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Quoted: Do you think these are cost effective for anything? Doesn't it cost far more to freeze dry stuff in time+equipment+food then just to buy the food and eat it? Or is this an end of the world prep stuff that people spend a lot of money on, use once or twice, then never use again? Waaaaaaay cheaper than buying pre packaged FD food and you get to dictate what goes in it. |
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Quoted: So $3000 to $6000 to make candy to sell at gun shows? Seems like a waste of money except in very limited circumstances. I was freeze drying 60 eggs for less than $10 a batch 2 years ago. Freeze dried beef is like $60 a can….. I can do it for a quarter of that or less and the food will last the rest of my life… |
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Quoted: set up and running the test batch of wet bread that the manual tells you to run we shall soon see if it does freeze drying things pre-freezing your food in a freezer, if possible, will allow you to get ahead without running your freeze dryer freeze mode as long...just an option. If you are starting to do a lot of food it helps. another thing I do is add additional time to the freeze dryer if Im not gonna be around when its done...when it does finish, if you need more time you can keep the trays warm. There is ice in the chamber so it will begin to rehydrate if you take too long. |
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Quoted: pre-freezing your food in a freezer, if possible, will allow you to get ahead without running your freeze dryer freeze mode as long...just an option. If you are starting to do a lot of food it helps. another thing I do is add additional time to the freeze dryer if Im not gonna be around when its done...when it does finish, if you need more time you can keep the trays warm. There is ice in the chamber so it will begin to rehydrate if you take too long. Quoted: Quoted: set up and running the test batch of wet bread that the manual tells you to run we shall soon see if it does freeze drying things pre-freezing your food in a freezer, if possible, will allow you to get ahead without running your freeze dryer freeze mode as long...just an option. If you are starting to do a lot of food it helps. another thing I do is add additional time to the freeze dryer if Im not gonna be around when its done...when it does finish, if you need more time you can keep the trays warm. There is ice in the chamber so it will begin to rehydrate if you take too long. i thought the manual said it'd freeze again and have it wait on you? not that i care about wet bread but how the hell would you know when something was gonna be finished if it varies with each batch? |
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Quoted: i thought the manual said it'd freeze again and have it wait on you? not that i care about wet bread but how the hell would you know when something was gonna be finished if it varies with each batch? You're not going to know. You'll have to manually check and make sure that the batch is dry when they machine finishes. Sometimes it gets it right, sometimes it doesn't and you'll have to add more dry time. You'll develop a good sense for when batches will finish. And the machine will hold batches for you when they are done. We never put unfrozen food in. We pre-freeze everything. We have lots of freezers though, so it is easy for us. |
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Quoted: You're not going to know. You'll have to manually check and make sure that the batch is dry when they machine finishes. Sometimes it gets it right, sometimes it doesn't and you'll have to add more dry time. You'll develop a good sense for when batches will finish. And the machine will hold batches for you when they are done. We never put unfrozen food in. We pre-freeze everything. We have lots of freezers though, so it is easy for us. Working with industrial grade chambers we froze everything first before loading into the vacuum chamber. Bananas were kept at -30 and the ice creme sandwiches were at -40. Most of the other products were -20. The majority of chamber times were 7-9 hours per run. All dried food was packaged in dehumidified rooms. |
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I took delivery of a Harvest Right medium with Premier pump in May. Ran it a ton the first couple months. Jacked up the electric bill and made me have to source a new supplier to get the bills back down to normal levels. I probably should have done it sooner anyway.  I bought a bunch of plastic air tight 6.5L containers to keep ready to eat stuff like bananas, pineapple, peaches, strawberries, cherries, mixed berries, Skittles, patriotic candy corn (tastes like Bomb Pop), ice cream sandwiches, and a couple other things handy. I had filled all those air tight containers up and was about to start in on storing stuff in Mylar for long term storage when my Avid Armor chamber vacuum sealer took a dump on me. I'm still waiting to get it back. Just before it did, I did my first batch of meat; some cooked pork chops. I marked one bag as a test bag to open in a year and try. I'm constantly looking up videos on how others have handled freeze drying stuff so I can avoid a steeper learning curve. I'm also a little paranoid about being overly cautious with meat and trying to pick up as much information with that as possible. I've got some roasts I picked up on discount at Sam's for when I get my sealer back. I've got some pumpkin pie I was going to slice up into bite size pieces and freeze dry this weekend but things have been too busy. So far I've loved everything about the Harvest Right. It's pretty simple to use and, as mentioned, runs itself when you start it. Personally I always opt for a decent bit of extra dry time, just to be sure. Parchment paper is helpful for keeping stuff from sticking to the trays and making cleanup easier. I've run enough batches through it the pump needed an oil change about 2 months ago. I filtered it no problem but needed to add more to it. It's apparently just mineral oil but since the pump is such an expensive piece of equipment, I just went to TSC and picked up some bottles of the Harvest Right branded oil rather than chancing running plain mineral oil. It's handy they sell some of the accessories. I suggest keeping the door cracked open on it when not in use since there will still be some moisture in there after draining. If you keep the door closed and don't use it for a bit, you will get mold on the food particles that end up in there. Cleaning with a little bleach water cleans it right up. ETA: I'm currently trying to free up some freezer space so I can start pre-freezing stuff and see if I can cut down on run times. |
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Quoted: They are pretty damn proud of those units based on their pricing. Looked at them for a bit. Figure you can only justify the cost if you treat it like a hobby. I can buy 24 years worth of freeze dried stuff before I’d break even. Hahahaha, no, you can’t, lol. Your math has a couple of extra zeros somewhere… |
