The biggest win for me with freeze drying is weight! Being a military family we have to move often and can only have so many pounds of stuff. Not only is it a challenge to get movers to pack fragile canning jars but all that stored food weighs so much. Being able to freeze dry it and have weigh almost nothing is amazing! Plus we have easy meals and ingredients in our suitcases when we arrive at our new location without a trip to the grocery store or fast food. Well worth the investment! We bought a refurbished machine and still was able to use their $500 Black Friday promotion.
We got our FD this summer and I have been impressed but it was this last week that made me think freeze dry first. Our green beans came on and I didn’t have time to can them and I was afraid they would go to waste. So I did a quick blanch and started doing FD batches. They are fantastic, taste so good, and store so easily. I’m not canning green beans anymore. 😝
Do you follow a recipe or instructions book, if so, what’s the name of it? We’re thinking to get a freeze dryer but know nothing about them ie: how to use.
@@olliebear5143 I joined some Facebook groups and everyone is nice and will help with troubleshooting. And you can search the group for the specific item. I’ve learned so much. I mostly rely on the harvest right group. Good luck, you will be amazed at the flavor and flexibility for storing so many different things.
@@olliebear5143 There are tons of videos on how to FD. If you are on Facebook there are groups devoted to FDing. I have had one for 2 years. I would do it all over again.
@@olliebear5143 I joined a couple Facebook groups and I search for what I want to try. Odds are good someone else did it, well, or disastrously. Either way, there’s lots to learn in the comments.
2 things i learned, ignore the recommended time, just add time!! its worth that extra dollar in electric to get your food done right. Because im moving mines been in storage a bit but i always just added a few hours to each cycle. for anything solids, meats ect buy bamboo sushi roller mats, trim them to the width of the pans and lay them in, put food on top. It allows the food much better air circulation. I was originally worried that during the heat/dry cycle without contact to the pan it wouldnt work, it works great.
I appreciate your variety… i love the freeze dyer vids mixed in with all the other great content! Always interesting and informative even if i don’t do all you present/teach!!
Oh, one comment, I REALLY advise you add a edge piece or rail to your shelves where your jars are stored.... at least an inch above the shelf surface. Earthquakes, tremors and magma movements are increasing especiually in the USA/Canada (often in the very places where the massive forest fires are occuring, most of the fires are occuring in the volcanic feature regions especially in the Western half of the continent -- the scientists and MSM are ignoring the link to prevent panic). I live in Ohio and do the same thing, just to prevent falling items.... Most of my vibrations in the house are due to heavy trucks passing by.
Sadly, a rail is not going to save jars. My hometown was hit by a major earthquake. Everything just flies out of cupboards and breaks on the floor. For a big quake, a rail is absolutely meaningless in the face of the forces involved.
@@LittleKi1 Well, it might just be perfect for small quakes and tremors!! Good grief!! Do you just not wear a seatbelt, because it will be no use at all in a really bad crash??
@@sassyherbgardener7154 I have lived my entire life in earthquake country. If people think a quake worth installing a strip for isn’t going to immediately crack the jars, they haven’t been in a real quake. Sorry. It’s an illusion of security, not actual security. If you want to plan for a quake, put them in Mylar.
Thank you so much for this video! I’m pretty new (just since April) to freeze drying but I absolutely love it! And the information that comes with the machine is not very descriptive. I’m so thankful for your experience and sharing with us. Have a blessed week. 🙏
I am so happy that so many people can afford the freeze dryers AND THE HIGHER ELECTRIC BILL to operate it. Unfortunately, many of us trying to get by on Social Security only cannot afford it or the freeze dried foods that are being offered for sale everywhere. Please keep up with sharing your knowledge for those who can afford to do it and really need to be doing it. I just hope they will listen, learn, and start doing it now. My other problem is living in a hot dry climate does not provide a cool dry place to store food. I don't even use my heater in the winter. But, what you are teaching and sharing can be used by the majority of the people. May God blessings continue to surround you.
I think I know what happened. Living in Tennessee, our temp inside our house fluctuates. I have vacuum sealed jars only to hear them pop, the seal breaks. These foods were just dry beans, but it made me understand I really need to learn how to store the food properly.
And, doing a "feel" check can Never tell you is the food is dry . . . warm to the touch does not necessarily mean the food is Totally Dry. Only a "Dry Check" can give you that information. But, as always . . . Keep having fun freeze drying.
I can't believe you didn't tell us How to prevent a mistake, when this whole video was all about only the problem, not the solution! What a bust Video!
Your book is really great. I’m very happy to have it. I was hoping that there would be some recipes in it besides just individual items to freeze dry. So I was a little disappointed with that. But I was delighted with knowing how each individual item will take and whether it needs to be blanched and how to store it after afterward. Thank you for all your hard work.
Oh, when freeze drying raw meats (really before and after any cycle), be sure to clean and disinfect the chamber walls and inner door. Using a wash cloth, dish washing detergent and water, followed by a rinse of water, dry, then follow with a 70% Isopropyl Alcohol solution to disinfect (70% IPA in water breaks bacterial membranes, higher concentrations tend to dehydrate the bacteria leaving them alive and lower concentrations do not always break the membranes.
I got my freeze dryer mainly to preserve meats. Soon they will not let us have real meat in our diet because it is healthy for us. I have a large. Then I got a 2nd because it was on sale. You can check every once in while for refurbished which they reduce lower than sale prices. If you get on their mailer, they will let you know each time a sale is on. Pretty much every month. See if you can sell some stuff to make extra money. I have seen vids on electrical use and it’s not that expensive. Prefreeze will save around 8 hrs machine freezing. I will buy raw stew meat and group in 1 lb increments and when done, it’s 3.5 oz. Find (if you don’t know one) one who hikes and ask if they will try a couple and maybe they will be a new customer. Check out your local state for “cottage law” and start a side hustle. I agree with a couple other comments on quit whining about cost and get motivated to make it work. They have payment plans. Go in on a machine with another. One of the things I want to do is f/d dog food. The healthy kind. You cant prep commercial dog food past a year. MEAT! Do meat! I can f/d 50 raw frozen patties in one machine and 60 cooked ones. I’ll defrost Costco meatballs so I can cut them in half and have for quick hamburger helper meals. I also f/d milk in portions needed for hamburger helper, Mac and cheese, etc.
I bought a meter on amazon similar to my Kill-a-watt meters, which lets you enter the cost you are paying for 1 kilo watt hour. Here in Washington I pay .13 a kwh. My large freeze dryer typically cost under $4 per run, sometimes under $3 a run. I do the Costco meatballs also and have even done the rotisserie chicken.
Sounds like the eggs were not dried enough or stored airtight (44 min mark). A tip I learned the hard way is not to use your instant pot to cook ground beef before freezing. That tastes awful when rehydrated. Brown it in a frying pan with salt. Then it tastes perfect!
@YeshuaKingMessiah I never need to "lug" out mine. It's sitting on my counter because I use it just as much, or if not more then the stove. It's the pots and pans I need to "lug" out. And I've used my IP many times to cook plain hamburger. I freeze ot after and it makes weeknight meals super easy to just take out a package of already cooked or seasoned meet for a casserole, or tacos, or spaghetti sauce.
I am so excited for your new class. You do an awesome job on your classes. I just picked up a box of tomatoes, 2 boxes of peaches, and one box of pears. I am going to be a wee bit busy.
We've had our FD 4 years. Started with the regular pump and upgraded to the oil less. Both pumps are Way louder than a dishwasher, lol. Ours is in the basement which helps to deadening the noise. When set up, a FD and pump takes up a fair amount of space, so unless you have a really big kitchen, you will need another space.
Also weigh trays in grams after dry cycle then rotate tray positions and dry another two hours. Weigh again after two hrs and if trays lost more than 1 gram, they go back in for another two hours, continue until zero weight is lost.
I've been freeze drying for over three years now. I usually have many vegetables in my freezer ready to go. I do alot of mine during the fall and winter. One thing I will mention is the check the impulse sealer before using. Mine got moved to a 1 setting and I didn't realize it right away. I lost about ten bags that weren't sealed correctly. I now make sure my setting is on 8 and seal the bag, turn it over and seal again. I haven't had a failure since then. My family Loves strawberries and bananas. I prefer apples with the skin on the snack on, apples without the skin are better in oatmeal.
