know there are at least 20-25 bananas that need to be made into bread. Not sure how old....

Linda

Lou, thanks for the offer of a sacrifice, but I could not possibly put a gentleman such as you in harms way. :)

1997 Meatloaf? Yup, that wins oldest...

When I was a kid, my mom would load up on groceries each week. The frozen stuff went into the chest freezer in the basement. I can only recall her cleaning out the freezer once and I think I was about 10 years old.

Fast forward 30+ years to 2002.....Mom is sick (and passed away) when the freezer broke. Dad cleaned out the freezer and found stuff from the 70s all the way down at the bottom. I kid you not!

I've owned a chest freezer for about 20 years and I keep it fairly well organized. I use bins and boxes to separate things and rotate old stock "up" so it's used first. When we have a big shopping trip, everything gets organized and rotated. I tried keeping an inventory list but that didn't help at all. Hubby would take stuff out and not update inventory!

I probably have some veggies and meat that are a year old. That's about it. I use everything within a few months.

Great! I'll keep using the Meyer lemon juice. It's the only lemon/lime I can consume without getting an upset stomach. It's because of its low acid content. In a month or so, It'll be picking time for my neighbor's Meyer lemons. She doesn't eat the lemons. Every year, she asks me to pick them; so, she wouldn't have to clean up the ground when they falls off.

Claire, what is lemon curd?

Mainly I got me a freezer because I needed a place for my 2-quart ice cream maker bowl! LOL... In just a few months, that freezer is full!

My budget was tight and fortunately, I found a 3-year old, 11.6 cu/ft Kenmore freezer on Craiglist for $150. A great deal comparing to the cost of a new one. Claire, maybe you can find one on your local Craiglist if you don't have a budget for a new one.

I spent the weekend cleaning out freezers, too. Three of them...a small chest and small upright, and the fridge freezer, which houses leftovers and odds & ends ...anything unrecognizable got tossed. The oldest thing I found was some three year old venison stew meat and huckleberries. I canned the venison and steam-juiced the huckleberries and made a batch of jelly. Also canned a half dozen salmon steaks. We tossed a few packages of frost covered, pre-foodsaver vegies, and old fruit went into the fridge freezer for smoothies. And a few pkgs of peaches I tried freezing (yick...definitely smoothie material).

I've been trying to stay organized, so there wasn't too much to throw out. We had a neighbor who kept an inventory taped to her (giant) freezers. I made a list when we packed the chest freezer...we'll see if we can manage to keep track of what gets used.

Because my daughter from out of town (aka The Expiration Date Police) is coming to visit tomorrow, I've been busy looking in the freezer, refrigerator, and pantry for expired things. It's amazing and a little sickening to look at the humongous pile of stuff I unearthed and must toss. I know that now I need to look at the expiration dates on EVERYTHING before I buy it.

ntthou, lemon curd is wonderful stuff, easy to make and I eat it with a spoon.

You can use it as pie filling, or put it between cookies for a sandwich type cookie or fill the thumbprints in thumbprint cookies. It's a good spread on muffins or pancakes and you can freeze it and make ice cream sandwiches, good with those ginger cookies.

I use a recipe I got from Colleen in Australia, it's a simple microwave version and it's really good. You can't can this, and I've never tried to freeze it but there's never any left anyway.

I'll start a new thread with that recipe, so you'll be sure to find it.

Annie

Of course I just saw this, but thanks Annie for explaining about Lemon Curd for ntthou! I've never made the microwave version, but it's something I'm going to have to try, so thanks again for posting the recipe. Meyer Lemons are the easiest for me to consume as well.

Happygram, dates are helpful which is why I started dating my freezer (vacuum sealed) items. It is a bit shocking when I don't keep up with it!

Katie, I remember huckleberries! My sister took us to pick them on the side of a mountain where she lives...they are just delicious. A favorite of mine from that part of the country is Marionberry jam. An inventory list is very helpful I'm finding (even if keeping up with it is another matter).

Dees, with that story you Win for the official ''oldest contents''!

It's a conspiracy to make me look bad/worse. After you all have had your fun concerning my meatloaf, I get this email today:

FoodNow!_news@cookingclubmessage3.com

The title?

Is your food Past it's Prime?

I had to smile!

Hmmm... do you really want to know? What gets me is not what I find but what I lost. I wanted to make soup and thought I had a chunk of ham. No ham to be found so I bought some... the next time I looked in the freezer there was that ham sitting there right under the ice cube bin.

The bottle of peppermint schnapps is about 5 years old... still in excellent shape if about gone. Dolly is down to the last couple packages of road kill venison... she loves a frozen block of meat to lick on a hot day.

I have three hearts and two tounges that are coming out. Bag of pickle spice on the way from Penzey's and they will be pickled soon. I'm back on 7 day work weeks so what soon is I don't really know.

Promised myself some steaks when I get the freezer cleaned good. Somehow I lost a quart bag of jalapeno peppers. They were in there and then they were gone... perhaps behind the ham?

: )
lyra