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I just purchased a high-capacity freeze dryer because I haven"t been happy with the rate of progress I have been making with my three Excalibur dehydrators. This will be my first foray into freeze drying. Have any of you done this yet, and if so, got any tips? It will be about five weeks before I get the freeze dryer as they have a bit of a production backlog. This is the model I bought:

https://harvestright.com/product/home-f ... p=oil-pump

I partnered in a commercial freeze drying proposed plant (providing the real estate), then helped set up a later version of the plant. I’ve toured a few different FD plants in China and Canada, plus a huge refrigeration equipment factory that makes FD machines. My friend is the father of freeze dry in China and 4 more friends are FD engineers. I don’t know about home scale plants but I can say that packaging is key to longevity of what you freeze dry. Good sealed packaging will let the food be good for up to 30 years. Amazing technology that preserves the vitamins amd nutrition of fresh food for a long time.

There are other reasons to freeze dry other then long term food security/ preppimg. Try freeze drying ice cream bars and eating them. Freeze dried pet treats are a growing business - super convinient. Freeze drying for camping is another good use.

But does something freeze dried retain the original taste or does that vary quite a bit from one food item to another?

Interesting. But you can buy a lot of commercial freeze dried food for the cost of one of those.

Yes freeze dried foods retain their taste very well. The science behind it is that the water is sublimed out without cooking the food.

68Camaro wrote:Interesting. But you can buy a lot of commercial freeze dried food for the cost of one of those.

A lot of freeze-dried or dehydrated food marketed for "preppers" tends to be loaded with salt or other additives. I want to be in control of what goes into my food, as well as own the tools that I will use to get my food ready for a long, happy stay in the bunker.

Nickelless wrote:

68Camaro wrote:Interesting. But you can buy a lot of commercial freeze dried food for the cost of one of those.

A lot of freeze-dried or dehydrated food marketed for "preppers" tends to be loaded with salt or other additives. I want to be in control of what goes into my food, as well as own the tools that I will use to get my food ready for a long, happy stay in the bunker.

Sure, I get it. And a lot of the "processed" freeze dried foods (meals) do contain a lot of additives. But with a few exceptions and because my wife has a lot of issues with processed food and specific additives, I tend to buy FD "ingredients". Corn, peas, broccoli, green beans, onions, potatoes, chicken breast, ground beef, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, apples, etc. Then I cook dishes with those.

Also considering the number of farmers markets in my area, there will be no shortage of fresh produce for me to purchase for the freeze dryer. Supporting local growers is very high on my list of considerations.

Well keep us up to date please - I'm very interested to hear how well it works and how happy you are with the reconstituted product. Maybe you could sell some items on here so we can find out how well a home system works? I would buy some trial packs from you to help me decide if I want to follow your footsteps.

68Camaro wrote:Interesting. But you can buy a lot of commercial freeze dried food for the cost of one of those.

Well, not that much. Have you tried to buy any lately? Its pretty pricey.

Lemon Thrower wrote:

68Camaro wrote:Interesting. But you can buy a lot of commercial freeze dried food for the cost of one of those.

Well, not that much. Have you tried to buy any lately? Its pretty pricey.

That's a fair question, and the answer is no - most of what I have I bought 4 to 10 years ago. So I just looked at some prices and yikes - a lot of stuff is 2x or more what I paid for it. (And you don't seem to be able to get single-items in a number of things that I previously bought - like cherries and cranberries, though that may be more due to season of the year - maybe some things are just out of stock this time of year.) So yes, prices have gone up a lot. But some stuff is still not much more expensive (currently corn is only slightly more than I paid), and if you hit the sales when they offer them and buy cases rather than single cans (most of what I bought was during bulk sales, so my cost comparison is below what the normal-then prices were), you can still buy a fair amount of reasonable long-term storage stock. If I was going to freeze-dry my own food, I would focus on what I could get locally that was most cost-effective, and still buy the stuff that was available cheaply in bulk.

In my area, we have several produce auctions. Their customers are mainly produce markets and stands. However, you can go there and buy very economically. I once bought 6 bushels of bell peppers for $12. Another time I bought 50 huge heads of cauliflower for $35. Each time was more than we needed, but we preserved all we could stand to do and then resold the rest to like minded neighbors. The amazing thing to me is that most of the people buying are the local stands. You think they are growing their own, but in a lot of cases they are not. We sell pumpkins and squash. One time our acorn squash did not grow. I wanted some for my stand. I was able to buy 300 of them for $.15 each. I recommend finding one and taking a trip. If you like austions, it is a fun time.

Interesting! I don't believe there are any produce auctions in FL that I'm aware of. Just googled the topic and don't see any - livestock auctions galore, but none for produce. I see that there are others in other states, though. Great idea!

knibloe wrote:In my area, we have several produce auctions. Their customers are mainly produce markets and stands. However, you can go there and buy very economically. I once bought 6 bushels of bell peppers for $12. Another time I bought 50 huge heads of cauliflower for $35. Each time was more than we needed, but we preserved all we could stand to do and then resold the rest to like minded neighbors. The amazing thing to me is that most of the people buying are the local stands. You think they are growing their own, but in a lot of cases they are not. We sell pumpkins and squash. One time our acorn squash did not grow. I wanted some for my stand. I was able to buy 300 of them for $.15 each. I recommend finding one and taking a trip. If you like austions, it is a fun time.

Almost no one at those farmers markets are actual farmers. You can tell because they are selling out of a card board box.

The auctions are not a bad idea. Grocery stores have a lag in getting produce to the consumer because of their warehouse/supply chain. So they need produce pre-fresh. Produce that is already fresh is going to spoil before the consumer gets it home. So it you can use the food now, and auction makes sense; just don't expect a long shelf life.

68Camaro wrote:Well keep us up to date please - I'm very interested to hear how well it works and how happy you are with the reconstituted product. Maybe you could sell some items on here so we can find out how well a home system works? I would buy some trial packs from you to help me decide if I want to follow your footsteps.

I plan to put together a few videos once I get everything set up. I will be sure to post links!

Lemon Thrower wrote:Almost no one at those farmers markets are actual farmers. You can tell because they are selling out of a card board box.

You may very well be right since this is often the case. However I worked on a farm for many years and we picked many things directly into cardboard boxes, and sorted other items into them to take to areas to sell outside of the stand we had at the edge of the farm. Additionally we bought a limited number of things, like peaches in boxes from an orchard. So I wouldnt assume just because they use boxes that they didnt grow it even if that is often true. Just ask them. Most are honest.

Kinda shocked rich couldnt find food auctions in FL. We had them up in ohio. (ranchers down here in NM not so many growers in the area I live away from the rio grande) You could sometimes get entire pallets of food for basically nothing. I saw this one amish lady buy all the ignored lots with lower quality stores didnt want or even some slightly past prime presumably for canning and such. She bought an insane amount of food for next to nothing. One deal I remember was a pallet of older looking sweet corn for 7 bucks and a pallet of apples for like 10. Granted she must have had a team behind her to process and can so much food before it wasnt good but it was still impressive.

We have been talking about getting a freeze dryer but the 2500 or so price stung a little. Was actually wondering if we could do it as a business. Get a cabin license and charge people to dehydrate their food they bring you. Much cheaper than buying those 25yr prepper buckets and the people know what they are getting since they made it!
D

Bought boxes of various Mountain House pouches 10 years ago. At least 2 years worth. The newer Mountain House products are good, but not as tasty as the older products. Glad I bought that stuff when I did, their prices have almost doubled since then.