Why not build your own fridge? The zeer was most likely used throughout the Near East for millennia It became redundant (and the concept forgotten) due to the advent of electricity and fridges. The concept has been recently redeveloped in Nigeria to great success.
ثلاجة
In Arabic, modern day fridges are called “thaljah” from the root “to snow, to turn into ice”. But icey temperatures are not needed for all the food kept in our fridges. Many fruits and vegetables prefer a temperate above five degrees but are kept in the fridge anyway. Even cheese ought to be ideally stored at about 10 degrees. Check here what temperature your vegetables should be kept at.
In the cooler climate of Western Europe, a cellar or a larder would easily keep temperatures at a cool 5 – 10 degrees. But not so, in the hotter climates of North Africa and the Near East where food would perish quickly.
A cooled eggplant can last almost a month. Without the cooling it lasts three days. Meat, when uncooled can quickly become rotten and poisonous.
The shelf life of food thus has a major impact on agriculture, economy and diet and cooling is vital to all three.
Somehow, food needed to be kept cool prior to electricity.
زير
Zeer – a water pot and cooler.
Possibly the first breakthrough in cooling came from water pots.
The zeer, a conical pot made of porous clay, keeps water cool through evaporation. A small amount of water will evaporate through the porous terracotta. The energy required to evaporate is drawn from the heat energy within the water, meaning that the water temperature drops.
The pot-in-a-pot works on a similar principle. In fact so do electrical fridges!
The bigger pot holds sand and water and the smaller pot.
The smaller pot holds the fruits, vegetables and anything else you wish to store.
The sand between the two pots is drenched with water which will evaporate and, in the process, keep you food cool at no cost whatsoever to you.
For a step-by-step guide to make the zeer ‘pot-in-a-pot’ fridge, go to wikihow.
I certainly hope to make one of these. Perhaps you will be inspired to as well?
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