Freeze dryer/drying

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Dani said:
I didn't buy mine new and got it from a friend at a much discounted price. When he brought it to me, it was with a sock so I thought this was normal since he did not have it very long before upgrading. He did complain early on with the spitting of oil.
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Look up retired at 40 on youtube. He covers a lot of oil issues
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I am pre-freezing everything. I weigh 1lb of whatever into those cake pans I mentioned. It makes the correct thickness for the trays and I can transport 4 pans at a time with out spilling.

I use pieces of thin foam board to let me stack them up in the freezer. One freezer basket holds 10 pans or one load. Once frozen, I put them in zip locks, I have three loads of eggs ready to go and a load of fried rice, but I have a bunch of veggies and fruit to get done first and the eggs keep on coming.

I could happily run 3 freeze dryers for a while. There is a video of a guy who runs 3 mediums with one suitable sized vacuum pump. He has a way of using relays to run one two or three at a time.
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One reason I invested in two FD's. I can produce enough storage food while the power is on to carry a small group for several years. I do not see line power being affordable and or available in the immediate future....
 
10 lbs of eggs in the freeze dryer, more waiting in a freezer and 20 pans (20 lbs ) potato leek bacon soup in the freezer waiting as well.

Mylar bags and 02 absorbers are a bit of a problem. They want $50-$80 Can + $85.00 to ship from US to Canada. 50-100 bags. I also have to pay customs and taxes on top of that.

I ordered 400 bags from China for $25.00 +free shipping snail mail to try them out. If they are usable for my purposes, I will order a few thousand at an even better price, before the pipeline drys up.

A pint of vacuum pump oil cost me $11.00. You all can get a gal for that price. We are pooched up here.
 
I am looking forward to her posts. I have a medium as well.

I can't believe I'm on batch 14 already. These stupid machines add to the work load and the freezers don't seem to be emptying out much but it's addicting. Making styrofoam food is an interesting concept.

I am running green beans, ginger and corn at the moment. There are two big pots of stew on the stove, some for a few dinners and the rest for freeze drying. Four beef tongues thawing to be done up in various ways and also freeze dryed.

Last week it was potato leek soup with bacon bits. That turned out much better than the canned version.
 
It is addicting, but it is also time consuming, but worth it. I have the mylar, but I've been jarring stuff instead. I want to see it. Took out 3 trays of sliced mushrooms, and a tray of cooked hamburger. It's defrosting at the moment, and tomorrow I really need to put in more eggs. Have 16 dozen extra at the moment. But I'll also see my cousin tomorrow and bring her some. I put in 6 dozen on 4 trays at a time. Then I have black bean chili ready to go in. Annie's brand. It's going to expire, and I have 12 cans, so I might as well freeze dry it. Usually I do eggs every other run.
 
Amish Heart said:
It is addicting, but it is also time consuming, but worth it. I have the mylar, but I've been jarring stuff instead. I want to see it. Took out 3 trays of sliced mushrooms, and a tray of cooked hamburger. It's defrosting at the moment, and tomorrow I really need to put in more eggs. Have 16 dozen extra at the moment. But I'll also see my cousin tomorrow and bring her some. I put in 6 dozen on 4 trays at a time. Then I have black bean chili ready to go in. Annie's brand. It's going to expire, and I have 12 cans, so I might as well freeze dry it. Usually I do eggs every other run.
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do you use the eggs normally or how do you use them after freeze drying?
 
I freeze dry them scrambled and raw, so just add equal amount of egg powder and water. Use for scrambled eggs or cooking. Same as if you'd buy freeze dried egg powder. You can cook scrambled eggs and then freeze dry them, then just add hot water to reconstitute them, but I haven't done that. It would be handy, though, for backpacking food. Meat can be done the same way...raw or cooked, but I have only done cooked.
 
My plan is to use mylar and jars as well. Mylar is expensive here so I don't want to use it for something that's going to be used in the next year or so and I also like to see what I am pulling off the shelf. When I get anything over and above the one to two year mark, I put it in mylar.

If I didn't have the jars already, I would be having a heart attack if I had to buy them now.
They're up to $24.00 a case and the lids are garbage. I bought a bunch of rubber rings so that I can use the metal ones like tattlers. I get less failures now. You can't even vacuum seal them without them failing.

Mylar does have the advantage of taking up less space. I use a chamber vac to seal them up.

If you put reconstituted freeze dryed eggs in the microwave for 30 seconds they puff up like a soufflé and are lighter than stove cooked.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
My plan is to use mylar and jars as well. Mylar is expensive here so I don't want to use it for something that's going to be used in the next year or so and I also like to see what I am pulling off the shelf. When I get anything over and above the one to two year mark, I put it in mylar.

If I didn't have the jars already, I would be having a heart attack if I had to buy them now.
They're up to $24.00 a case and the lids are garbage. I bought a bunch of rubber rings so that I can use the metal ones like tattlers. I get less failures now. You can't even vacuum seal them without them failing.

Mylar does have the advantage of taking up less space. I use a chamber vac to seal them up.

If you put reconstituted freeze dryed eggs in the microwave for 30 seconds they puff up like a soufflé and are lighter than stove cooked.
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I like using the jars better, and just seal them with the jar attachment thingy, and don't even bother with the oxygen absorbers. Just picked up another 1/2 gallon mason jars from Walmart today, and I really like using those..they fit on my shelves perfectly. Took out 60 eggs I did today and put in raw milk. That'll take awhile.
 
I put green beans in gallon pickle jars and used oxygen absorbers in those because its going to be quite some time before I use them. I have another load of green beans going right now.

I have gotten a freeze dryer routine established. If I get a load in before noon it will be finished late afternoon/evening the next day. I let it defrost overnight and reload the next morning.
Everything is pre-frozen (1lb.) per dollar tree cake pan and I just pop out 2.5 pans to load the trays

If I keep to the plan, I will get 15 batches a month done.
 
I haven't gotten around to freeze dying more eggs yet. I am running the last batch of peas from the freezers. I am right around 24 lbs of peas, 8lb mixed veggies, 10 lb corn and 5 lb of broccoli.

I have a load of beef stew, 2 loads of eggs and one of sausage crumbles waiting in the wings. I have one load of rhubarb as well. Any more rhubarb will go in the dehydrators after this.

I have a batch of spareribs marinating for the smoker tomorrow, as well. I came across those while rooting in the freezers for lost veggies.
 
I just pulled out 72 eggs. For raw I wisk up a dozen in a bowl then dump into a big stainless steel bowl. after I have whisked up as many as I want I take the big bowl and pull out the top tray that has been chilling, I just poor in enough and proceed on down the stack. This keeps me from spilling trays of product as I try to move them from place to place.
We were gone during the day yesterday and I came home to the FD letting out it's plantive beep saying it was done. I let things warm a little from -51F before I handled the trays and bagged things up.
I am going to try something like eggs benidict for summer camping groups.
 
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