Choosing a Bar Fridge for a Family

When Eug and I moved to Cape Town, we had no appliances.

I suggested that we try a bar fridge and deep freeze rather than a fridge freezer. A chest freezer allows us to buy staples in bulk. A small fridge seemed like an interesting way to lessen food waste, energy use, and the length of time between buying something and eating it.

We're not all the way to doing without a fridge, but there's a whole subset of the sustainability movement who are. Who knew? They argue that, if every family in the world had a fridge, global warming would be even more terrifying than it is now. I find that argument compelling, even as I am unsure on how to live without a chest freezer or a car in a city like Cape Town- that is, one either has to buy staples occasionally, and store them in a deep freeze (at least during summer), or spend a huge amount of time and money buying in small quantities and storing (in this scenario, baking bread and eating pasta and rice might be replaced with carb or non-carb alternatives that I don't really know about yet). So cities are just not set up for people to do without a fridge.

Our experience with a small bar fridge has been really good. I've had to think about how to finish everything in the fridge, and there's no space for getting a lot of condiments. Both these things are good, I think. I find myself carefully figuring out how to finish everything in the fridge over the course of the week, so that there's space for fresh fruit and vegetables. I'm not tempted to buy three different kinds of yoghurt and cheese.

Anyway, so here's my plug for a bar fridge (if your fridge breaks).

1. It is cheaper to buy.
2. It uses a little less energy.
3. It uses less space.
4. It helps me eat the way I'd like to eat- that is, it helps me to eat fresh, from scratch meals and helps prevent food waste. 

I've Updated the "If You're New" Page

Hi everyone, 

Please consider checking out the "If You're New" Page, freshly updated (and copied below for your convenience).

Now that Eug and I have actually managed to quit our jobs, move to Cape Town, pay off our student loan and consumer debt, and live in a house that is paid for (three big goals we've been working towards since I started the blog), it seemed like a good time to rethink how to make the blog, and our story, helpful and interesting to readers. 

Thank you very much for reading, and may 2012 be a great year. 

Jo

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I started Concrete Gardener when my husband Eug and I were living in a tiny apartment in Watertown, just outside Boston. I was interested in exploring social responsibility in the U.S. context. That is, if we have so much, how do we:

1. Enjoy what we have.
2. Not take more than we need.
3. Use what we have really well.

I'm still interested in those things, though our location has changed and many of Eug and my dreams around working less and doing more have come true. After working in a state government Refugee Health program for several years, I'm now telecommuting part time, doing a PhD, and helping to take care of our son Noah. Eug runs his own Graphic Design business, and also works from home while helping to take care of Noah.

I'm South African, and after 12 years away, Eug, our son Noah, and I moved to South Africa at the beginning of 2012.

My dream for the blog this year is to speak to people in my life stage- those in their 20s and 30s who are figuring out how to live "well." I'd love living well to include making space for others- whether they be workers in China who make my Apple products, or neighbors, or family.

I've been humbled to find that the questions are totally different here in South Africa- not only because of economic inequality, but also because work culture, shops, public transportation, the second hand market, and recycling are all so different. So the blog is not "how to" do frugality, simplicity, or minimalism. It's just a story of our family and things we're trying out. I hope it'll be helpful to you.

Here are some past posts to check out:

This is where we live

Down to just two bags and two plastic totes (Our experience of radical minimalism)

More Wonder Years to Come (may it be so!)

On Stopping Full-Time Work

Worm Composting

Let's Do Something about South African banks

Weaning my hair off shampoo

Guide to Beautiful, Free Furniture

Eating Well for $190/month

Wearing 30 items for three months, I wore 30 Items for 3 months (I now only have 30 items)

Planning a Mini-Retirement

Solar Heating in Cape Town

Tips on Extended Travel with a Baby

Grace for the Aspiring No-Waste Hippy

Homeschooling for Skeptics

On Not going to reunion 

Some Recipes

Sourdough Bread

Pesto

Dumplings

Naan

Bronwyn's Bran Muffins

(Potentially) Vegan Cornbread

Simple Sorbet

Whole Wheat Pizza

Slow Cooker Yoghurt

The Best Lentil Recipe Ever

Refrigerator Bread

From Scratch Tiramisu

Freegan Apple Crisp

My First Fresh Pumpkin Pie

Caitlin's Squash Apple Soup

Tiffany's Sage Bread

Kale Quiche With a Simple Crust

Berry Crisp from Frozen Berries

Stuffed Mushrooms

Some Posts Involving Noah and Parenting

My first Non-English Medical Appointment

Cloth Diapering While Traveling

Noah's Arrival

Tips on Elimination Communication

The Environmental and Financial Benefits of Cloth Diapers

Exclusive breastmilk, Breastmilk on planes, Pumping

Grace for the Aspiring Hippy Parent

Simple Baby Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Noah's First Birthday

You Can't Control Your Children

Yes, I'm pretty lucky...

As a side project, Eug and I are really interested in sharing the stories of entrepreneurs through Conferre, though we're envisioning a simple blog format in future. 

If you're interested in getting in touch, I'd love to hear from you, either through the Facebook page or by e-mail at concretegardenerblog@gmail.com . 

Solar Water Heating in Cape Town

As I mentioned in a previous post, our solar geyser/water heater was installed on Monday. Today, someone came to install a timer, so that we can get our Eskom rebate (of about 1/4 of the total cost). As you may be able to tell from the picture, our roof is pretty steep, and there's no way to get up on the roof from our property. But it was still possible! I wanted to share what I learned about solar power in the last few months:

Yes, our neighbors have security cameras...

There are two kinds of solar power- water heating and electricity panels. Solar water heating is often the first step in moving towards alternate energy, because so much of South African electricity is used on heating up water (around 40-50%). It's also the simplest kind of solar power, as (in most cases) the sun simply heats up pipes filled  with water, and the heat rises to the solar geyser. There's no electricity involved in our system, but the geyser is connected in such a way that we can use electricity to heat it up on cold or rainy days.

Some people retrofit their old geyser, so that all that's on the roof is the panel. The only challenge with this is that you still need electricity to pump the water through the panel.

The cost for a geyser + panel + installation etc here in Cape Town ranged from about R15,000-R25,000. Our system had a rebate of R5332, which was the highest of the rebates we saw.

In the Southern hemisphere, the system is most effective on a North facing roof. Right now, in summer, we have scalding hot water without ever needing to turn on the electricity. Long may it last.

What's out of place here?: A timer can turn on the geyser during non-peak hours so that it is on only for a short spurt of time. 

In other news, Eug is working hard on our bed. We've never actually had a bed before, so I'm pretty excited. We may even be able to do underbed storage. You can see our benches, which we've been painting and varnishing.

And Noah loves his Malaysian tracksuit- thank you Sam and Julie. On Tuesday, he wet himself and still didn't want to take his pants off. That's love.