Freeze Drying

[Double R]

Thank you for the energy cost info.

If those numbers are low enough The Princess may be hers sooner than planned.

Ben

I would assume our power costs are far higher than your so keep that in mind when I post the “costs”. I’ll grab a updated number mid run when I get a chance.

 

[Double R]

This costs is set to peak hour prices so it actually will cost us less than what it says when it’s running on non peak hours. It only allows one price to be entered.

 

[Double R]

Completed batch of bell peppers.

19:47:03 from start to finish
Estimated cost $2.16.
4 trays filled 3, 8x12 mylars to the max.
Energy # is sitting at the end of the cycle with the freezer on in the unit.

 

[Double R]

We are having hefty winds so I’ve decided not to start the next load till they die down. I don’t want to have brown outs or power outages and kill the machine. So I decided to try the defrost mode which I haven’t tried yet. It’s been running 2 hours and sat after that for an hour and there’s still ice built up inside the chamber. I’m seeing why people opt for fans. Far faster and much more efficient. I didn’t want to have the door open in this wind unsupervised which is why I opted to try the defrost mode.

 

[Double R]

Got some Harvest right silicone mats and some Freeze drying supplies silicone mats. Prefer the harvest right mats so far. The freeze drying supplies mats are very “sticky”. They both work well so far at preventing stuff from sticking to the trays just find the harvest right mats less hassle. If there’s anything on the drying towel it sticks to the freeze drying supplies mats. Takes a lot to get it off. The harvest right mats are easy to clean and haven’t had an issue with things I don’t want sticking to them.
Have done a few more batches since posting. All stuff I’ve already posted.
Had a power outage.
When the power came back on the unit came on and showed the outrage and the time the power was off (bottom left of the photo). Added more dry time and all worked out just fine. I would say it needed extra hours because of the outage but can’t confirm for sure.

 

[Double R]

We’ll wind seems to have settled down for a bit so back at it. Have done a few loads I didn’t post since they were repeats. About done with bell peppers finally. Just a 1/4 tray in with the current load.
Here’s a load I haven’t posted yet.
3 trays of nacho cheese sauce. 2 trays in larger portions, 1 tray in smaller portions (for me) and 1 tray I had available I put a “can” of homemade pasta sauce I had in the freezer and 1 “can” of homemade chili I also had in the freezer. Had to find things to follow onions and bell peppers as the unit smelled strong of them and I was worried the next batch would be infused with the smell. I’ve heard that can happen.

 

[Double R]

The batch estimated completion time was 23 hours. We went out of the area to get apples so I set it to continue to dry until we got home so can’t confirm exact time but 23 hours was when it should have been done.

We tried rehydrating each of these. Not scientifically but just adding a bit of water to pieces that broke off when packaging. Absolutely fantastic. The chili and pasta sauce rehydrated within minutes and tasted just like we had just made it. The nacho cheese took longer but I think we should have used super hot water. However other than a bit darker in color than when it’s fresh it tasted just like it was fresh. Definitely glad to have these to put away. Mostly we can chili and pasta sauce now but this is definitely a longer term storage option along with being able to take camping etc.

 

[Double R]

Current batch:
Had some celery that was in the freezer. 2 1/2 trays of celery. 1 tray of carrots.

 

[Neb]

Please accept my thanks for your updates.

The Princess will be following in your foot steps based on what you have shared.

Ben

 

[Double R]

@Neb Please feel free to ask questions. We do not regret the purchase as of now. However there’s a few things I’m disappointed in but there’s fixes out there it just costs more $ to do. I’d have expected by now harvest right would have fixed the issues. Plus the information harvest right gives definitely could be better and stay up to date with their software releases.

First oil change down.
Definitely plan to alternate batches of oil.
Run the pump till warm or directly after a cycle then drain the oil. Warm is easier and seems to drain better. Put the oil in the filter and refill with fresh or previous filtered oil. The filter does take a LONG time to filter. We covered the filter unit and are just letting it completely filter. We have to many batches waiting to be patient waiting for the oil to filter.

 

[goshengirl]

Yay for Princess!!!

