GALEY

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

Storage begins with purchasing. We make sure that we can buy the freshest vegetables and fruit possible directly from local farmers or at the market. Everything is washed in water with a dash of vinegar and dried well, if possible before we stow it below deck. The fresher the vegetables, the longer they last. We stow most of it in nets that are strung up in the salon.

STAPLE FOODS

All basic foodstuffs go into our 'cellar'. This is the storage space under the bench seat in the saloon. This is where most of the food finds its place. In the galley lockers we only keep what we need each day or over the next few days. Of course, there is also a feel-good snack box here for those who are awake at night. We divide the supplies in our basement into three groups; Salty (pasta, rice, everything for sauces, etc.), sweet (chocolate, everything for desserts, snacks, etc.) and breakfast (tea, coffee, fruit juices, jams, dried fruits, muesli, etc.). This means we can find what we're looking for with one move and without opening all three seat covers on the bench in the salon.

CHILLED FOODS

We have two refrigerators. We can also use one of them as a freezer, which is particularly practical on longer journeys. The good thing about it is that the cooling works via sea water, which improves the cooling performance and protects the batteries. Freezing is particularly popular on passages when we freeze pre-cooked menus in portions or store caught fish.
Since both refrigerators are only opened and loaded from above, they do not lose much cold when opened (top loader). On the other hand, it is not easy to keep track and load them. While cooking, it is the case that almost everything has to be cleared out first, before getting at some ingredients. We solved this by storing cheese, meat and other foods in medium-sized plastic containers. This makes searching a lot easier.

SALAD

Lettuce is by far one of the most difficult foods to keep healthy. It spoils quickly in nets and there is not enough space in our fridge. So, how are we able to have fresh and healthy salad on longer journeys? The solution is sprouts, which last a long time until they are mixed with water. We bought a 'sprouting house', a tower of three stackable plastic containers with a water passage, and grow lettuce in it. We favor mung beans, which make a wonderful salad with tomatoes and cheese or hard-boiled eggs or tuna.

BREAD

Bread has a different tradition in every country. Fresh baguette in France, dark wholemeal bread in Germany, white, saltless bread in Greece, flatbread in Turkey and so on. These traditions are exciting to discover, but we still love our homemade bread as we know it from home.
We recently started using a small bread baking machine for our boat. It does need a lot of power, but not for a long time. Now we can bake our own fresh bread easily and at any time.
When we find good bread baking mixes, we like to try them out. A simple, proprietary mixture of wholemeal flour (wheat and spelled), some oat flakes or sunflower seeds, dry yeast and salt is easy to mix and also tastes good.