Too many ferments! What do I do with them?!

[tinuviel_k]

I have way too many fermented veggies and I don't have room for them! I planted pickling dukes is year and had no idea how prolific they would be. I have made over 5 gallons of pickles in the past couple of months. We've eaten up a gallon of pickles already, but we have tow more gallon jars in the fridge, and a 2.5 gallon crock of pickles on the counter that need to be chilled soon. I have a gallon of red cabbage sauerkraut in process right now, and 1/2 gallon of sour beets. I really wanted to make a couple more kinds of kraut come fall.

I am completely out of fridge space. I don't just want to throw this stuff out: I want to eat it. I was in a Korean grocery the other day and saw that they has special fridges for storing kimchi in. What a marvelous idea! I would love a dedicated "pickle fridge," but I don't think we have the room or the funds for one right now.

Anyone have ideas for me? It won't work to store ferments in the garage as it is pretty hot here right now, and we have no basement.

[Lazurii]

We have a lot of ferments, a small fridge, and a roommate.  I also need to find a solution to this problem.

On thing I was thinking of doing was going on Craigslist and buying a second fridge or even a wine fridge.  I found a fridge/freezer for $70 one time and a large wine fridge for $35.  Maybe something like that would work for you.

You can convert a freezer to a fridge.  Here's a link to that.

The other idea I had was putting a mini root cellar in our backyard.  A burnt out chest freezer would work well.  I heard of people using the tub from an top-loading washer.  Dig a hole big enough for whatever you're using, make a lid if you need it, and use that to store stuff.

So Craigslist might have something for cheap, and I'm sure hacking a root cellar could be free.