@Double R, those sauce pieces look great! Love the review. Are those dividers purchased from Harvest Right, to go with their trays? That seems like a great idea for liquid-like foods.
Speaking of cheese, have you considered freeze drying shredded cheeses? I know those are pretty pricey from the freeze-dried food companies; wonder how they turn out in a home unit.

 

[Double R]

I second the yay for Princess!
@goshengirl The tray dividers came from Freezedryingsupplies.com There’s another company that sells stainless ones but after watching people using both I went with the plastic ones. They are great so far. They make convenient portions. You can put in or take out the pieces to make the sizes you want. I’ll try and remember next time I use them to post pictures of the “chunks” and more Information. I hesitated to buy them as they were in my opinion expensive but do feel they were a worth while investment now.
Shredded cheese, parmesan cheese and a few other cheeses are on the list of things we intend to do. To eat as snacks freeze dried and to rehydrate. We did the nacho sauce because it comes in way to big of a can for us to use up so instead of freezing it like we normally do I opted for FD’ing. From my research cheeses are great for both purposes. Saw a video today of someone who rolled a piece of sliced lunch meat around a chunk of string cheese. She said it was amazing FD’d as a snack and rehydrated but she actually preferred it FD’d for a snack. That will be on the snack trial list for sure. I do hear FD’d shredded cheese is so tasty. I have some waiting. I’m trying to be responsible and get things done that are back logged from the garden that I started prepping and putting away in anticipation of the FDers arrival. It’s a challenge to not just try one of everything I do have a ton of freezer space already cleared out and it’s unbelievable how little space it all now takes up in mylars and jars. I’m going to be in trouble soon if our mylar and oxygen absorbers order doesn’t ship

 

[Double R]

While walking by I snapped this for those that wonder times. The total time at the time of this picture is the right corner. The drying time is 3:24. The rest of the time is the freezing time. This load was pre frozen in the deep freeze. So not a super long freeze time. This is the celery/carrots load posted above.

 

[Double R]

 

[Double R]

Next batch going in. We LOVED the watermelon so I took up the remaining trays with some. First time doing bananas.

 

[Double R]

24 minutes to 0* with pre frozen trays.

 

[Double R]

Another stage I haven’t caught till today. Vacuum freezing.

Banana’s and most of the watermelon was done at 19 1/2 hours. I added more dry time to get more of the watermelon done. Only a few pieces still moist at 24 hours. Pulled to get the next load going. The almost done watermelon is like gummy’s. I’ll have no problem eating them up quickly.
$2.56 @ peak costs for 24 hour run.

 

[Double R]

Next batch:
Avocado. My better half loves them so figured it was worth a try.
Last of the Carrots, last of the watermelon and a bit of apples and pears for my better half to try.
Have a lot of bags of apples and some more pears prepped if we like them. Otherwise we will throw them on the dehydrator. So far we both have been a little put off by textures. Most of the snacks are like flavored styrofoam. The grapes were amazing though.

 

[Double R]

Tonight’s freeze drier update. While I have some regrets and disappointments on the purchase we’re still rolling along with the trials.
$2.17 peak rate cost
Total time: 20:25
Hubby likes the avocado, pears and apples! Yay!!!!! He’s thinking next batch of avocados he wants them salted. I was already thinking the same for the carrots.

 

[Double R]

I have to remember to dip things that will brown in lemon water
Next batch is 2 trays of apples and 2 trays of pears. Will have several more batches of apples for sure. Hubby opted for freeze dried over dehydrated apples this year. Still have 1/2 a case to process in the fridge and several bags of processed ones put in the freezer waiting.

 

[Terri9630]

If you get to disappointed with it you can send it to me. We aren't getting one this year because we have to put in a well. Dumb cows, wanting to drink water....

 

[Double R]

Honestly I think I’m more disappointed in the company than the machine. Especially for the cost. They’ve neglected things. Some pretty important ones were finding out. Even down to the instructions are VERY lacking and general ones vs for the software/settings being used etc. Think it would be easier if we had social media to go to groups but we don’t. There are some design flaws too that should have already been addressed by now. So I’ll be spending more money to order aftermarket fix’s. Being it’s such a small market supplies for this are expensive. The unit is expensive (in our opinion) and should be fairly well designed and have good instructions at the least.
I understand the cows and the well all to well. I’m praying ours holds out a while longer and we’re deep enough to get by for a while.

