The Ice Harvest: Keeping Food Cold Long Ago

The Ice Harvest

1Today, most kitchens have a refrigerator to keep milk, meat, and other food cold. But long ago, before homes had electricity, families had a problem. In warm weather, food spoiled quickly. How could people keep it cold all summer long? Many of them used ice cut from frozen lakes and rivers.

2The work began in the middle of winter, when the ice was thick and hard. First, workers cleared the snow off the ice. Next, they marked the ice into a grid of large squares. Then they cut along the lines with long saws. Workers used poles to push the floating blocks to the shore. This work was called the ice harvest.

3After that, the blocks were stored in an icehouse. An icehouse was a building with thick walls. Workers stacked the blocks inside and packed sawdust or straw around them. This packing kept warm air away from the ice, so most of the blocks stayed frozen through the hot summer.

4In the warm months, an iceman drove a wagon through town. He carried each block into a home with a pair of metal tongs. The family set the block inside an icebox. An icebox was a wooden cabinet lined with metal. The cold from the ice kept the food inside fresh. As the ice melted, water dripped into a pan at the bottom, and someone had to empty it often.

5Over time, inventors built electric refrigerators that stayed cold without blocks of ice. As more homes got electricity, families bought refrigerators instead of iceboxes. Slowly, the ice harvests came to an end. Today, it is hard to imagine a kitchen without a refrigerator, but for many years, a block of ice did the job.