Freeze dryer

[Mike1955]

Anybody on here got and use a freeze dryer? We bought one and really enjoy it. Looking forward to the garden too. Thanks for reading

 

[gsganzer]

What do you typically process with a freeze dryer? Is it much different from a dehydrator?
I can see drying herbs and such. Can you make jerky or other stuff with one?

 

[Mike1955]

It’s for food preservation. For almost anything. Not the same purpose as dehydrating. We do meat all many different kinds, chicken beef pork Sausage and bacon. All types of veggies. Put it up raw or cooked, ready to eat after rehydrating and warming up. Store it in airtight bags shelf life of about twenty five years, they say. Have a nice day

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

We freeze dry most everything we harvest from our garden. The quality and flavor of the stored food vs canning or storing in a freezer is like night and day.

95% or more of the original food value, vitamins and minerals are available in the freezed dried food. You won't maintain this food value by canning.

Taste of freezed dried is same as fresh for most all items. Not so much with canned or frozen items. The taste factor, as well as the nutritional value is the main reason we no longer can. We also sold our freezers 3 years ago as we no longer need them to store seasonal items.
We cook most of our meals in large batches, eat the portion we need for that meal, then freeze dry the rest. The freeze dried food becomes our meals later in the month or the same year.

The link below is from a youtube channel called "retired at 40". All things freeze dried is the content.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFxpwpnn4TgX0ruPjpxumNSDDrOQb6vnJ

Edit:Never any food spoilage or food that gets thrown out. Leftovers get fed to the freeze dryer for future meals later in the year.

 

[Oaktree]

I like the idea, but they're a little pricey for my budget. Most of them seem to be well north of $2000.

 

[gsganzer]

Max,
Thanks for the links. I'll have to check these out. Does the texture of the food change much? I've had freeze dried food when camping and I guess it was OK. I always figured freeze dried food was high in sodium, but maybe that's just the commercial type food.

I was planning to start canning when I retire, I'll have to check out freeze drying too.

 

[Mike1955]

We freeze dry most everything we harvest from our garden. The quality and flavor of the stored food vs canning or storing in a freezer is like night and day.

95% or more of the original food value, vitamins and minerals are available in the freezed dried food. You won't maintain this food value by canning.

Taste of freezed dried is same as fresh for most all items. Not so much with canned or frozen items. The taste factor, as well as the nutritional value is the main reason we no longer can. We also sold our freezers 3 years ago as we no longer need them to store seasonal items.
We cook most of our meals in large batches, eat the portion we need for that meal, then freeze dry the rest. The freeze dried food becomes our meals later in the month or the same year.

The link below is from a youtube channel called "retired at 40". All things freeze dried is the content.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFxpwpnn4TgX0ruPjpxumNSDDrOQb6vnJ

Edit:Never any food spoilage or food that gets thrown out. Leftovers get fed to the freeze dryer for future meals later in the year.

Mr Max I totally agree. Even eggs are impeccable. We buy about 12 dozen and put them up. Where I could use a little help is with pork sausage patties. They don’t seem completely rehydrated when we have breakfast. Maybe not soaking long enough. The rehydration is a very important thing to learn. Thank you sir for trading

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Max,
Thanks for the links. I'll have to check these out. Does the texture of the food change much? I've had freeze dried food when camping and I guess it was OK. I always figured freeze dried food was high in sodium, but maybe that's just the commercial type food.

I was planning to start canning when I retire, I'll have to check out freeze drying too.

Food texture does change with some things, it is a lot of trial and error. But the taste results is always same a freshly made meals.
We mix some things in a blender to turn them to a powder, you can store more in the mylar bags this way, they are a lot easier to seal and package also. An example would be homemade salsa.

We took 30 lbs of salsa to an orphanges in Latin America and they didn't even know it was from a freeze dried re-hydrate until we told them. Just the cook knew, and was amazed at the flavor.
In the hot climate there the freeze dried foods store longer than any other method. This results in so much less food waste. They now have their own commercial machine to preserve food. Over a 12 month tracked period we saw about 25% less food waste for the 81 children currently there.

The flavor of the powder has the same taste as the original food. We sometimes add fresh items to the freeze dried rehydrate to get some of the texture back.

Your comment about "high in sodium" could only be from someone adding salt to the food before freeze drying it.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I will say that the upront cost of a freeze drier seems high, but the benefits of freeze drying vs canning has no comparison in food flavor or quality.
For example canning pears you lose flavor and if you put in 1000 calories in pears canning them you may get 500 to 600 calories out when you eat them.
By freeze drying the calories in always equal the calories out.
There is a lot of information in the link above at the "retired by forty" freeze dryer site. The content there is very good and is informative.

Freeze dryer pricing has come down about 25% in the last five years and in the same time frame the quality of the machines has gone up. Made in USA company. With good customer service, that I used one time to resolve a minor issue quickly.

After re-reading my post, I realize I sound like a salesman for freeze driers! LOL

Currently having a sale at the link and you can sign up for a drawing to win a freeze dryer. Harvest Right Home Freeze Dryers - The best way to preserve food

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

What do you typically process with a freeze dryer? Is it much different from a dehydrator?
I can see drying herbs and such. Can you make jerky or other stuff with one?

You can do anything with a freeze dryer that you can with a dehydrator. Just have to preset the heat cycle on the freeze dryer to a lower setting to make jerky. It is trial and error to get the moisture content right when making jerky. It is not for long term storage this way.
Also when drying herbs we lower the heat cycle temperature so we don't lose the essential oils of the herb we are processing, which would cause the flavor to change.
All the water will come out of the herbs if you reduce the heat and use a longer drying time. Which has to be set manualy. But we have stored herbs in sealed mylar bags with an oxygen absorber for up to 5 years with no problems.

Edit: I see a dehydrator as a good short term storage solution for ready to eat items. And the freeze dryer as a long term storage solution for items that may require rehydration.
The typical things we process are meals, using our favorite recipe to cook a batch then using the freeze dryer to store the item. Some other things we process are apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, spinach, beets, cabbage. mostly things we grow in our garden.