 

[Terri9630]

We are having trouble just getting someone to come drill the well. All the drillers are backed up because they are having trouble getting pipe. We have a guy coming out tomorrow to look at where we want it and give us an estimate on how long until he can get out to do it. He's doing 2 Wells down the road from us so I'm hoping it won't be another 6 months...
Wells have gotten expensive! $35 per foot.

 

[Double R]

We are having trouble just getting someone to come drill the well. All the drillers are backed up because they are having trouble getting pipe. We have a guy coming out tomorrow to look at where we want it and give us an estimate on how long until he can get out to do it. He's doing 2 Wells down the road from us so I'm hoping it won't be another 6 months...
Wells have gotten expensive! $35 per foot.

Holy cow. I think last I knew it was double that per foot here and 8 plus months out. I hope they will group you in and get it knocked out. Need water for the cows for sure and hauling water is a pain in the back.

 

[Double R]

4 trays of pumpkin purée
Took approximately 40 hours. I had to add time due to storm cleanup and not being available to process the load.

4# 12.3oz to 1# 15.2oz
4# 8.4oz to 2# 0.4oz
4# 11.5oz to 2# 0.7oz
4# 5.9oz to 2# 0.8oz

Powdered= 3 pint small mouth jars for storage

 

[Neb]

4 trays of pumpkin purée
Took approximately 40 hours. I had to add time due to storm cleanup and not being available to process the load.

4# 12.3oz to 1# 15.2oz
4# 8.4oz to 2# 0.4oz
4# 11.5oz to 2# 0.7oz
4# 5.9oz to 2# 0.8oz

Powdered= 3 pint small mouth jars for storage

Thank you

B8

 

[ClemKadiddlehopper]

4 trays of pumpkin purée
Took approximately 40 hours. I had to add time due to storm cleanup and not being available to process the load.

4# 12.3oz to 1# 15.2oz
4# 8.4oz to 2# 0.4oz
4# 11.5oz to 2# 0.7oz
4# 5.9oz to 2# 0.8oz

Powdered= 3 pint small mouth jars for storage

It can be mind boggling at how such a large amount of food reduces down to such a small amount when turned into powder.
Sure saves on storage space.

 

[Double R]

It can be mind boggling at how such a large amount of food reduces down to such a small amount when turned into powder.
Sure saves on storage space.

That’s for sure. It’s about a gallon freezer bag of pumpkin purée per tray. Our pumpkins are all different sizes so I can’t say how many pumpkins it does in 1 load but it’s quite a few. To reduce that down to a couple pint jars is mind boggling. Definitely clearing out freezer space quickly.

 

[Double R]

We decided to try the FD’d pumpkin purée to use in pumpkin bread. Used hot water and it instantly turned back into pumpkin purée the consistency it was before freeze drying. Tasted exactly like it’s supposed too.

Pumpkin bread came out incredible. Definitely will be continuing to make this with FD purée when we don’t have fresh purée. Couldn’t tell a difference in the color of the purée or anything either.

 

[Double R]

New trial- Mashed potatoes from scratch
Had some potatoes that needed to be used up so made mashed potatoes ready to eat.


Tray 1- 3# 13.2oz = FD’d- 2# 2.3oz
Tray 2- 5# 1.3oz = FD’d- 2# 6.7oz
Tray 3- 4# 15.8oz = FD’d- 2# 6.5oz
Tray 4- 5# 1.2oz = FD’d- 2# 7.3oz



Crumbled very easily for rehydration. Don’t think they needed to be crumbled but they did mostly when we removed them from the Mylar.

Added warm water and heated. Immediately returned to how they tasted when I made them.

Definitely a win. I will be trying multiple other methods for longer term use in the future. Try and make more “instant” plain potatoes. When rehydrating, add butter, salt, water or milk and heat. This batch we can definitely feel the slight oily feel from the butter so I suspect they won’t have more than a year or two shelf life. They won’t last that long anyways so it should be fine for this batch.