Also, after sealing the bags, every so often, do a tug test to make sure the bag is really sealed. Sometimes the bag looks sealed and isn't. We've had several people tell us the sealer that came with their machine was not sealing properly. For a couple of years Some of the sealers that came with the freeze dryers were not sealing, even on the hottest setting and holding it down two or three times. (These sealers were replaced free of charge by HR, but that would still be a hassle) As always, keep having fun freeze drying. 🙂
You are so right Carolyn about feeling the food for cold spots, i like to start by feeling the bottom of the trays especially the lowest ones and then the food it self to see if it needs more time, but some eggs can be problematic depending on the fat content i think. And always do the smell test when you go to use them.
@scott6252 - feeling your food can Not tell you if it is totally dry. You are basically guessing and hoping. Do a "dry check" - this is when you think your food is Dry . . . take your trays out, one at a time, put each tray (with the food undisturbed) onto your food scale and write down each tray weight. Put the trays back into the freeze dryer for a minimum of two more hours and then take them out and weigh them again. If there is no weight loss your food was dry, but if there is any weight loss the food was not dry. If there is a weight loss put back in the freeze dryer again for two more hours or more for another weight. Do this until there is no further weight loss. Remember you put a lot of time and money into freeze drying your food . . . be sure it is totally dry. The freeze dryer programing doesn't know, your hands don't know, even heat cameras and moisture probes don't know if everything's Dry. Keep having fun freeze drying.
@@hydej1667 That sounds like a more failsafe way to do it for sure, so far I haven't had any failures checking stuff after a year or two , and I always let it run 3 or 4 hours longer because my machine is always wrong when it says it's done, you definitely can't trust the programming is my experience to.
We just harvested all of our kale, which was a ton and made pesto minus the oil and freeze dried it. the stuff is amazing all you have to do is rehydrate with a little water and oil and you have pesto For those of you saying, you can’t afford a freeze dryer. It pays for itself overtime if you factor in all of the benefits.
I have an oilless pump and harvest Right manual says to run the complete program (no pre-freezing)… I’ve been afraid to deviate as so many have had to have their pumps re-built. Going on 4 years i have not had a problem… i also run a small fan on the pump to prevent over hearing.
We love to use freeze dried shredded summer squash & beets in casseroles. I just add a little extra water and it all turns out great. I got my freeze dryer in November last year and it has been a blessing. I got sick with sepsis at new years and while the infection is gone, I am still struggling with lack of energy. With that going on, the freeze dryer has been a huge blessing. I can get lots of produce processed without running out of energy. My favorite to freeze dry are cabbages. We eat a lot of cabbages, and we can’t store them fresh as it’s too hot in our climate. My freezer used to be half full of just cabbage. Now we freeze dry them instead and they turn out great. Even in uncooked recipes like coleslaw.
I have the standard pump.. .. the pump is in the garage and the unit is in the house( adjoining wall) it is loud like an older dishwasher .. you can have a conversation and watch tv… in due time you get use to the noise
My brand new freeze drier (saved up for it for a couple of years!) is still in the box; haven’t had time to figure it out and set it up. Looking forward to continuing to learn from you and getting my freeze drier going!
It took me awhile to start using mine but once I did Anna got the hang of it I really love it! Start with the bread run and then do something that doesn't cost a lot in money or time or effort! But store frozen veggies or fruit for example. I love frozen corn and frozen strawberries, bananas and mangoes. That way if anything goes wrong it won't be an amazing frustrating waste, and you can get your feet under you!
@@OvcharkaShepherd If you watch epicenter Brian's older videos, most of your questions are answered in terms of making sure that water doesn't go from the drain line back into the drum, torr ect
You lucky duck! We pay for shipping. I love your videos! I am looking forward to your freeze drying master class! I have done some freeze drying, but I have a small size and wish I had a large!! God bless you all!
Could you elaborate on what exactly you did wrong when you stored your eggs? I stored mine in jars with oxygen absorbers - in vacuum sealed jars - but later switched to Mylar bags. They smelled fine when i opened the jars to move the product. Just wondering what the mistake was that you made. Thank you.
Pre freezing for me is not possible. But I have taken the advice of other users and preset the freeze temperature in the customization menu to -20F to make sure whatever I put in there is indeed frozen before the vacuum pump turns on. I have never had an issue with blown foodstuff within the chamber.
I have had a freeze drier for about 3 years. I am excited to get your book and see if I have accidently made any mistakes. I also love your hints and tips on the process. I know I will feel more confident after I take your class.
So why did your freeze dried eggs go bad? What did you do or not do that caused them to spoil? I watched this whole video because the title suggested you were going to give me helpful information
@@One-wayWell, I just relistened because you said I missed it, but no where does she say "this is what went wrong with my eggs." For example, she could've said, "I didn't completely freeze dry them " Or, "I should have used oxygen absorbers," or "The storage temperature was too high." Please tell where she speaks directly to the eggs. I think the title was bait to get me to watch but then figure out that I actually must pay money, invest more time and take her class. Did I simply miss the specific answer to the eggs? This is the second or third video of hers where she talked about losing eggs but DIDN'T SAY WHAT HAPPENED
I have a side hustle selling freeze dried eggs. I always run a full machine of the same product, crack and beat the eggs in a large bowl, put a pinch of salt in every tray and use the standard cycle with no additional time. When dried, I scrape the eggs, run the, thru the food processor till powdered. A large tray fills a wide mouth quart jar, and top with a 1,000cc oxygen absorber. Been doing this for 5 years and always 100% success.
I found it, it's at 31:48 -- She mentions that she lost about a third of her quart sized jars. She said that she made some basic freeze drying mistakes. She hasn't gotten to the mistakes yet, but I'm guessing that the tips in the next section cover her mistakes. Or she's making a hard-sell for her book. .... No now she's saying let's talk about the 7 steps (in the next sectionn), and a class that she teaches. at 44:20 -- She says she lost a lot of food by not making sure that her food was sealed in a vacuum tight manner that didn't let oxygen or moisture in. From my experience, I'm guessing that she didn't let the food dry all the way (I personally had a problem with strawberries, the seeds hold moisture!!). Or that the seals to her jars failed and let in oxygen or moisture.
@@lissee212 Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Maybe you can tell she never actually said what happened to her eggs. Her list of tips are general and she never says which one or combination of errors led to the loss. It may not have even been one of those. I've been following her for years and am frustrated with this. Like I said before, she told the egg story before but never got to the punchline. I've packaged a lot of eggs from ny backyard flock. I'd really like to know what her personal experience was but I haven't got the spare money to take her class 😥
Carolyn seems very informed and helpful but for those that can't afford the class, like myself, you can find so many good videos on RUclips for free. My go to for a couple years now is the RUclips channel Live.Life.Simple. It is excellent!❤
Yes! John in Bibs, Retired at 40, and I always forget the third... School studies? School bus something?? Anyone know which one I mean? Anyway so many good channels who have done
That's kind of a misnomer in that Azure ships for free. They do, IF YOU ORDER $50.00 or more in product. They charge a "small order fee" if you order less that $50.00.
My Harvest Right XL Commercial is with the premium oil pump. It is not quiet. 😂 plus it is HOT to run. It’s like having a space heater in the room. I run portable fans to blow cooler air into the room. We love our freeze dryer and it is awesome for preserving baby food for our grands. Love freeze dried fruits (kiwi, peaches, watermelon, apples, caramel apples, strawberries) We freeze dry Rotisserie chicken and celery and carrots for a quick chicken soup! I live in a humid area so I purchased an Avid Armor chamber vacuum sealer to better protect my hard work and expense of our investment .
My daughter has a med w/premium pump. I have a lg oil free pump. Mine is much quieter except when it is pulling the initial vacuum, then it's quiet enough to be right outside a bedroom in my dining room. The oil free pump does need rebuilding every several years. This is not cheap. When the pump starts getting loud it's about time to rebuild. If I had it to do it over again I would still go with the oilless pump
I would love to have a freeze dryer. Not living in US, they are even more expensive and there's concern about servicing should anything go wrong. But I can completely see the benefit, not just for myself but for the community
Haha, it's funny how easily things can go wrong when freeze-drying! 🤦♂️ I’ve definitely learned the hard way too. It’s like cooking, sometimes the best lessons come from our mistakes! Also, I wonder if there’s a freeze-drying hack for leftover pizza? 🍕
Saving up for a freeze dryer we are going to be building a house in North Carolina next year and I will be putting in a bigger garden. The freeze dryer will be a gift to myself and will be a great time saver.
I have a small harvest, right freeze dryer, and I put it in my spare bedroom, and I can barely hear it right outside of the bedroom. I don't understand what could be the problem with the sound of these.
