Food Storage Questions

Mountain Home Quilts ask about food storage without electricity, I emailed her but I thought you all might want a general idea of what we are planning for keeping things cold.  It will no doubt be an interesting adventure!  People lived for centuries without refrigeration, really we've only had the ability to keep our foodstuffs reliably cold for a few decades.

One tip that really intrigued me if you have just had stew for dinner and there are some leftovers you simply bring them back up to a rapid boil then put a firmly fitting lid on it and put it on a shelf where it will not be disturbed, it should be fine for the next few days, simply because you have "sterilized" it by boiling it and if you clamp down a lid on it, theoretically, it will still be sterile.  I am wanting to try this one out!  We have also bought an antique ice box at an auction a couple of months ago.  We put three big blocks of ice in it and measured the temp over a 4 day period.  At it's coldest it was about 48 degrees, so that's not too bad!  We can keep leftover roast or things like that for just one night.  We plan on making our own mayo and salad dressings, then use them up without holding them over.  Things like salsa and ketchup can stand a few days in the ice box or cold room.  Our house has a pantry built on the North East corner of the house, the coldest corner, it will be the coolest room in the house, we can put cheese and the like in there.  We also have a cold room downstairs in the basement, it's set up to stay between 48 and 52 degrees all year.  We also plan on setting up an ice house.  Of course July and August will be hot and miserable any where you are so we'll just have to play it by ear!  Buying an already built Amish farm is really the only way we could do this, these people really know how to live this way, we hope to learn a lot from our neighbors, and become truly self-sufficient!  If you have any tip, ideas, or questions let me know, may be we all learn together!