Freezer went down. Got a ?

[Boots]

Saturday I went to the grocery store and when I was putting some things in my big freezer I noticed that things in it were defrosting. Food though still had ice crystals in it. The compressor went out and we bought a new freezer. It is an upright. I moved my meat in my fridge freezer. So it should be ok. Well since my dad's and my inlaw's freezer was full too, I had to immediately put the other things in the new freezer which one isn't suppose to do. The freezer is working like crazy but my veggies still are not completely frozen. I know that it will take a while but if anything they seem softer than on Sat. I can see them not being completely frozen but it does seem like in two days they should be more frozen not less. I guess I will have to throw my veggies out. Anyone know anything about this. Is my freezer doing the best it can? I really want to cry about this. I don't can and I have a whole summers worth of green beans, corn, okra, and freezer pickles in there. I don't want to make anyone sick. I just don't see why since they were still mostly frozen they aren't as good as they were on Sat. Oh well, I know no one can do anything about it. Just me complaining.

 

[wovenwonder]

If you have time -- just blanch the veggies and then refreeze them. Or you can make a big pot of veggie soup and freeze that in family size containers.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

when we had the "blackout" this summer, there was a list that was out about your freezer stuff. Frozen vegetables are re-freezeable. The only "bad" thing that would make you sick is the meat......I think you should be just fine. They also said, refreezing veggies would maybe make them form ice crystals but that is just fine and wouldn't affect the taste etc.....

Hope this helps

 

[piratesmate]

As Lisa said, re-freezing veggies is supposed to be okay. About the fact that it's takin so long to get up to speed.....

A number of years ago I did 300 ears of corn in a single day. (I had help - we were co-oping labor.) Anyway, after we blanched, cut & bagged the corn - not whole ears - I put it all in my chest freezer. It was already running, but was only about half full as it was still early in the season. I got up the next moring to help with someone else's corn & when I checked the freezer I was shocked! The corn wasn't anywhere near frozen. It took like 2 days before it was frozen.

We'd called the appliance store & they told us that we'd put in too much stuff (while it was warm) for it to handle quickly, but that it would eventually freeze. The explanation was something like "You're making the freezer work harder than usual. It's going to freeze slower than usual." It doesn't make any more sense to me now than it did then.

 

[nativetxn]

Ellen, was your question about the veggies not freezing solid again? Have they frozen yet? Is the new freezer working?