The Final Egg
On June 6, 2023, at 7:13am, we fried our final complete egg on station (over medium, salt and pepper):
And that’s it till November! One other milestone, one other reminder of the distinctive circumstances of
South Pole Winter.
As I talked about in Frost, we’ve got a big quantity of chilly storage, and a smaller however nonetheless
vital quantity of DNF (Do Not Freeze) storage. Nearly all of our meals is ordered years prematurely,
shipped right here in bulk, and deep-frozen till wanted.
Enjoyable truth – once we carry up a bath of ice cream from storage,
it takes a number of days to rigorously heat it to “regular” freezer temperature, so it may be served.
In the event you’ve ever tried to serve ice cream that has been saved on dry ice or in a misconfigured
freezer, you’ll perceive the battle.
Recent meals (fruit, greens, eggs, meat, dairy) does wonders for morale, however sadly it has a restricted shelf life.
Over the previous few months, we’ve celebrated plenty of “lasts”, as our provide continues to
dwindle. We order sufficient “freshies” to make sure we will use all of it earlier than it goes dangerous. We gained’t have a resupply
airplane till November, and sadly there simply aren’t lots of “recent” meals that may survive the
interim 8 months.
Essentially the most impactful for me was the top of recent milk – powdered milk makes for
disappointing lattes, however I’m doing my greatest:
Our galley workers does an incredible job creating scrumptious meals underneath difficult circumstances. Even within the
lifeless of winter, nice meals is a constant spotlight of this place. That being stated – the distinction between
early-winter and mid-winter meals clearly displays the distinction in availability of recent elements.
Right here’s dinner from February 23. Be aware of the recent elements! (Sure I’m consuming at my desk, don’t decide,
all of us do it once in a while).
Evaluate that with dinner from April 25. Scrumptious, world-class, created by consultants of their discipline…
out of elements that will have been sitting in chilly storage for actually years.
Through the winter, the restricted “freshies” we do have are sourced completely from the South Pole Greenhouse:
The greenhouse is a volunteer affair, and it yields sufficient for herbs and the occasional salad! It’s additionally
the one place on station with humidity! Since the remainder of the station has near-zero humidity, it’s a deal with to
spend time in right here.
Meals sustains us, and it’s fascinating to briefly dwell in a spot that reminds us every single day how a lot
we take with no consideration again residence.
We do very properly for ourselves, given the circumstances, however the stark
actuality is: we gained’t see recent eggs for one more 5 full months.
One other aspect of this bizarre, bizarre journey on the backside of the world.
Till subsequent time!