I have very pleasant memories of time spent in a Minnesota ice house at the resort we frequented - a building full of ice and sawdust. The ice was cut from the lake during the preceding winter and stored for the summer patrons. Digging it out and delivering it was a pleasant taks on a hot summer day.

In a marginal situation, ice would be the least of my concerns. I would go to an evaporative cooler (an open box surrounded by wet cloth) to keep foods longer. If ice could be collected seasonally and stored - fine; otherwie, forget it.

I don't know about the fertilizer thing; a lot of these techniques shown on TV are often farfetched and fictitious. I wouldn't use the boob tube as a training manual.