Wow. So many things I didn't know about. Right now, I am working with a heat failure on my small freeze dryer and am trying to figure it out, but we have been sick for last week and haven't been able to do it. My grandkids are wanting the skittles and fruit really bad. Oh well, they will just have to wait.
Prefreezing is a preference. The machine is designed to do the entire process without prefreezing. If you have your settings properly set a mess will not happen. I've been freeze drying for a couple years. I mention this because many are discouraged from buying a freeze dryer because they don't have the freezer space to prefreeze.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah, it's a trade off and is strictly a preference, as I explained. Purchasing your way to create additional freezer space is an expense as is adding foods to the freezer to freeze. The electricity cost for a freezer is higher when adding food to the freezer to freeze than it is when the freezer is simply maintaining already frozen items.
Additionally, all your standard household freezer is doing is getting your food minimally frozen. The freeze dryer brings the food down to a much cooler temperature (between -30° and -50°F, depending on your settings). It is definitely a shortcut, time wise, but is simply a preference.
@@kimberlyperkins1818it is definitely a preference. We freeze ours first for two reasons, one, we have the space. Two, we're so hot here in the summer we don't have a cool enough place to run our freeze dryer year round so we wait till fall and winter to do it.
Carolyn please add the link to pre-order your book. This video didn’t explain what you did wrong when freeze drying the eggs. Could you add that information in a pinned comment? Thank you.
I love this video!!! Ignore the fussy-britches folks. Not every video is for every person. Just pick and choose and scroll on by. I, for one, am grateful for this video and wish I’d had it in November of ‘23 when I bought my Harvest Right. You have given excellent information that would have saved me tons of frustration as I’ve had to learn things “the hard way.” Or as I call them, “freeze dry failures.” 😮 Thanks for an excellent video!
I would like to pre-order your book but all your links go to things with lots of pop-ups and nothing about pre-ordering the book. The sites are very frustrating.
I think I’ve asked this question before on another video you did when you spoke about the eggs that went bad. Can you tell us what you did wrong so that we don’t make the same mistake? Did you not dry them enough? Did you not put in oxygen absorbers? Did you not store them properly? What went wrong?
Also, when storing in Mylar use an OA. You can do the same when storing in a vacuum sealed jar, especially one that you aren't going to get into for awhile. Maybe I missed you stating this when storing. If I did, I apologize. When I store in jars, I turn them upside down for about a week. I go by and shake them, looking for any moisture. If storing in Mylar, I weigh the bags after I seal them, in grams. A couple of weeks later, I'll weigh again. If the weight is the same, I'm confident my food is completely dry and my bag is sealed properly.
I'm happy for those who can afford a freeze drier however, a lot of us can not or are older generation and can't justify the cost. Looking forward to non-freeze drier videos!
It is actually still economical to get one even when you're older. You can still prepare bigger meals and freeze dry the leftovers. Buy food when it is on sale and cook up large batches or just save the ingredients. I have one and I wish I had had one when I had the five kids at home but it is still constantly in use right now.
Yeah, you might be waiting a while. They receive a commission on every sale generated through the channel, so it's not in their interests to not keep plugging them.
We bought a freeze dryer last year and don't use it. We've found it to be a lot more difficult to figure out when things are actually done so we've lost food and gave up. I have been thinking of trying again though.
I used to think a freeze dryer would be great, especially when i moved to my retirement home where i could have a good sized garden. The biggest bad point from everything i read was the noise. Because i would purchase long term storage food on sale to accumulate sufficiently for myself and all my children and their families (years worth) i thought it would be massively useful. After deciding to live off my storage pantry when they forced us to work from home (its only for 3 weeks, right?) when i started to rethink that plan. I began developing intestinal issues including diarrhea, pain after eating, nausea, etc. at first thinking it was due to chemicals in commercially canned ready to eat foods and stopped eating those and dipped into the long term freeze dried which included both raw freeze dried eggs as well as cooked scrambled eggs. So many have talked about how it is like eating fresh eggs when reconstituted. While i do seem to have more sensitive taste buds (while many rave about how good duck eggs are or how they cant tell the difference i feel both flavor and texture of duck eggs are totally vile). At first i thought i just needed to adjust water amount. I was wrong. The difference is like the difference between using instant mashed potatoes and mash potatoes made with fresh potatoes. It didn't improve my digestive issues even with giving it time and checking the ingredients and only using items with no added ingredients. I dropped from a size 30 to a size 24 without a diet which i would have appreciated more if not for the pain. I finally stopped entirely and while not back to normal i have had to remove highly processed foods from my diet but i havent regained the weight. Freeze dried strawberries and blueberries will give pain but fresh doesnt bother at all which seems to happen with much of the freeze dried. To me, that means that they are either rinsing fruits and veggies with some chemical to retain coloring or something happens to alter the food molecularily during the process. I then thought about when the microwave oven came out and how it was touted as the most wonderful tool for the kitchen since the invention of fire. Turns out that wasnt quite true and now more and more homes are getting rid of theirs as they find out more about the potential harm. Just because i seem to react this way doesnt mean i am right. It could be that i had an underlying condition that coincidentally flared up at that time period. Or i could be one of the many out there who is the proverbially canary in the coal mine exhibiting potential danger if you continue to go deeper into the mine. Do your own research so you can make a wise purchase. But also monitor your family's health if you choose to purchase one, especially in the first 6 months to a year. For me, the best emergency food plan is to have lots of seeds stored safely, especially those ripening in 60 days or less, having a fair amount of home canned ingredients and maintain an active garden as much of the year as possible. JMO
I and many others eat freeze dried food no problem I think it’s ur system, as u seem to have concluded I looooove freeze dried anything. The taste is far better than dehydrated. When we’re starving tho, dehydrated will be fine!
@bettypearson5570 I don't think my freeze dryer is any more noiseier than my dishwasher or my washing machine, or my husband's lawnmower! Actually it's quieter than his lawnmower! Haha I have 2 microwave ovens. My hubby was schooled in that technology and knows it is safe!
@@samanthabloggins1775 I don't use my dishwasher unless I am leaving my house. You may want to either Google or do a search in RUclips about microwave safety or what it does to food. Not saying the information is correct or not but things do change over time. There was a time that everyone thought tobacco, opium, lead added to paint or gasoline, margarine, thalidomide for pregnant women, pesticides and chemical fertilizers on crops and silver amalgam fillings were safe to name a few things. The truth came out on all of those items and many more. Some took only a few years but some it was 50 or more years. I'm personally waiting for them to "surprise" us with news that sending sound waves through a pregnant woman's body has effects on the unborn baby's future health (not a fact just a theory with no science to back up). There are a lot of people much smarter than me who have believed things to be harmless based on what they have learned from the best available science to be safe only to find out years later they were wrong. when I now hesitate to jump on the freeze dry bandwagon it is based on anecdotal evidence on a group study of 1. Not very scientific. For me, my health issues that coincide and the overly effusive praise of the finished product is enough fore to personally choose to wait a bit longer before putting out that type of money even though it would make putting up food so much quicker and easier and the reality is that no preserved food, whether canned, dehydrated, frozen or freeze dried will have the exact flavor, texture or nutrients as fresh from the garden but we each have to decide what works best for us based on available information. But perhaps also those products I tried had been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides at the commercial farms they came from and I reacted to those trace chemicals rather than the processing. I do speak up at times on different issues not because I think I'm right and someone else is wrong or just to be difficult, but I think our nature is to trust what the experts tell us and they just aren't always right. I enjoyed the conversation and hope I haven't offended you or others withy questioning nature.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah definitely a lot tastier than dehydrated. One possibility I didn't mention was that when I talk about the possibility of it being something the prepared items were rinsed with before freeze drying, there is the possibility of there being pesticide or herbicides residue on much of these single items (fruits and veggies) before they are freeze dried since it is doubtful they would have started with organic or non GMO products due to their profit margins. Glad your home freeze dried goods are working well for you.
At big farm supply stores, you can buy dryness testers that will tell you in percent moisture whether your corn or soybeans is dry and how dry it is. Fill a cup, push a button to test, and you will know whether that cupful is whatever moisture level. Ought to work for testing the results of a freeze dryer (lyophilizer).
People have used lumber/wood humidity testers, but there are pros and cons. Wonder if that would be the same. I've find the best way is checking temperature and then WEIGHING your food and seeing if it continues to drop weight in the drying process
Moisture meters, or any testing device only tests the small amount that it touches. They don't test the whole tray of food, nor the whole freeze dryer batch. Only the simple "Dry Check" can do that. As always, keep having Fun freeze drying. 🙂
Absolutely would!!! In NY i only FD'd during winter or cool weeks. When it got humid at first the food never dried. It simply doesnt work in humidity unless you have a good climate control in your house.
