Many of our homesteading client’s know that being able to store their most prized produce and meat with one or more of our off grid propane refrigerators or freezers is key to successful off-grid living. Ensuring their family has enough food stores on hand will get them through any season or nearly any situation. When the weather turns unfavorable you don’t want to have to be out in the thick of it to cull livestock, especially once they start to lose weight during the lean winter months. With a full fridge and freezer you can coast through the winter months easily, utilizing that time to handle chores or repairs that you can do indoors.
Homesteading is more than just living off grid. Homesteading is all in full focused living, ensuring full self sufficiency when it comes to food for not only yourself and your family but also your livestock and their feed crops. Homesteading is all about ensuring you are self-sufficient in all of the ways that matter most. Being able to effectively store your prime food stores in one of our off grid refrigerators or freezers allows you to take control of your food reserves and be comfortable for months.
Being in control of your own food stores, gardens, orchards, food crops, livestock and livestock feed crops provides a deep sense of accomplishment and self sufficiency. When there are natural disasters or unforeseen local disruptions to the daily food supply you will be better able to withstand nearly anything with little impact on your day to day life. As part of this self-sufficient lifestyle Warehouse Appliance is happy to assist with your off grid appliances. We love to help our customers effectively store and protect their meat stock and produce in our American made propane refrigerators and freezers.
Homesteading Off-Grid Cold Food Storage
Homesteading off-grid? Here are a some options for your cold food storage units:
Homesteading is about working with nature to plan the best time of year to plant and harvest; when to start your spring planting indoors to get a jump start on the growing season and more. If you are new to homesteading we put together a working guide to make set up easier. There is no end to what you can expand your homesteading operation into. However, the majority of our clients are able to homestead on as little as ¼ an acre. Even if you don’t have that much space you can make great strides towards a self sufficient and self sustaining lifestyle no matter what you have to work with.
Featured Refrigerators:
EZ Freeze – Propane Powered Refrigerator Freezer Combo
Sun Star – Solar Powered DC Refrigerator Freezer Combination
Sundanzer – Solar powered Refrigerators
The benefits of homesteading
Land management and enhancement
Self sufficiency
Food stability
Food security
Potential for surplus for storing or selling
Knowing what goes into the land, soil and plants you grow and the livestock you raise
Soil improvement; composting and adding soil amendments such as animal manure
Crop rotation for added benefit and optimal soil recovery greatly enhances nutrient density of the produce or livestock grain grown.
What degree of Homesteading is right for you?
Decide if you have the time and space to include these into your working homestead:
Will you be keeping animals for sale or as food sources for you and your family? If so, what are you considering? Chickens, ducks, and goats are usually the easiest to begin with and typically do not require much space. If you are planning on livestock be sure to plan for their food and water needs, as well as any seasonal veterinary care or interventions with birthing etc.
Orchard – fruit trees, nut trees, berry bushes, grape vines etc.
Garden – produce for food for you and your family, or if you want to plant produce for your chickens or ducks
A bit larger scale homestead might consider adding:
Barn – to tend to livestock care, bulk feed storage, milking, birthing and more
Smokehouse – for smoking your own meats
Ice house – keeping ice well past winter
Water management – for livestock or irrigation and having a year round viable water source for the homestead
Rain collection system – A great way to water the plants and animals – this is also a great water source especially if you are dealing with conventional farming nearby that might expose your homestead to contamination from fertilizers, pesticides or herbicides etc. Collecting rain water typically lessens the exposure to harmful contaminants that might make it into the groundwater.
If you’re adventurous you can also keep a bee yard for sweet rewards or as a profitable honey crop.
Do you have enough land to plant crops for sale or to use for your livestock feed?
A good garden benefits from having a ready supply of compost on hand. Plan a compost heap in your garden. Composting provides soil improvement, which in turn offers enhanced nutrient density. This means great benefits for your plants and in turn, your family!
Composting Tips for your Homestead
You should set up your compost bin away from the homestead but still conveniently accessible since you will be dropping off your kitchen scapes daily. Fortify the space so that it doesn’t become a nesting site for rodents or insects. Maintain moisture and turn the compost frequently to facilitate decomposition and prevent rodents from nesting. Your compost is a great way to build up the soil of your gardens or fields by utilizing yard waste and plant matter, weeds, leaves, grass clippings, vegetable scraps, fruit peels and fruit cores, tea leaves, tea bags, coffee grounds, coffee filters, eggshells, livestock manure, chicken coop droppings, hay or straw – never add dairy, meat or oils to your compost.
