Freeze dryer??

[Erik A]

I have looked into getting a freeze dryer (for food not lumber!) in the past. Any one have experience with one? 

I hope asking this in food is the right place!

I was thinking maybe this should be placed in drying and processing!?  :D

[ESFted]

No personal experience, but a YouTube channel I follow called Living Traditions Homestead has a series of videos on freeze drying.  It peaked my interest but it's a bit pricey.  Seems like a great way for long term storage of lots of veggies and fruits.  I was thinking of all the freeze dried stuff I used to take with me on long overnight hikes.  Light weight and reasonably tasty.

[Erik A]

Thanks for the suggestion. 

I may get one right now while they are on sale!

[DDW_OR]

any update. i am also looking at getting one.
plan to build a greenhouse 12x32 with 8 side walls and 3/12 roof
Polycarbonate twin wall. may do a double wall with 1x2 spacers separating the walls

then cold-frame boxes against the outside walls

will be selling at a local farmers market.

also making a 8x8 smokehouse to put the electric, propane, and charcoal smpkers

[AlaskanWannabe]

Bought our first medium Harvest Right freeze dryer several years ago.  A year later we bought two more.

They're absolutely awesome.  But they come with some annoying maintenance issues especially with the pumps.

We had them running around the clock in the winter in an apartment we were renting since they take a lot of electricity, while we were developing our off grid homestead.  We now have ten years of food for the wife and myself stored in a root cellar off grid and we run our freeze dryers off grid in the summer off solar.

If you are concerned with food security and inflation, it's a great way to lock in today's prices and build a large safety buffer while you learn to grow your own food.

Most of the food will last 20-25 years, meat and fatty foods apparently less (five years seem to be what I read, but I haven't yet tested this).

And the food is lightweight and doesn't need to be refrigerated and can freeze which is really nice.  Still, a root cellar will optimize the length of the food.  Freeze dried food holds more of the nutrients than pressure canning.

Downside is the money, the maintenance, and the fact that it's time consuming.  A batch will take near 24 hours to process.  We've freeze dried all kinds of food and haven't tested them all yet.  But thin cut pork chops are amazing as is Costco rotisserie chicken and eggs.  Tastes perfect once you rehydrate it.

If you're building a stash of food for security I would recommend dried goods first.  Tons of calories, easy to store, lasts as long as freeze dried food, cheap and can be done in a weekend.  Beans, rice, wheat berries, oats, etc.

Then pressure canning meat.  Cheaper, lasts a long time (not nearly as long as freeze dried), but can be done relatively quickly but you have to put some hours in.  Unfortunately it takes up a bunch of space and is heavy and doesn't keep the nutrients like freeze drying does.

Freeze drying is the best but takes a long time unless you purchase a bunch of machines as we did.  And then it still takes a long time.

[DDW_OR]

I got the Harvest Rite Large
have to run a 20 amp line.

i use the vacuum chamber to vac seal my dry-goods in canning jars.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=124171.new#main_content_section

[AlaskanWannabe]

I got the Harvest Rite Large
have to run a 20 amp line.

i use the vacuum chamber to vac seal my dry-goods in canning jars.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=124171.new#main_content_section

Do your trays fit in the dishwasher?  IIRC they are the same sized trays roughly as the medium so they should. 

I think HR came out with a super large machine not too long ago though, and I'm not sure the trays of that one would fit in a regular dishwasher.

[DDW_OR]

one inch too long for my old dishwasher
but will fit at an angle