Economics of home freeze drying. My very limited experience

[Criticalt]

And fruit leather is great.
Not sure how long it lasts but it lasts longer than fresh fruit.
I cannot eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables because of my Crohn's disease, but canned, dehydrated and leathered is fine.

Im not using the dehydrator for long term storage, we can food for that. And we have cattle, chickens, ducks, turkeys, hogs, goats, rabbits and....um.....horses if necessary for food.
Im not planning on leaving our homestead for ANY reason. If a SHTF scenario comes, we live as long as we can, then die. I cannot live without medical care soooooo, bring it on armageddon!!

 

[Criticalt]

About 4 hours into 3.5 pounds of beef jerky in my dehydrator. As I said before, it wont last 48 hours.

 

[repete]

Well, I bit the bullet and bought a Freeze Rite freeze dryer today. Drove down to St.Mary's Pa to Burkes Ace hardware and brought it home. Believe it or not it was about $200 LESS then online from the manufacture and because I paid cash I saved an additional 2% plus saved on the sales tax (lower rate) and Cuomo didn't get any of it!!! Now I need to get it out of the Blazer and in the house, damn things heavy.

 

[fnfalguy]

Looking forward to hearing about it. Not familiar with the brand. So far, I have found that prefreezing the product helps with the processing times.

 

[repete]

Looking forward to hearing about it. Not familiar with the brand. So far, I have found that prefreezing the product helps with the processing times.

DOH! I guess I'm more tired than I thought, it's a Harvest Right freeze dryer. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I got the final kick in the ass to get it from you and this thread, thank you!

 

[fnfalguy]

@repete LOL. Understood. I would recommend that you pick up this oil to use with the pump.

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/dairyland-vacuum-pump-oil?cm_vc=-10005

I am assuming that you got the standard pump version. If not, then I am not sure what they suggest. I just broke down the pump yesterday to see how it looked on the inside after 20 batches done and it was pretty clean.

Replace the oil every few batches or when it looks cloudy in the sight glass. We are filtering the oil the old oil when we swap it out and it will get reused a few times.

We have also be using liners for the pan to help with the clean up. you can cut parchment paper to size or look to a few different companies to sell silicon mats that fit the trays.

We use a modified brita filter to filter the oil. Plenty of videos on the web for that. If you have any questions, and if I know the answer, I'll be glad to help you out.

 

[repete]

Thanks, I was really wiped out out last night. I'm normally a night owl but yesterday got up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 am after getting to sleep about 3. That was rough! I just read the book that comes with it and have it set up but yet to try it out.

 

[fnfalguy]

For those still following along, this post is titled Sambal Olek, mistakes were made.

Did a large amount of sambal, about 8.5 lbs worth. It dried up nicely as seen below, then we pulverized it and immediately realized the error of our ways as we found a really good use for the n95 masks, but a little too late. My nose is still running as I am posting this. I feel like I've been hit with OC that is a bit weak. On the upside, it reconstituted perfectly and is a great add to the long term stores.

 

[OwnTheRide]

For those still following along, this post is titled Sambal Olek, mistakes were made.

Did a large amount of sambal, about 8.5 lbs worth. It dried up nicely as seen below, then we pulverized it and immediately realized the error of our ways as we found a really good use for the n95 masks, but a little too late. My nose is still running as I am posting this. I feel like I've been hit with OC that is a bit weak. On the upside, it reconstituted perfectly and is a great add to the long term stores.

I make my own bacon, and my best cures involve hot peppers - habanero, scorpion, reaper, etc. Fresh peppers are best, but a lot of times dried peppers are the only reasonably-priced option. Let me tell you, grinding up dried scorpion peppers will clear everyone's sinuses.

There has been one surprising aspect to it: when cutting up fresh peppers, I don't wear gloves. Naturally, my hands end up burning for a day or more. But I've found that I like it. Really weird. Just be careful what you touch, lol.

 

[fnfalguy]

For those interested, here is the survival blog article that I wrote. It all started right here in this thread.

To Freeze-Dry or Not Freeze-Dry, by J.A.. Harvest Right Freeze Dryer.

To Freeze-Dry or Not Freeze-Dry, by J.A.. Harvest Right Freeze Dryer.

survivalblog.com

 

[repete]

I FD some ham slices and had some space left so I tried doing some pudding, dried well and DAMN it's good crunchy. No idea about rehydrating it, it didn't last that long!

 

[fnfalguy]

Raw beef patties after drying


And reconstituted with beef broth

 

[repete]

So how was the taste and texture? How long did they take to rehydrate?