Ah Carolyn, cut all the sales nonsense and tell us the price of the class. Even after going to your site and signing up to get the info you STILL don't bother to tell us the price? That's RIDICULOUS!
I really want to order the fd book but the shipping is making me not. I am on the wait list for the masterclass, will the class be something we can save to look back at later or just a 1 time video? Thanks for all you do
Ours are not turning red I have tons of beautiful green tomatoes however they just are not turning. I think I’m going to guy back most of the leaves and see if that helps 🫣🤔🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼
@@lisacarden1309 cut the water to your tomatoes until they just start turning red or wilting slightly. As soon as either of these happen water. You want them to think they're dying, but not kill them. Their purpose in life is to reproduce. When stressed they try to set seed. PS I know tomatoes don't "think", but this starts the reaction to force ripening. I live in a short season climate and have to use this to get them to ripen. Several old farmers gave me this hint when I first moved to Utah
The new oil free pumps on the HR freeeze dryers is very quiet. I still wouldn't want it in my kitchen. It would take up too much space. I could have it in my laundry room which is next to. my bedroom, but I have a nice basement where I have 2 freeze dryers. And don't mislead people. You cannot do back to back batches. The chamber must defrost first before you can put another load in. I have heard the exception is with candy. It does have a defrost setting, but I've never used it. I just let it defrost naturally with the door open. It really doesn't take all that long. The other bad thing is that the pumps rarely last over 3 years. I don't know about the oil pumps because with my failing sight I can't use those any longer so I went to oil free 3 years ago. Theoil free can be referbished. It is expensive (aalmost $400 when I had one done about a year ago). I don't know if the oil pumps can be referbished, but either way if you have to ship it to them it's not cheap or easy. I live an hour away so it isn't a problem for me. My daughter is 3 states away. It will be a problem for her when the pump goes. Still, I would hate to not have one as I've had them for 12 years.
Oh, a good question is how do you store all of your freeze dried food in the mylar bags and organize them. They tend to fall all over the place on shelves and tubs just get too expensive and take up too much room.
I used a single hole punch to punch a hole above the seal line on each mylar bag and hang the bags on a wire hanger that my husband reshaped to hang with a lot of bags.
If you don't need more plain eggs(I don't) cheesy eggs are great for omlets or cheesy scrambled eggs. My adult grandsons come over and take 1/2 gal vacuum packed cheesy eggs. What was the mistake you made with the eggs. I usually run my eggs through the machine twice because I like the freeze dried not rehydrated texture better. I would like to know so I don't have that oroblem
I can fit 18 eggs in each medium freeze dry tray, and they are mostly large. I noticed behind you all your jars. I've always been told you shouldn't expose your canned or freeze-dried food to light. That's why they say to use mylar because it blocks the light?? I also add extra dry time just to be sure it's dry.
Confused as to how you don't pay shipping. The only thing I can think of is my acct is for my health food store, so maybe because it's a business acct. I have to pay 8.5% of my order total for shipping.
My Medium Pro Harvest Right freeze dryer was shipped to me for free. I bought it on lay away last November during their black Friday sale. Today, 8/31/24 is the last day to get the sale price on all Harvest Right Freeze Dryers. They're $500 off.
I have a question. I'm looking to buy my first FD and the best place for us is in the garage. Will the FD be ok in high temperatures in the summer and cold in the winter. Will it function the same in either environment? I live in Utah.
The machine does not work well in the heat. It is best to keep it in a temperature controlled environment. Ideally, it should be between 45°F (7°C) and 75°F (24°C).
@@HomesteadingFamily You are so kind to get back to me so quickly. I have re-evaluated where I am going to put it, and a new place has been found in the basement, where it is cool and even temperatures as you suggest. Thanks every so much.
Hi Carolyn! Thank you for your great video. I am fairly new to freeze drying. I am very interested in preordering your new book!! I am not seeing the link. Either I am just missing it, or can you please lead me to it! Thanks bunches!!
@@HomesteadingFamily Thank you I do have it and did a quick little review on my channel. What a great book. It is done so well and beautifully! Thanks for all the work you put into it. It really shows. Such great quality!
The biggest win for me with freeze drying is weight! Being a military family we have to move often and can only have so many pounds of stuff. Not only is it a challenge to get movers to pack fragile canning jars but all that stored food weighs so much. Being able to freeze dry it and have weigh almost nothing is amazing! Plus we have easy meals and ingredients in our suitcases when we arrive at our new location without a trip to the grocery store or fast food. Well worth the investment! We bought a refurbished machine and still was able to use their $500 Black Friday promotion.
The thing that completely sold me, the last thing that made me pull the trigger on buying a freeze dryer, was your video on chicken pot pie in a jar
We got our FD this summer and I have been impressed but it was this last week that made me think freeze dry first. Our green beans came on and I didn’t have time to can them and I was afraid they would go to waste. So I did a quick blanch and started doing FD batches. They are fantastic, taste so good, and store so easily. I’m not canning green beans anymore. 😝
Do you follow a recipe or instructions book, if so, what’s the name of it? We’re thinking to get a freeze dryer but know nothing about them ie: how to use.
@@olliebear5143 I joined some Facebook groups and everyone is nice and will help with troubleshooting. And you can search the group for the specific item. I’ve learned so much. I mostly rely on the harvest right group. Good luck, you will be amazed at the flavor and flexibility for storing so many different things.
@@olliebear5143 There are tons of videos on how to FD. If you are on Facebook there are groups devoted to FDing. I have had one for 2 years. I would do it all over again.
@@olliebear5143 I joined a couple Facebook groups and I search for what I want to try. Odds are good someone else did it, well, or disastrously. Either way, there’s lots to learn in the comments.
2 things i learned,
ignore the recommended time, just add time!! its worth that extra dollar in electric to get your food done right. Because im moving mines been in storage a bit but i always just added a few hours to each cycle.
for anything solids, meats ect buy bamboo sushi roller mats, trim them to the width of the pans and lay them in, put food on top. It allows the food much better air circulation. I was originally worried that during the heat/dry cycle without contact to the pan it wouldnt work, it works great.
Thank you for this!!
I appreciate your variety… i love the freeze dyer vids mixed in with all the other great content! Always interesting and informative even if i don’t do all you present/teach!!
My favorite things to freeze dry are garlic and onion! It makes life so much nicer!
😊
Yes it does!
do corn for a snack, its amazing.
@@marleenkerri2408
I also love my freeze dried onions! I’m about to do garlic and I’m sure I’ll love it too
Oh, one comment, I REALLY advise you add a edge piece or rail to your shelves where your jars are stored.... at least an inch above the shelf surface. Earthquakes, tremors and magma movements are increasing especiually in the USA/Canada (often in the very places where the massive forest fires are occuring, most of the fires are occuring in the volcanic feature regions especially in the Western half of the continent -- the scientists and MSM are ignoring the link to prevent panic). I live in Ohio and do the same thing, just to prevent falling items.... Most of my vibrations in the house are due to heavy trucks passing by.
Sadly, a rail is not going to save jars. My hometown was hit by a major earthquake. Everything just flies out of cupboards and breaks on the floor. For a big quake, a rail is absolutely meaningless in the face of the forces involved.
Thanks. Every bit of information helps. I would go a little behind 1”
Most loud vibrations in my house is due to kids wrestling in the house again
@@LittleKi1 Well, it might just be perfect for small quakes and tremors!! Good grief!! Do you just not wear a seatbelt, because it will be no use at all in a really bad crash??
@@sassyherbgardener7154 I have lived my entire life in earthquake country. If people think a quake worth installing a strip for isn’t going to immediately crack the jars, they haven’t been in a real quake. Sorry. It’s an illusion of security, not actual security. If you want to plan for a quake, put them in Mylar.
Thank you so much for this video! I’m pretty new (just since April) to freeze drying but I absolutely love it! And the information that comes with the machine is not very descriptive. I’m so thankful for your experience and sharing with us.
Have a blessed week. 🙏
I am so happy that so many people can afford the freeze dryers AND THE HIGHER ELECTRIC BILL to operate it. Unfortunately, many of us trying to get by on Social Security only cannot afford it or the freeze dried foods that are being offered for sale everywhere. Please keep up with sharing your knowledge for those who can afford to do it and really need to be doing it. I just hope they will listen, learn, and start doing it now. My other problem is living in a hot dry climate does not provide a cool dry place to store food. I don't even use my heater in the winter. But, what you are teaching and sharing can be used by the majority of the people. May God blessings continue to surround you.
love our Harvest Right. makes not only preserving but cooking afterwards quicker and easier. food holds more nutrients than other methods too
This was a advertisement for her class and book. She never told me how she ruined her eggs.
