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Show Storage Lockers Are Increasing In Popularity One war-born custom that will almost al-most surely be retained after the boys have come marching home and settled down is that of buying commodities com-modities when they are plentiful and cheap and storing them for the days when there is a scarcity. Thanks to the quick-freezing method of preserving pre-serving food, the vegetables, meats, poultry, fruits or dairy produce can be kept without loss of flavor or vitamin content for many months. I . fi ;t ; 1 f V x V 'i , i ,K A J i '"1 A housewife, wearing a fur coat although it was July when the picture pic-ture was taken, is shown taking a package of quick-frozen foodfromher locker. It is possible to keep as much as 250 pounds in the storage box. Most customers keep their boxes full, replacing whatever they take out with something of equal bulk, so that the compartment really holds many times its capacity during a year's time. Rental of ordinary sized lockers costs from $12.50 to $16.50 a year. Quick freezing may be done at home by means of specially made small units. But these are limited to wartime restrictions. Every home may have one after the war; for the present, however, the housewife who wants to plan ahead may use the community lockers in frozen food locker plants which are now located in many places throughout the country. coun-try. A recent government survey revealed that there are 4,600 of these locker plants in 46 states, handling about a half-billion pounds of meat, poultry, fruit and vegetables a year. Of the million or so families served, about three-quarters are farmers. But lockers in the metropolitan New York area report an increasing number num-ber of city folk taking advantage of this method of insuring a supply of food months ahead as fresh as the day the vegetables were taken from the garden or the chicken was killed. Many suburban victory gardeners, are preserving their crop surpluses by the quick freeze method and storage. The American Frozen Food Locker Lock-er in White Plains, N. Y., reports that its 1,600 lockers' began to fill on last July 15, when first fruits of Victory gardens began to come in. Since then a steady stream of customers cus-tomers has been pouring through its doors with bushel baskets, cartons, car-tons, packing cases, etc. This plant has a butcher for processing meats and poultry before freezing and storage. stor-age. Vegetables and fruits must be prepared by the customers themselves. them-selves. ' i ( - A I ' A , i Chickens that are to be quick-frozen quick-frozen are carefully cut np and packed in a cellophane-lined, waxed paper box, ready for the process. After freezing they are placed in the storage lockers of customers, there to remain until wanted, perhaps per-haps as long as six months. Most locker plants have a staff to prepare and pack meat for freezing, but generally the customer has to put Dp his own fruits and vegetables. s Various foods are prepared in different dif-ferent ways for quick freezing and storage. Ears of corn, for instance, are blanched in steam or boiling water, and then wrapped, each ear separately, in cellophane. Other vegetables are placed in cellophane bags and sealed to keep out moisture. |
