COLD Cash

Ice harvesting, which began in the early 1800s, was very similar to any crop harvest. Ice was a cash crop. Weather was certainly a factor in the ice harvest, because it determined the depth of the ice, incoming storms, temperatures that would hinder the harvest, and the timing of assembling a team of men. The goal of the ice harvest was to fill the ice house. In those years when the weather did not cooperate, the goal might not be reached.

The icebox was first patented in 1803. Its design was a wooden box lined with tin or zinc and insulated with sawdust. People were growing weary of salted, pickled, smoked, and dried meat,