After months of futzing around with frozen water bottles, coolers, and the like, I had a "D'oh!" moment, and thought of my sunroom. I have a bunch of African succulents . . .
. . . that don't like temps lower than 50 degrees, so I keep it at 52 degrees, and that's where I constructed my "cheese vault."
When I say "constructed," I mean I basically stacked up some concrete blocks and boards, and surrounded them with a plastic tent. Before you say "Ick, dirty!" I've had the concrete blocks for years, so hopefully anything toxic would have leached out by now, and they were soaked in a bleach solution then dried. I wasn't sure what wood the boards were, so they were wrapped in wax paper and tightly taped, then an additional layer of parchment paper. So it's probably cleaner in there than in the rest of my house
The front opens at the bottom and sides, and is held shut with magnets:
The boards are narrower than the concrete blocks, to provide some air circulation, EXCEPT the middle board, which is as wide as the blocks, double-sided sticky taped to the back, and held in front with more magnets:
That means there are effectively two chambers. Humidity in the bottom is provided by two pans of water, with washcloths against the blocks to wick moisture, and it's a few degrees cooler there, I guess just because it's lower.
(top)
(bottom)
(Usually it's more like 92 or 93 in the bottom).
My "vault" has proven to be really stable. Luckily, in winter we rarely get high temps above the mid-50s, so temperature isn't a problem. And the concrete blocks act as an excellent humidity buffer, so it only varies by a percentage or so.
Obviously not a "summer solution," but I'm already saving my pennies for a used wine fridge. At the rate I've been making cheese, it will have to be a big one
-Lance
