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The Last Egg

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Re: The Last Egg

#101

Post by ericd »

Symbiote wrote: post #69
ericd wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American milk is very varied, sounds like you’re describing plastic gallon jug skim milk. If you want something a bit heartier, you can probably find creamline milk from a local farm.

Plastic litres jug milk sold in Ireland and the UK is what both commenters were comparing to the bland UHT milk. Generally everything is available in the USA, but there are some surprising cases where the default product is of noticeable lower quality than the default in Europe.

Yeah, I’d say that the default in the US is generally cheaper and lower quality than the default in France, at least (no experience with Ireland).

Re: The Last Egg

#102

Post by dontlaugh »

krupan wrote: post #67
justsomehnguy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway) At 2% I would not even bother considering this product as a milk.

I don't think you deserve all the down votes. I grew up in the U.S. in the 90's drinking healthy 1% or skim milk, then lived in Europe for two years drinking probably 3.5% or 4% and I tried going back to low fat milk and just can't. Whole milk all the way

2% is semi-skimmed. I can’t imagine confusing what with whole milk. Even 3.5% and 5% are quite different from each other.

Re: The Last Egg

#103

Post by cwkoss »

teh_klev wrote: post #89
shepherdjerred wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't a larger greenhouse require more power and therefore more fuel for the generators? I would figure that's a major reason why. I was wonder why they don't have chickens somewhere so that they can have fresh eggs/meat/etc. It could potentially be a good way to re-use food scraps, although I'm sure they're already doing something useful with those.

> I was wonder why they don't have chickens somewhere It's probably a bio security thing. If these chickens escape into the wild there's the risk of infecting the local bird life with new diseases or viruses that the local population have no defences against.

If the chickens escaped, wouldn't they be frozen solid in minutes and effectively biologically inert?

Re: The Last Egg

#104

Post by aembleton »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

Milk freezes well. If they can afford to carry UHT milk all the way there, then you might as well take the fresh stuff and freeze it. Then it'll keep.

Re: The Last Egg

#105

Post by bacon_waffle »

progbits wrote: post #94
bacon_waffle wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The freezers are in the heated main station, however since the "waste heat" from the generators is put to use it's not as inefficient a system as one might assume. The comical part of the food storage situation is that the station was basically built without anywhere near enough of it. The main "dry store" is in a room on a different level from the kitchen, labelled "Science Storage", and most of the near-to-hand fro…

I have no insights beyond what I read in the OP, but my point was that those freezers are actually warmer than outside. So "anywhere near enough" might in fact be enough if you can store deep-frozen things outside on the loading deck. You only need enough freezer capacity to "warm up" the outside stuff to normal freezer temperatures (the article mentions this). This only depends on the warm up time, and number of peo…

My observation is based on spending over a year in that station, and being close with someone who was a chef there.

It really isn't as simple as those "only" statements. There are other uses for freezers than warming stuff up to normal freezer temperature. The on-station food storage situation is a real hack. Shoveling snow off boxes of food in your too-small outdoor deep-freeze doesn't need to be part of the chef's job. Reading red printing on those cardboard boxes, is rather difficult under the red light that tends to be preferred outside in winter.

Re: The Last Egg

#106

Post by lmm »

idlewords wrote: post #19
beefman wrote: post #11

November?! How hard could it be to supply the station with fresh food once a month?

It's really hard! Reasons include: - Ambient temperatures too low for most fuels and lubricants, and out of spec for most other parts of the aircraft - No hope of rescue if the plane goes down or gets lost - No reliable way to light the runway. In the past they've used gasoline filled drums, but it can get so cold that the gasoline vapor pressure is too low and it won't light. - Extreme isolation—there's really nowhe…

It's not hard, just expensive. Airdropping supplies through winter was routine until it was cut for budgetary reasons.

Re: The Last Egg

#107

Post by WJW »

MiguelVieira wrote: post #38
thewopr wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(creds: I was down to McMurdo as a researcher three times) I suspect this has to do with space and weight constraints, and probably a touch of old-school procurement practices. In the not-too-distant past, basically everything was flown to south pole station, so weight was at a premium. Powdered milk weights a lot less than UHT milk. Now they do a traverse to the pole with sleds and tractors, so weight is less of an…

Whoa I had no idea: "To reduce the cost and increase the efficiency and reliability of transporting fuel and materials to South Pole Station, USAP established an overland traverse route from McMurdo Station to the South Pole. The traverse route is approximately 1,030 miles long and took several years of route-finding to prove and to mitigate areas with crevassing. This route is traveled by the South Pole Traverse (SP…

I am perversely drawn to applying to this job, even though I know it is at least 500% more shitty than what I currently do.

Re: The Last Egg

#108

Post by WJW »

Symbiote wrote: post #69
ericd wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

American milk is very varied, sounds like you’re describing plastic gallon jug skim milk. If you want something a bit heartier, you can probably find creamline milk from a local farm.

Plastic litres jug milk sold in Ireland and the UK is what both commenters were comparing to the bland UHT milk. Generally everything is available in the USA, but there are some surprising cases where the default product is of noticeable lower quality than the default in Europe.

Not gonna comment on something as subjective as "quality", but just the taste of Coca Cola is noticeably different in the US vs at home in the EU.

Re: The Last Egg

#109

Post by masfuerte »

goodpoint wrote: post #44
0xbadcafebee wrote: post #7

Weird they don't stock UHT milk. I buy milk for 6 months and keep it in my pantry. I honestly can't tell the difference between modern UHT milk and mass-produced "fresh" milk (at 2% anyway). They could in theory ship in UHT milk instead of fresh, and stock enough extra to last a few more months in winter. It would be fun to make your own cheese down there as a hobby! Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting,…

> Eating by the seasons is also pretty interesting Eating by the seasons is mundane and normal almost everywhere in the world.

Are you sure? Obesity, caused by eating processed food, is normal almost everywhere.

Re: The Last Egg

#110

Post by austhrow743 »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #65

I'm surprised the greenhouse isn't larger and/or there isn't significant research there about growing under man-made conditions. I would think for example NASA might be able to use it as a research center while also benefitting the diets of the rest of the researchers there.

If the goal is to research growing in man made conditions then you don't really get anything out of the logistical difficulty of Antartica. The natural conditions are the whole point.
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