Yep. Real disappointment compared to the title.
I think I know what happened. Living in Tennessee, our temp inside our house fluctuates. I have vacuum sealed jars only to hear them pop, the seal breaks. These foods were just dry beans, but it made me understand I really need to learn how to store the food properly.
And, doing a "feel" check can Never tell you is the food is dry . . . warm to the touch does not necessarily mean the food is Totally Dry. Only a "Dry Check" can give you that information.
But, as always . . . Keep having fun freeze drying.
I can't believe you didn't tell us what you did when this whole video was all about what you did and how to panic! What a bust Video!
I can't believe you didn't tell us How to prevent a mistake, when this whole video was all about only the problem, not the solution! What a bust Video!
Your book is really great. I’m very happy to have it. I was hoping that there would be some recipes in it besides just individual items to freeze dry. So I was a little disappointed with that. But I was delighted with knowing how each individual item will take and whether it needs to be blanched and how to store it after afterward. Thank you for all your hard work.
Oh, when freeze drying raw meats (really before and after any cycle), be sure to clean and disinfect the chamber walls and inner door. Using a wash cloth, dish washing detergent and water, followed by a rinse of water, dry, then follow with a 70% Isopropyl Alcohol solution to disinfect (70% IPA in water breaks bacterial membranes, higher concentrations tend to dehydrate the bacteria leaving them alive and lower concentrations do not always break the membranes.
Great information for people to know 👍🏼
Thanks
So when doing the last step with 70% alcohol, do you add water?
I read somewhere to never use isopropyl alcohol...............I use everclear but vodka would work as well.
There’s nothing dirty about raw meat
I got my freeze dryer mainly to preserve meats. Soon they will not let us have real meat in our diet because it is healthy for us. I have a large. Then I got a 2nd because it was on sale. You can check every once in while for refurbished which they reduce lower than sale prices. If you get on their mailer, they will let you know each time a sale is on. Pretty much every month. See if you can sell some stuff to make extra money. I have seen vids on electrical use and it’s not that expensive. Prefreeze will save around 8 hrs machine freezing. I will buy raw stew meat and group in 1 lb increments and when done, it’s 3.5 oz. Find (if you don’t know one) one who hikes and ask if they will try a couple and maybe they will be a new customer. Check out your local state for “cottage law” and start a side hustle. I agree with a couple other comments on quit whining about cost and get motivated to make it work. They have payment plans. Go in on a machine with another. One of the things I want to do is f/d dog food. The healthy kind. You cant prep commercial dog food past a year. MEAT! Do meat! I can f/d 50 raw frozen patties in one machine and 60 cooked ones. I’ll defrost Costco meatballs so I can cut them in half and have for quick hamburger helper meals. I also f/d milk in portions needed for hamburger helper, Mac and cheese, etc.
I bought a meter on amazon similar to my Kill-a-watt meters, which lets you enter the cost you are paying for 1 kilo watt hour. Here in Washington I pay .13 a kwh. My large freeze dryer typically cost under $4 per run, sometimes under $3 a run. I do the Costco meatballs also and have even done the rotisserie chicken.
Really appreciate you sharing your failures! Makes me feel better about a few times I didn't do so well. Looking forward to your book.
Sounds like the eggs were not dried enough or stored airtight (44 min mark). A tip I learned the hard way is not to use your instant pot to cook ground beef before freezing. That tastes awful when rehydrated. Brown it in a frying pan with salt. Then it tastes perfect!
Agree on both points 👍
Do u simmer it in the IP? Why would someone pressure cook just plain hamb?
Who would lug out the IP instead of a fry pan?
@YeshuaKingMessiah I never need to "lug" out mine. It's sitting on my counter because I use it just as much, or if not more then the stove. It's the pots and pans I need to "lug" out. And I've used my IP many times to cook plain hamburger. I freeze ot after and it makes weeknight meals super easy to just take out a package of already cooked or seasoned meet for a casserole, or tacos, or spaghetti sauce.
Don't use an insta pot for anything yuk!! Poisonous fumes emit at incorrect temperatures. Research it
thank you. That's good to know.
I am so excited for your new class. You do an awesome job on your classes. I just picked up a box of tomatoes, 2 boxes of peaches, and one box of pears. I am going to be a wee bit busy.
If your dishwasher is as noisy as a freeze dryer, you seriously need a new dishwasher. 😂
Its weird, some people get lucky i guess. Some say theyre quiet, mine sounds like a lawn mower.
We've had our FD 4 years. Started with the regular pump and upgraded to the oil less. Both pumps are Way louder than a dishwasher, lol. Ours is in the basement which helps to deadening the noise. When set up, a FD and pump takes up a fair amount of space, so unless you have a really big kitchen, you will need another space.
Really looking forward to your masterclass and book!
Also weigh trays in grams after dry cycle then rotate tray positions and dry another two hours. Weigh again after two hrs and if trays lost more than 1 gram, they go back in for another two hours, continue until zero weight is lost.
This is the best way I’ve found to ensure my load is fully dry!
I do this too. It works very well.
Yes I'm surprised she didn't mention this
I've been freeze drying for over three years now. I usually have many vegetables in my freezer ready to go. I do alot of mine during the fall and winter. One thing I will mention is the check the impulse sealer before using. Mine got moved to a 1 setting and I didn't realize it right away. I lost about ten bags that weren't sealed correctly. I now make sure my setting is on 8 and seal the bag, turn it over and seal again. I haven't had a failure since then. My family Loves strawberries and bananas. I prefer apples with the skin on the snack on, apples without the skin are better in oatmeal.
Also, after sealing the bags, every so often, do a tug test to make sure the bag is really sealed. Sometimes the bag looks sealed and isn't.
We've had several people tell us the sealer that came with their machine was not sealing properly. For a couple of years Some of the sealers that came with the freeze dryers were not sealing, even on the hottest setting and holding it down two or three times. (These sealers were replaced free of charge by HR, but that would still be a hassle)
As always, keep having fun freeze drying. 🙂
You are so right Carolyn about feeling the food for cold spots, i like to start by feeling the bottom of the trays especially the lowest ones and then the food it self to see if it needs more time, but some eggs can be problematic depending on the fat content i think. And always do the smell test when you go to use them.
@scott6252 - feeling your food can Not tell you if it is totally dry. You are basically guessing and hoping.
Do a "dry check" - this is when you think your food is Dry . . . take your trays out, one at a time, put each tray (with the food undisturbed) onto your food scale and write down each tray weight. Put the trays back into the freeze dryer for a minimum of two more hours and then take them out and weigh them again. If there is no weight loss your food was dry, but if there is any weight loss the food was not dry. If there is a weight loss put back in the freeze dryer again for two more hours or more for another weight. Do this until there is no further weight loss.
Remember you put a lot of time and money into freeze drying your food . . . be sure it is totally dry. The freeze dryer programing doesn't know, your hands don't know, even heat cameras and moisture probes don't know if everything's Dry.
Keep having fun freeze drying.
@@hydej1667 That sounds like a more failsafe way to do it for sure, so far I haven't had any failures checking stuff after a year or two , and I always let it run 3 or 4 hours longer because my machine is always wrong when it says it's done, you definitely can't trust the programming is my experience to.
I ordered your book can’t wait to get it! So excited!
We just harvested all of our kale, which was a ton and made pesto minus the oil and freeze dried it. the stuff is amazing all you have to do is rehydrate with a little water and oil and you have pesto
For those of you saying, you can’t afford a freeze dryer. It pays for itself overtime if you factor in all of the benefits.
I have an oilless pump and harvest Right manual says to run the complete program (no pre-freezing)… I’ve been afraid to deviate as so many have had to have their pumps re-built. Going on 4 years i have not had a problem… i also run a small fan on the pump to prevent over hearing.
We love to use freeze dried shredded summer squash & beets in casseroles. I just add a little extra water and it all turns out great. I got my freeze dryer in November last year and it has been a blessing. I got sick with sepsis at new years and while the infection is gone, I am still struggling with lack of energy. With that going on, the freeze dryer has been a huge blessing. I can get lots of produce processed without running out of energy. My favorite to freeze dry are cabbages. We eat a lot of cabbages, and we can’t store them fresh as it’s too hot in our climate. My freezer used to be half full of just cabbage. Now we freeze dry them instead and they turn out great. Even in uncooked recipes like coleslaw.
Temperature and humidity are also factors with storage.
