Freeze Drying
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With growing a garden and raising animal for food I needed some way to preserve my food for down the road. Growing my own food this year, I ended up with a bunch of food all at one time so I decided freeze drying was the way to go. The meat chickens went into the freezer along with the pig. The garden vegetables were eaten and then freeze dried. I always wanted a freeze drier and when I found Harvest Right, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
I watched countless YouTube videos to learn and see all the possibilities that can be done. Finally deciding on purchasing the medium sized dryer. So far it has been the perfect size for my family and what we do. There are many things that I like about the freeze dryer, such as ease of use, nutritional value, storage time, and varieties of food
Ease of Use
Freeze drying is very easy all you do is prep the food and put it in the dryer and push start and the machine does all the rest. There are nuances to freeze drying that I will get into in another article but for now I just want to introduce you to what I do and the basics. When you are ready to use the food, you just add water and heat if needed or just eat the food as is.
Nutritional Value/Storage Time
Freeze drying can maintain the nutritional value of foods for 25 plus years just like as if they were freshly made. The storage time is very impressive to me as well. Some food can be stored for 25 plus years. My plan is to store food for use during the year and then long-term storage.
Variety of Food
Freeze drying is very versatile and you can do many different types of food. I haven’t done very much but I am excited to explore the possibilities. The things I have done have all turned out well. I have done eggs and mostly fruit and some vegetable from the garden. The eggs dry well, and it takes about 24 hours for them to dry. I learned that they need to be cooked slow or else they get a little rubbery. The taste is just like fresh eggs but I haven’t stored them for very long so I will have to see how they do down the road.
Fruit has been my favorite so far. I have done apples, strawberries, pineapple, pears, and bananas. My favorite has been the pineapple and my least favorite is the bananas, but they are growing on me. The key to doing fruit is to get them cut all the same size are close to the same size. This helps them dry evenly.
Conclusion
So far, I have been very happy with the freeze dryer and can’t wait to try more complicated things like stews, and rice dishes for quick weekly meals. There are other ways to preserve food like dehydrating and canning and I am going to get into those down road, but I wanted to start with a freeze dryer. Click the image below to learn more.