 

[fnfalguy]

Taste & texture were fine. Seriously took around 1 minute to rehydrate. We are doing a batch of cooked burgers next to see if it makes a difference.

 

[fnfalguy]

@repete
Took the cooked one out. Here is (hopefully) a video of it being reconstituted

Reconstituting FD hamburger patty

youtube.com

It was a better texture doing it cooked before freeze drying. Live and learn.

 

[OwnTheRide]

That cooked one looks pretty damn tasty.

 

[repete]

@repete
Took the cooked one out. Here is (hopefully) a video of it being reconstituted

Reconstituting FD hamburger patty

youtube.com

It was a better texture doing it cooked before freeze drying. Live and learn.

Toss it on the grill to warm add cheese and bacon...yum!
I've got a pork tenderloin (cooked & sliced) and ground beef and some spaghetti sauce in there right now, when done it will all be bagged separate and used at the camp. It will be nice having stuff like ground beef and not having to keep it cold or worrying about cans freezing.

 

[fnfalguy]

@repete post up the results of the tenderloin. I'm doing spiral cut ham slices this weekend. Just finished a trial batch of these guys while waiting on the summer. They came out well. Havent bothered trying to rehydrate them.

 

[repete]

The tenderloin came out great, I tried just nibbling on it dry and it was hard dry and just so-so but rehydrated and warmed up it was like fresh. I also bought a bag of frozen assorted fruit as a test and WOW is it good! 5 batches and an oil change later I now have BBQ sauce, ketchup, apple sauce, and some leftover chili-mac in there. Powdered ketchup will be interesting, I'll try it powdered and rehydrated. It will be nice to just leave a jar of it at the cabin and not worry about keeping it cold.

 

[fnfalguy]

My experience with the spiral cut ham was similar. Not wonderful out of the dryer, but tasted like fresh when rehydrated in hot water.

 

[TEOTWAWKI inc.]

What is your average cycle time? I'm surprised nobody rents these out, especially with the limited availability of canning supplies.

 

[fnfalguy]

What is your average cycle time? I'm surprised nobody rents these out, especially with the limited availability of canning supplies.

So far for the stuff I prefreeze, anywhere from 19 to 30 hrs. I have done some batches specifically requested for some similarly minded friends.

 

[repete]

As for renting, the machine is not really portable. It's about the size of a 'dorm' style fridge but weighs much more.
Cycle time for me has been around 20hrs or so, the batch I have in there now has been going a bit over 24 but it had a lot of liquid, one tray of BBQ sauce, one of ketchup, one of applesauce and one of goulash and a few ice cream sandwiches to fill in empty space. In the future I'll only do 2 trays of liquids at a time.

 

[fnfalguy]

I'd be curious how the bbq did. Did you dilute it first? The higher sugar content is the reason I'm curious. Apparently high sugar foods can cause some interesting results and subsequent interior cleaning.

 

[phatfarmerbob]

It’s not like the moneys worth anything sitting in the bank.. interest isn’t even covering inflation

 

[repete]

I'd be curious how the bbq did. Did you dilute it first? The higher sugar content is the reason I'm curious. Apparently high sugar foods can cause some interesting results and subsequent interior cleaning.

No I didn't dilute it at all, I tried a taste of the powder and WOW talk about bursting with flavor! I want it to use as a dry rub or rehydrate same with the ketchup, can't wait to sprinkle some ketchup on a burger.

 

[repete]

My wife wanted to try FD some salt water taffy, a small piece about 1" square swells up to the size of a golf ball and is absolutely delicious! The flavor jumps out at you and pretty much slaps you side the head, mmmm. Now she's got a bunch of marshmallow Peeps and ice cream she wants to do Oh well happy wife, happy life.

 

[Saltwater60]

I'd be curious how the bbq did. Did you dilute it first? The higher sugar content is the reason I'm curious. Apparently high sugar foods can cause some interesting results and subsequent interior cleaning.

Sugar binds water. I’m sure that’s why it doesn’t go so well. That’s why jams and jellies are shelf stable. They have high sugar and water content but the sugar binds the water so it’s not free for use by bacteria and other bad things.

 

[Saltwater60]

No I didn't dilute it at all, I tried a taste of the powder and WOW talk about bursting with flavor! I want it to use as a dry rub or rehydrate same with the ketchup, can't wait to sprinkle some ketchup on a burger.

That’s very cool. I love dried dehydrated spices on my meats.

 

[fnfalguy]

Wow I’ve been remiss in posting. Lots of FD foods being put up. Today we put up four two-quart bags of chili and four two-quart bags of black bean soup. Tasted great pre drying and great after reconstituting a small test batch.

after freeze drying.


and after rehydration