Post by saysfaa on Nov 13, 2019 3:05:09 GMT -5
I'm hoping they have too many electrolytes to freeze but am afraid they do not. I looked up freezing point of salt water and sugar water. It is -5 F for salt and 26 to 27 F for sugar but those are for saturated solutions. I've got maybe a half teaspoon in a pint and a half jar of tomatoes plus whatever salt or sugar was naturally in the tomatoes. And it has maybe a quarter to a half inch of head space. The peaches have about the same head space, no salt but light to very light sugar (maybe quarter cup of sugar to a quart jar plus whatever natural sugar was in the ripe Babygold peaches.
Our things arrived from the relocation company after four months in their storage. I didn't see any signs of leaking but it might have been heated storage or it might not have gotten cold enough long enough to matter or if it did, it hasn't mattered yet because it hasn't thawed. Unfortunately, we had to move them into unheated storage - think standard ministorage - exterior metal wall, metal roof - other units on the sides and back but no interior hallways or anything that will buffer the temperature enough to matter. And it is in the low 20's F and has been day and night for a couple of days (including move day) but probably will not get colder than that long enough to drop the temp inside the jars lower than mid 20's F. It is unlikely to stay frozen for a month though, which is the likely minimum time it takes to close on a house in this state (and we don't have one in the works).
I tried to intercept all the food but I expected the boxes to be labeled well enough to tell. I didn't discover they weren't until the end when I found the cherry juice by accident. It was labeled "garage" - all of the food was in either the kitchen or the basement, I pulled that box because it was crushed enough I wanted to check for damage to the contents. And I know they didn't consistently use enough packing paper to absorb the liquids because after I found the cherry juice, I pulled anything that might have food in it and found one of the boxes of peaches set sideways in the bigger mover's box with just the new style jar boxes (very thin jar dividers) between the jars and no packing paper around either the jars or the box the jars were in. Sigh. On the other hand, none of the jars broke so maybe it was good enough.
I gave away a LOT of food before the move so don't have much commercial canned stuff but do have some. Probably most of the metal cans won't break even if they do freeze? I hope? And there may or may not be things like vinegar or salsa in commercial glass jars. I don't know whether to worry about those either.
There is very, very little room to sort things inside the unit and the stuff is almost completely not sorted at all so it will be a huge, ugly job. So, I'd rather concede the loss of the food than try to find them but I'm less willing to concede the loss of whatever happens to randomly be close enough to get soaked by the juice after it thaws if it freezes enough to break the mason jars. There are some things that I really, really, really, really don't want soaked. Our few pieces of good furniture, for one. Our photos and financial records aren't there but most other paper-type keepsakes are and most of them are not replaceable. Any/all of which might be under a box that might have food in it.
Do you think they will freeze enough to break the jars?
Our things arrived from the relocation company after four months in their storage. I didn't see any signs of leaking but it might have been heated storage or it might not have gotten cold enough long enough to matter or if it did, it hasn't mattered yet because it hasn't thawed. Unfortunately, we had to move them into unheated storage - think standard ministorage - exterior metal wall, metal roof - other units on the sides and back but no interior hallways or anything that will buffer the temperature enough to matter. And it is in the low 20's F and has been day and night for a couple of days (including move day) but probably will not get colder than that long enough to drop the temp inside the jars lower than mid 20's F. It is unlikely to stay frozen for a month though, which is the likely minimum time it takes to close on a house in this state (and we don't have one in the works).
I tried to intercept all the food but I expected the boxes to be labeled well enough to tell. I didn't discover they weren't until the end when I found the cherry juice by accident. It was labeled "garage" - all of the food was in either the kitchen or the basement, I pulled that box because it was crushed enough I wanted to check for damage to the contents. And I know they didn't consistently use enough packing paper to absorb the liquids because after I found the cherry juice, I pulled anything that might have food in it and found one of the boxes of peaches set sideways in the bigger mover's box with just the new style jar boxes (very thin jar dividers) between the jars and no packing paper around either the jars or the box the jars were in. Sigh. On the other hand, none of the jars broke so maybe it was good enough.
I gave away a LOT of food before the move so don't have much commercial canned stuff but do have some. Probably most of the metal cans won't break even if they do freeze? I hope? And there may or may not be things like vinegar or salsa in commercial glass jars. I don't know whether to worry about those either.
There is very, very little room to sort things inside the unit and the stuff is almost completely not sorted at all so it will be a huge, ugly job. So, I'd rather concede the loss of the food than try to find them but I'm less willing to concede the loss of whatever happens to randomly be close enough to get soaked by the juice after it thaws if it freezes enough to break the mason jars. There are some things that I really, really, really, really don't want soaked. Our few pieces of good furniture, for one. Our photos and financial records aren't there but most other paper-type keepsakes are and most of them are not replaceable. Any/all of which might be under a box that might have food in it.
Do you think they will freeze enough to break the jars?