I love learning from you. Looking forward to your class and book.
I have the standard pump.. .. the pump is in the garage and the unit is in the house( adjoining wall) it is loud like an older dishwasher .. you can have a conversation and watch tv… in due time you get use to the noise
Wow what an idea. My whole unit with the standard pump is in the garage.... What an idea
Looking forward to your book! Don't let the yum-yuckers get you down.
Always love your videos, your energy, and your knowledge! 😊
My brand new freeze drier (saved up for it for a couple of years!) is still in the box; haven’t had time to figure it out and set it up. Looking forward to continuing to learn from you and getting my freeze drier going!
It took me awhile to start using mine but once I did Anna got the hang of it I really love it! Start with the bread run and then do something that doesn't cost a lot in money or time or effort! But store frozen veggies or fruit for example. I love frozen corn and frozen strawberries, bananas and mangoes. That way if anything goes wrong it won't be an amazing frustrating waste, and you can get your feet under you!
My harvest Right freeze dryer has been running virtually non-stop for the past 4 years, I've only had a couple of bad batches.
I wish I bought one four years ago. Mine might still be working. My HR died after 13 months.
@@Beelady400 I guess I've been very fortunate
I’ve been having issues getting the mixed berries fully freeze dried. Even with 3x extra time it never seems to be enough.
@@OvcharkaShepherd
If you watch epicenter Brian's older videos, most of your questions are answered in terms of making sure that water doesn't go from the drain line back into the drum, torr ect
Carolyn, try doing bulk cheese cultures. I've done some at 90° and all seems good. Saves some time.
You lucky duck! We pay for shipping.
I love your videos! I am looking forward to your freeze drying master class! I have done some freeze drying, but I have a small size and wish I had a large!! God bless you all!
Yes. I have a medium but with a standard pump and I wish I had the pro pump! Changing oil every load is NOT my favorite
I haven't seen a huckleberry since I was a kid.....I sure do miss picking them.
Could you elaborate on what exactly you did wrong when you stored your eggs? I stored mine in jars with oxygen absorbers - in vacuum sealed jars - but later switched to Mylar bags. They smelled fine when i opened the jars to move the product. Just wondering what the mistake was that you made. Thank you.
Pre freezing for me is not possible. But I have taken the advice of other users and preset the freeze temperature in the customization menu to -20F to make sure whatever I put in there is indeed frozen before the vacuum pump turns on. I have never had an issue with blown foodstuff within the chamber.
I’m interested in your master class on freeze drying and sourdough starters.
Very good information. Thank you.
You do pay for shipping with Azure. It's a percentage of your order.
You didn't say WHY your freeze dried eggs went bad! Did you forget to use an oxygen absorber?
I didn't catch what exactly you felt that you did wrong with the eggs to cause such a loss. Can you elaborate?
I have had a freeze drier for about 3 years. I am excited to get your book and see if I have accidently made any mistakes. I also love your hints and tips on the process. I know I will feel more confident after I take your class.
So why did your freeze dried eggs go bad? What did you do or not do that caused them to spoil?
I watched this whole video because the title suggested you were going to give me helpful information
You didn’t listen to the whole video before replying she talked about it. 28:00
@@One-wayWell, I just relistened because you said I missed it, but no where does she say "this is what went wrong with my eggs." For example, she could've said, "I didn't completely freeze dry them " Or, "I should have used oxygen absorbers," or "The storage temperature was too high."
Please tell where she speaks directly to the eggs.
I think the title was bait to get me to watch but then figure out that I actually must pay money, invest more time and take her class.
Did I simply miss the specific answer to the eggs?
This is the second or third video of hers where she talked about losing eggs but DIDN'T SAY WHAT HAPPENED
I have a side hustle selling freeze dried eggs. I always run a full machine of the same product, crack and beat the eggs in a large bowl, put a pinch of salt in every tray and use the standard cycle with no additional time. When dried, I scrape the eggs, run the, thru the food processor till powdered. A large tray fills a wide mouth quart jar, and top with a 1,000cc oxygen absorber. Been doing this for 5 years and always 100% success.
I found it, it's at 31:48 -- She mentions that she lost about a third of her quart sized jars. She said that she made some basic freeze drying mistakes. She hasn't gotten to the mistakes yet, but I'm guessing that the tips in the next section cover her mistakes. Or she's making a hard-sell for her book. .... No now she's saying let's talk about the 7 steps (in the next sectionn), and a class that she teaches. at 44:20 -- She says she lost a lot of food by not making sure that her food was sealed in a vacuum tight manner that didn't let oxygen or moisture in.
From my experience, I'm guessing that she didn't let the food dry all the way (I personally had a problem with strawberries, the seeds hold moisture!!). Or that the seals to her jars failed and let in oxygen or moisture.
@@lissee212 Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Maybe you can tell she never actually said what happened to her eggs. Her list of tips are general and she never says which one or combination of errors led to the loss. It may not have even been one of those. I've been following her for years and am frustrated with this. Like I said before, she told the egg story before but never got to the punchline.
I've packaged a lot of eggs from ny backyard flock. I'd really like to know what her personal experience was but I haven't got the spare money to take her class 😥
Carolyn seems very informed and helpful but for those that can't afford the class, like myself, you can find so many good videos on RUclips for free. My go to for a couple years now is the RUclips channel Live.Life.Simple. It is excellent!❤
Yes! John in Bibs, Retired at 40, and I always forget the third... School studies? School bus something?? Anyone know which one I mean?
Anyway so many good channels who have done
@@juliabrown5948SchoolReports
@@juliabrown5948 SchoolReports (all one word)
His channel was initially started as a place for his children"s school reports, hence the name.
That's kind of a misnomer in that Azure ships for free. They do, IF YOU ORDER $50.00 or more in product. They charge a "small order fee" if you order less that $50.00.
What about putting it in a vacuum sealer for storage?
My Harvest Right XL Commercial is with the premium oil pump. It is not quiet. 😂 plus it is HOT to run. It’s like having a space heater in the room. I run portable fans to blow cooler air into the room. We love our freeze dryer and it is awesome for preserving baby food for our grands. Love freeze dried fruits (kiwi, peaches, watermelon, apples, caramel apples, strawberries)
We freeze dry Rotisserie chicken and celery and carrots for a quick chicken soup!
I live in a humid area so I purchased an Avid Armor chamber vacuum sealer to better protect my hard work and expense of our investment .
WOW you are really set. Love you are preserving for the grands.
My daughter has a med w/premium pump. I have a lg oil free pump. Mine is much quieter except when it is pulling the initial vacuum, then it's quiet enough to be right outside a bedroom in my dining room. The oil free pump does need rebuilding every several years. This is not cheap. When the pump starts getting loud it's about time to rebuild. If I had it to do it over again I would still go with the oilless pump
I didn't think you could freeze dry caramel dut to the high sugar content. How do you do it?
Caramel is one of my favorites! Just cut them small or drizzle it on very thin stripes @@carolcassidy7700
I would love to have a freeze dryer. Not living in US, they are even more expensive and there's concern about servicing should anything go wrong. But I can completely see the benefit, not just for myself but for the community
Haha, it's funny how easily things can go wrong when freeze-drying! 🤦♂️ I’ve definitely learned the hard way too. It’s like cooking, sometimes the best lessons come from our mistakes! Also, I wonder if there’s a freeze-drying hack for leftover pizza? 🍕
LOVE LOVE Azure Standard
I wish I had waited. I paid 6 grand .. but I got a pharmaceutical grade and a 7 tray insert plus 4 tray insert.
Why do u wish u had waited? U don’t use it?
Saving up for a freeze dryer we are going to be building a house in North Carolina next year and I will be putting in a bigger garden. The freeze dryer will be a gift to myself and will be a great time saver.
blue alpine freeze drier is the way yo go!! i bought one and its wonderful-- layaway too
Welcome to NC in advance!
I have a small harvest, right freeze dryer, and I put it in my spare bedroom, and I can barely hear it right outside of the bedroom. I don't understand what could be the problem with the sound of these.
You got a good one. Mine is loud! Im moving but my old house was huge and it didnt matter where you were, if it was running you knew.
@@shmodzilla Maybe it's because it's the small one? Most people get the medium size
i would like to know more about raising chickens and turkeys and pheasants
More on that here: homesteadingfamily.com/raising-backyard-egg-laying-chickens/
Azure Standard still charges shipping, just fyi. Cheaper shipping with a drop site, for sure!