You may also consider keeping a worm bin since their castings make for an amazing soil amendment and you can use the ‘tea’ as a liquid fertilizer for your plants. A happy worm bin thrives on your kitchen produce scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds, coffee filters, non acidic fruit, coconut fiber, paper, cardboard and they quickly break down this organic matter into a wonderful soil amendment. Further, if you enjoy fishing, you have a ready supply of live bait.
Homesteading and Keeping Livestock
Chickens are a great source of pest control and a steady supply of eggs, poultry meat, compost and more. Chickens are essential if you want to keep pests under control in your garden without pesticides.
Goats provide great weed control for your land (just be sure to fence them out of your garden), as well as being a source of milk, meat. Some goat breeds produce a fine hair you can harvest. This hair can be sold and used for crafts, wig making and more. And last but not least, goat droppings provide a great soil amendment.
Larger livestock might be right for your homestead if you have the time and room to manage them. If this is the case for you – you will want to look into growing feed crops and having a ready supply of water and grazing land. Livestock for your homestead can include anything from pigs, cattle, buffalo, deer, and more. We are big on self sufficiency but it’s not everyone’s ideal. Slaughtering animals you’ve raised by hand every year is tedious and not for everyone. If you do not want to butcher your livestock yourself, you can often outsource this step to a local butcher shop or meat processing company.
Seasonal Homestead Planning and Preparation
Taking into consideration the planting season for your particular area ensures your homestead runs in tip top shape. Our quick overview of how you want to plan your seasons:
- Spring – planting, seeding, livestock husbandry
- Summer – Growing, maintaining, nurturing
- Fall – harvesting, culling, canning, storing, building, selling, projects
- Winter – repairs, crafting, making, storing, planning, indoor or green house seed starting. These will be transplanted later, allowing you to get your crops growing quickly once spring begins. This extends the growing season.
Going Off-Grid and Being Self Sufficient for the long term
Homesteaders have known for years that being self-sufficient, providing enough food and supplies to live comfortably year round, is one of the best ways to know and enjoy true freedom.
We recommend a propane freezer for long term off grid homesteading freezer storage. The reliability of our propane freezers cannot be beat. Also, propane freezers keep your frozen food at zero degrees which extends the use by date of your home grown livestock meat supply and produce.
We also recommend a propane refrigerator over a solar refrigerator for cold food storage. This is due to a variety of reasons that can be read about in the articles
comparing and contrasting propane refrigerators and solar fridges.
The two main reasons are longevity and reliability. There is no question that gas refrigerators last longer than solar electric fridges. Also, propane fridges are extremely reliable due to the fact that they have no moving parts.
Our clients that choose the homesteading lifestyle are in it for the long haul. We too live the offgrid lifestyle and we understand that our appliances must be built to last. If you have any questions about what appliances are right for your off-grid homestead just give us a call and our expert team will be happy to help.
Our propane freezers are upright freezers with multiple shelves allowing easy access and separation between your different cuts of meat. Please note that a 22 cubic foot propane freezer will store a full steer, elk or multiple deer.
Experts in Off Grid Appliances for your Off-Grid Homestead
We offer the best off-grid refrigerator or freezer for your everyday use in your off-grid homestead, adding peace of mind with our highly durable and energy efficient cold food storage.
With Warehouse Appliance you not only get great off grid appliances you also benefit from the longest warranty in the industry on our propane refrigerators and freezers. We feature a 7 year warranty. Our off-grid propane gas fridges and freezers are made in the USA.
We offer both styles of off-grid freezers to suit your homesteading lifestyle: propane or solar, in choices of chest freezer or upright freezer.
Featured Off-grid Homestead Freezers:
SunStar – Solar powered DC chest freezer
Sundanzer – Solar powered chest freezer
Featured Off-grid Homestead Refrigerators:
EZ Freeze – Propane Powered Refrigerator Freezer Combo
Sun Star – Solar Powered DC Refrigerator Freezer Combination
Sundanzer – Solar powered Refrigerators
Featured Refrigerators:
EZ Freeze – Propane Powered Refrigerator Freezer Combo
Sun Star – Solar Powered DC Refrigerator Freezer Combination
Sundanzer – Solar powered Refrigerators
Contact Us
Contact us if you have any questions on propane (LP) gas freezers or other off-grid appliances. Warehouse Appliance is here to support you in your off-grid homesteading lifestyle. We are happy to help you with figuring out what off-grid homestead appliances will best serve you.
With Warehouse Appliance you benefit from our over 30 years experience in the industry. We are an industry leader with unparalleled knowledge, skill, technical know-how and our inventory of exceptionally superior off-grid appliances speak for themselves with unrivaled quality, durability and performance.
