What did people do 100 years ago when there was no freezers?

[vatterpa]

Oh I just rememberd! Some families with acess to a spring would have a spring house. They would divert it through a building and ir would flow through a trough. And they would float or submerge crocks or mellons and the like in the water to keep it cool. You should search Amish food preservation to find out more.

 

[schmism]

In the old days many farms and homesteads had a spring house. A spring house was a house constructed around a subterranean spring. Perishables such as milk, and butter, were kept longer by keeping them in the cold spring water. The area in the spring house outside of the water was cool, and while not like our current refrigerators, were cool enough to say, put today's roast chicken down there to use for sandwiches tomorrow. Root cellars were cellars dug into the ground, sometimes lined with stone, that were used for keeping veggies and such cool.

+1

My dad talks about how when his mom was a kid they had this rig which would float on top of the shallow well. In the summer they would pull it up and put the bottles of milk etc in it and drop it down in the well keeping it cool (45deg)

I worked as a carpenter at a mountain retreat camp back in the summer of 96. There power was limited due to the small hydro plant they had. They have three LARGE walk in "coolers" that were dug into the mountain under the main lodge. Nothing more than large insulated rooms underground. (no active cooling) Even in the hottest summer days, the temp would still be 40deg in the coolers.​

 

[ScrambledAcresFarm]

The water coming from my spring stays 57* all year! Southern Missouri!