Wow. So many things I didn't know about. Right now, I am working with a heat failure on my small freeze dryer and am trying to figure it out, but we have been sick for last week and haven't been able to do it. My grandkids are wanting the skittles and fruit really bad. Oh well, they will just have to wait.
Prefreezing is a preference. The machine is designed to do the entire process without prefreezing. If you have your settings properly set a mess will not happen. I've been freeze drying for a couple years. I mention this because many are discouraged from buying a freeze dryer because they don't have the freezer space to prefreeze.
It’s the cost too!
U save all that time needed to get them to rly cold. Time running = electricity use.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah, it's a trade off and is strictly a preference, as I explained. Purchasing your way to create additional freezer space is an expense as is adding foods to the freezer to freeze. The electricity cost for a freezer is higher when adding food to the freezer to freeze than it is when the freezer is simply maintaining already frozen items.
Additionally, all your standard household freezer is doing is getting your food minimally frozen. The freeze dryer brings the food down to a much cooler temperature (between -30° and -50°F, depending on your settings). It is definitely a shortcut, time wise, but is simply a preference.
@@kimberlyperkins1818it is definitely a preference. We freeze ours first for two reasons, one, we have the space. Two, we're so hot here in the summer we don't have a cool enough place to run our freeze dryer year round so we wait till fall and winter to do it.
I don’t have freezer space so I normally don’t prefreeze, I haven’t really noticed a huge difference in time either.
Carolyn please add the link to pre-order your book. This video didn’t explain what you did wrong when freeze drying the eggs. Could you add that information in a pinned comment? Thank you.
@@NashRambler She didn't check for frozen spots well enough at the end of the run and then stored it.
homesteadliving.com/freeze-drying-the-harvest
Thank you for this! Still trying to convince hubby lol. Have 4 grown boys that live 1-2.5 hrs away. So just the two of us. Hubby isn’t convinced lol
I love this video!!! Ignore the fussy-britches folks. Not every video is for every person. Just pick and choose and scroll on by.
I, for one, am grateful for this video and wish I’d had it in November of ‘23 when I bought my Harvest Right. You have given excellent information that would have saved me tons of frustration as I’ve had to learn things “the hard way.” Or as I call them, “freeze dry failures.” 😮
Thanks for an excellent video!
Thank you!
I would like to pre-order your book but all your links go to things with lots of pop-ups and nothing about pre-ordering the book. The sites are very frustrating.
Here it is: homesteadliving.com/freeze-drying-the-harvest
I think I’ve asked this question before on another video you did when you spoke about the eggs that went bad. Can you tell us what you did wrong so that we don’t make the same mistake? Did you not dry them enough? Did you not put in oxygen absorbers? Did you not store them properly? What went wrong?
Could you freeze dry kefir at 70F? Since 95 will kill off a lot of the prebiotic
Also, when storing in Mylar use an OA. You can do the same when storing in a vacuum sealed jar, especially one that you aren't going to get into for awhile. Maybe I missed you stating this when storing. If I did, I apologize. When I store in jars, I turn them upside down for about a week. I go by and shake them, looking for any moisture. If storing in Mylar, I weigh the bags after I seal them, in grams. A couple of weeks later, I'll weigh again. If the weight is the same, I'm confident my food is completely dry and my bag is sealed properly.
What a great idea before putting things away for the long haul
How are the classes run ? Do you get a link to watch at your own pace and time schedule?
How long do you get to watch the videos?
If you own the class, they are yours to watch anytime you would like. They are self paced classes 😊
I'm happy for those who can afford a freeze drier however, a lot of us can not or are older generation and can't justify the cost. Looking forward to non-freeze drier videos!
YES!! Thank you for voicing that for MANY of us!! God bless!
It is actually still economical to get one even when you're older. You can still prepare bigger meals and freeze dry the leftovers. Buy food when it is on sale and cook up large batches or just save the ingredients. I have one and I wish I had had one when I had the five kids at home but it is still constantly in use right now.
@@cookingwithsuzyduzyin Canada a large is over $7k…..
She does have a ton of videos on different preservation methods and ideas ! They are easy to find👍🏼😉
🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼
Yeah, you might be waiting a while.
They receive a commission on every sale generated through the channel, so it's not in their interests to not keep plugging them.
We bought a freeze dryer last year and don't use it. We've found it to be a lot more difficult to figure out when things are actually done so we've lost food and gave up. I have been thinking of trying again though.
If you want to sell it,,, let me know!
Start simple, canned corn, dont overload. Its a learning process due to humidity, location, elevation ect.
I used to think a freeze dryer would be great, especially when i moved to my retirement home where i could have a good sized garden. The biggest bad point from everything i read was the noise. Because i would purchase long term storage food on sale to accumulate sufficiently for myself and all my children and their families (years worth) i thought it would be massively useful.
After deciding to live off my storage pantry when they forced us to work from home (its only for 3 weeks, right?) when i started to rethink that plan.
I began developing intestinal issues including diarrhea, pain after eating, nausea, etc. at first thinking it was due to chemicals in commercially canned ready to eat foods and stopped eating those and dipped into the long term freeze dried which included both raw freeze dried eggs as well as cooked scrambled eggs.
So many have talked about how it is like eating fresh eggs when reconstituted. While i do seem to have more sensitive taste buds (while many rave about how good duck eggs are or how they cant tell the difference i feel both flavor and texture of duck eggs are totally vile). At first i thought i just needed to adjust water amount. I was wrong. The difference is like the difference between using instant mashed potatoes and mash potatoes made with fresh potatoes.
It didn't improve my digestive issues even with giving it time and checking the ingredients and only using items with no added ingredients. I dropped from a size 30 to a size 24 without a diet which i would have appreciated more if not for the pain.
I finally stopped entirely and while not back to normal i have had to remove highly processed foods from my diet but i havent regained the weight.
Freeze dried strawberries and blueberries will give pain but fresh doesnt bother at all which seems to happen with much of the freeze dried. To me, that means that they are either rinsing fruits and veggies with some chemical to retain coloring or something happens to alter the food molecularily during the process.
I then thought about when the microwave oven came out and how it was touted as the most wonderful tool for the kitchen since the invention of fire. Turns out that wasnt quite true and now more and more homes are getting rid of theirs as they find out more about the potential harm.
Just because i seem to react this way doesnt mean i am right. It could be that i had an underlying condition that coincidentally flared up at that time period. Or i could be one of the many out there who is the proverbially canary in the coal mine exhibiting potential danger if you continue to go deeper into the mine.
Do your own research so you can make a wise purchase. But also monitor your family's health if you choose to purchase one, especially in the first 6 months to a year.
For me, the best emergency food plan is to have lots of seeds stored safely, especially those ripening in 60 days or less, having a fair amount of home canned ingredients and maintain an active garden as much of the year as possible.
JMO
I and many others eat freeze dried food no problem
I think it’s ur system, as u seem to have concluded
I looooove freeze dried anything. The taste is far better than dehydrated. When we’re starving tho, dehydrated will be fine!
@bettypearson5570 I don't think my freeze dryer is any more noiseier than my dishwasher or my washing machine, or my husband's lawnmower! Actually it's quieter than his lawnmower!
Haha I have 2 microwave ovens. My hubby was schooled in that technology and knows it is safe!
@@samanthabloggins1775 I don't use my dishwasher unless I am leaving my house. You may want to either Google or do a search in RUclips about microwave safety or what it does to food. Not saying the information is correct or not but things do change over time. There was a time that everyone thought tobacco, opium, lead added to paint or gasoline, margarine, thalidomide for pregnant women, pesticides and chemical fertilizers on crops and silver amalgam fillings were safe to name a few things.
The truth came out on all of those items and many more. Some took only a few years but some it was 50 or more years.
I'm personally waiting for them to "surprise" us with news that sending sound waves through a pregnant woman's body has effects on the unborn baby's future health (not a fact just a theory with no science to back up).
There are a lot of people much smarter than me who have believed things to be harmless based on what they have learned from the best available science to be safe only to find out years later they were wrong.
when I now hesitate to jump on the freeze dry bandwagon it is based on anecdotal evidence on a group study of 1. Not very scientific. For me, my health issues that coincide and the overly effusive praise of the finished product is enough fore to personally choose to wait a bit longer before putting out that type of money even though it would make putting up food so much quicker and easier and the reality is that no preserved food, whether canned, dehydrated, frozen or freeze dried will have the exact flavor, texture or nutrients as fresh from the garden but we each have to decide what works best for us based on available information. But perhaps also those products I tried had been sprayed with pesticides or herbicides at the commercial farms they came from and I reacted to those trace chemicals rather than the processing.
I do speak up at times on different issues not because I think I'm right and someone else is wrong or just to be difficult, but I think our nature is to trust what the experts tell us and they just aren't always right.
I enjoyed the conversation and hope I haven't offended you or others withy questioning nature.
@@YeshuaKingMessiah definitely a lot tastier than dehydrated. One possibility I didn't mention was that when I talk about the possibility of it being something the prepared items were rinsed with before freeze drying, there is the possibility of there being pesticide or herbicides residue on much of these single items (fruits and veggies) before they are freeze dried since it is doubtful they would have started with organic or non GMO products due to their profit margins.
Glad your home freeze dried goods are working well for you.
@@samanthabloggins1775 he was taught propaganda
Nukers are nuking ur food
Is this freeze drying class different than the one from a few months ago? I bought that one and it’s very informative.
Yes, the class through STS is a different class than this one offered through Homesteading Family. This one will be much more in depth.
Are times varied when you are preparing same foods just different manor? Eg: shredded vs cubed zucchini.
At big farm supply stores, you can buy dryness testers that will tell you in percent moisture whether your corn or soybeans is dry and how dry it is. Fill a cup, push a button to test, and you will know whether that cupful is whatever moisture level. Ought to work for testing the results of a freeze dryer (lyophilizer).
That is a great idea!
People have used lumber/wood humidity testers, but there are pros and cons. Wonder if that would be the same. I've find the best way is checking temperature and then WEIGHING your food and seeing if it continues to drop weight in the drying process
Moisture meters, or any testing device only tests the small amount that it touches. They don't test the whole tray of food, nor the whole freeze dryer batch.
Only the simple "Dry Check" can do that.
As always, keep having Fun freeze drying. 🙂
Can't afford much of anything these days but a book or set of dvds would be great for when the money is available.
I have a feeling it would be a battle to freeze dry properly in the high humidity of the deep south.
I was thinking the same thing, though things might be fine with an oxygen absorber in a canning jar.
@@FineFeatheredHomestead oxygen absorbers do not control humidity.
Absolutely would!!! In NY i only FD'd during winter or cool weeks. When it got humid at first the food never dried. It simply doesnt work in humidity unless you have a good climate control in your house.
@@chloemartel9927 Silica does but it wont fix the issue either.
@shmodzilla it is so humid here that the air has texture.😅 Right now, the sun is blazing, it is 72, and the humidity is at 80%.
I'm so excited and looking forward to this masterclass!!
Ah Carolyn, cut all the sales nonsense and tell us the price of the class. Even after going to your site and signing up to get the info you STILL don't bother to tell us the price? That's RIDICULOUS!
You don't want them to make a living? This is their job. Stop complaining and do your own research or move on rather than criticizing.
When will the book be released? For some reason I cannot find the release date……….
It will release this month.
When will the book be available for pre order on Amazon? The shipping to Canada doubles the price in US on your site.
I really want to order the fd book but the shipping is making me not. I am on the wait list for the masterclass, will the class be something we can save to look back at later or just a 1 time video? Thanks for all you do
Once you own the class, it is your to access forever. It is also self paced.
Is it even possible to freeze dry a large slice of tomato to use later on a sandwich?
Yes!
@@HomesteadingFamily Seriously? I'd love to see that.
Nothing worse than having all these beauties now and nothing in the winter.
@@DustySplinters FD tomatoes slices or halved cherrie tomatoes with alittle italian seasoning on them.. they are amazing.
What if raw freeze dried meat unseals & takes on a touch of humidity. Thinking it has to be thrown away??
yes for sure!
Our tomatoes are just starting to grow now too, they are tricky sometimes.
Ours are not turning red I have tons of beautiful green tomatoes however they just are not turning. I think I’m going to guy back most of the leaves and see if that helps 🫣🤔🙏🏼❤️🙏🏼
@@lisacarden1309 cut the water to your tomatoes until they just start turning red or wilting slightly. As soon as either of these happen water. You want them to think they're dying, but not kill them. Their purpose in life is to reproduce. When stressed they try to set seed. PS I know tomatoes don't "think", but this starts the reaction to force ripening. I live in a short season climate and have to use this to get them to ripen. Several old farmers gave me this hint when I first moved to Utah
The new oil free pumps on the HR freeeze dryers is very quiet. I still wouldn't want it in my kitchen. It would take up too much space. I could have it in my laundry room which is next to. my bedroom, but I have a nice basement where I have 2 freeze dryers. And don't mislead people. You cannot do back to back batches. The chamber must defrost first before you can put another load in. I have heard the exception is with candy. It does have a defrost setting, but I've never used it. I just let it defrost naturally with the door open. It really doesn't take all that long.
The other bad thing is that the pumps rarely last over 3 years. I don't know about the oil pumps because with my failing sight I can't use those any longer so I went to oil free 3 years ago. Theoil free can be referbished. It is expensive (aalmost $400 when I had one done about a year ago). I don't know if the oil pumps can be referbished, but either way if you have to ship it to them it's not cheap or easy. I live an hour away so it isn't a problem for me. My daughter is 3 states away. It will be a problem for her when the pump goes. Still, I would hate to not have one as I've had them for 12 years.
Oh, a good question is how do you store all of your freeze dried food in the mylar bags and organize them. They tend to fall all over the place on shelves and tubs just get too expensive and take up too much room.
I used a single hole punch to punch a hole above the seal line on each mylar bag and hang the bags on a wire hanger that my husband reshaped to hang with a lot of bags.
If you don't need more plain eggs(I don't) cheesy eggs are great for omlets or cheesy scrambled eggs. My adult grandsons come over and take 1/2 gal vacuum packed cheesy eggs. What was the mistake you made with the eggs. I usually run my eggs through the machine twice because I like the freeze dried not rehydrated texture better. I would like to know so I don't have that oroblem
I can fit 18 eggs in each medium freeze dry tray, and they are mostly large. I noticed behind you all your jars. I've always been told you shouldn't expose your canned or freeze-dried food to light. That's why they say to use mylar because it blocks the light?? I also add extra dry time just to be sure it's dry.
Her studio is a lower floor without windows. So all's good. Great point though!
I'm on the wait list for the freeze dryer class. Where do I find it. It was supposed to be the 6th right?
Email us at joshandcarolyn@homesteadingfamily.com so we can help.
You don't ship to Australia? I wanted to order the new freeze dried book but unable to. Thank you.
Trying now to find the link to preorder your book. Can't find it.
Here it is: homesteadliving.com/freeze-drying-the-harvest
I’m waiting for the book I preordered (!)
Confused as to how you don't pay shipping. The only thing I can think of is my acct is for my health food store, so maybe because it's a business acct. I have to pay 8.5% of my order total for shipping.
My Medium Pro Harvest Right freeze dryer was shipped to me for free. I bought it on lay away last November during their black Friday sale. Today, 8/31/24 is the last day to get the sale price on all Harvest Right Freeze Dryers. They're $500 off.
@@KitchenFairy61
I thought she was talking about not paying shipping on the azure orders. Did I misunderstand?
I don't have a business account and still pay shipping to a local drop site.
@@svenholmgren5015 ok, so maybe I misunderstood what she was talking about. I'll have to listen again. 👍
I always having a shipping fee for azure..
Looking forward to all of the jewels of FreezeDrying wisdom in your new book.
I have a question. I'm looking to buy my first FD and the best place for us is in the garage. Will the FD be ok in high temperatures in the summer and cold in the winter. Will it function the same in either environment? I live in Utah.
The machine does not work well in the heat. It is best to keep it in a temperature controlled environment. Ideally, it should be between 45°F (7°C) and 75°F (24°C).
@@HomesteadingFamily You are so kind to get back to me so quickly. I have re-evaluated where I am going to put it, and a new place has been found in the basement, where it is cool and even temperatures as you suggest. Thanks every so much.
such great ideas.
Hi Carolyn! Thank you for your great video. I am fairly new to freeze drying. I am very interested in preordering your new book!! I am not seeing the link. Either I am just missing it, or can you please lead me to it! Thanks bunches!!
Here it is: homesteadliving.com/freeze-drying-the-harvest
@@HomesteadingFamily Thank you I do have it and did a quick little review on my channel. What a great book. It is done so well and beautifully! Thanks for all the work you put into it. It really shows. Such great quality!
How do I get on waitlist for book? Not the masterclass.
Here it is: homesteadliving.com/freeze-drying-the-harvest
You still pay 8 percent of your order for shipping through Azure.
You can see if there is a local drop site close to your home 👍🏼👍🏼
@lisacarden1309 I use a local drop and there is still a shipping charge on any size order.