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Quoted: Hahahaha, no, you can’t, lol. Your math has a couple of extra zeros somewhere… Quoted: Quoted: They are pretty damn proud of those units based on their pricing. Looked at them for a bit. Figure you can only justify the cost if you treat it like a hobby. I can buy 24 years worth of freeze dried stuff before I’d break even. Hahahaha, no, you can’t, lol. Your math has a couple of extra zeros somewhere… That's what I was thinking. The markup on commercial freeze dried from places like Augson Farms is quite high (especially meat items) unless you're only getting stuff from them when it goes on discount. The commercial operations have their place (like with certain products that are more difficult to dry like butter or honey) but, if you're serious about prepping, a freeze dryer very quickly pays for itself. |
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Quoted: That's what I was thinking. The markup on commercial freeze dried from places like Augson Farms is quite high (especially meat items) unless you're only getting stuff from them when it goes on discount. The commercial operations have their place (like with certain products that are more difficult to dry like butter or honey) but, if you're serious about prepping, a freeze dryer very quickly pays for itself.  I was just wondering what kind of starvation diet he was anticipating to survive on $300 or 400 a year for a Decade… |
My top tray didn’t scatter shit. Any ideas as to why? reading back through this thread i know why. your top and bottom trays, being closest to the ice, will be cooler than the others. also, some candy like jolly ranchers and lemon heads need to be heated in an oven first, to get them soft enough gummies are wild. some brands work, some don't, you've just got to figure out what does and doesn't i don't care to sell any candy at this point so all i'll do that i think is good enough to warrant a run is bit-o-honey and salt water taffy, those are great freeze dried |
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Quoted: My top tray didn’t scatter shit. Any ideas as to why? https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/30587/IMG_5721-3042357.jpg This is why commercial Lyophilizers use temperature sensors on all shelfs. |
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Quoted: Got a scheels close by? Quoted: Quoted: What’s the cost to enter this realm these days? I’ve had the idea to get into this for a long time, haven’t priced it out in 15+ years. Got a scheels close by? Quoted: ok, gather round. you know that mountain house deal that we all jumped on earlier? and you know that fridge overflowing with thanksgiving shit? know how most of it is gonna end up thrown away? it doesn't have to be. in fact, you could eat that green bean casserole 25yrs from now if you wanted to. and here's how you can do it on the cheap... freeze dry that shit. scheels already has these at the lowest prices they are anywhere but they're offering a $200 gift card with both of the medium and large size freeze driers https://www.scheels.com/p/harvest-right-home-pro-freeze-dryer-size-medium-%285-tray%29/85487700886.html#q=harvest%2Bright&lang=en_US&start=1 https://www.scheels.com/p/harvest-right-home-pro-freeze-dryer-size-large-%286-trays%29/85487700889.html#q=harvest%2Bright&lang=en_US&start=2 but wait, there's more! ebates is 10% back at scheels right now so that's another $270 or $340 back, respectively it shows in store pickup only for me and the nearest one is 8 hours away so if you don't already have ebates, use my referral link. you'll get $40, i'll get $40 and my $40 will help offset the one i just brought home from tractor supply http://www.rakuten.com/r/TEXRDN?eeid=28187 voila, now that green bean casserole has the potential to last longer than we will https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/30587/IMG_5708-3040103.jpg Hundreds of miles away. But ~$2600 isn’t too bad on the pricing. |
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Quoted: Freeze dried candy is the newest farmers market side job out here. We did that last year. But then out Harvest Right quit holding a vacuum. I’m pretty sure it had to do with their candy mode software upgrade. In short, that mode used more heat than freezing, I’m almost certain it created leaks. Haven’t got around to fixing it yet. |
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Got the Harvest Right cooling down and about to put a run of cherries and strawberries in. Attached File Sam's and Costco's frozen fruit are great for freeze drying. Minimal processing, reasonably priced, already frozen. For pineapple, I like using GFS's #10 canned chunks: Attached File I haven't tried any of their other canned fruits. The bananas, apples, peaches, and pears I've done were all fresh but I'd like to see how the frozen/canned varieties turn out. |
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Quoted: Pro-tip for fresh fruit like grapes-Sandwich them between two plates and run a knife between to slice them in half in batches. It’s really hard to get water thru the skin of a fruit or vegetable-they have to be opened. Good point. That's another reason I like the frozen cherries. They've been mechanically pitted already so they're opened up. Let someone else's big, purpose built machine make your life a little easier for not much more money. (I do have a cherry pitter for when my fruit trees mature and start producing.) Unrelated pro tip: If you have your freeze dryer in the house in a common area (mine is in my kitchen until the walk in laundry/pantry is built down the road), running it in the Winter will help cut down on your heating bill! Normally running mine I typically have to have a fan on it or I get a warm room warning on screen. Not so now! |
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we have had ours for some time. We freeze dry mostly eggs and milk from our homestead (but buy bulk and FD that too) had good luck with turkey breakfast sausage too I also at time buy whole milk on sale and FD it/ Greatest thing ever and we just bought a chamber vac to store more. Milk I drank this week was from a few years ago  Our house is solar/ battery so we don't use much in the winter. Summer time we crank it out. |
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Quoted: we have had ours for some time. We freeze dry mostly eggs and milk from our homestead (but buy bulk and FD that too) had good luck with turkey breakfast sausage too I also at time buy whole milk on sale and FD it/ Greatest thing ever and we just bought a chamber vac to store more. Milk I drank this week was from a few years ago Our house is solar/ battery so we don't use much in the winter. Summer time we crank it out. I want to try eggs. And you're right, a chamber vac is a good companion to a freeze dryer. Thankfully I should have mine back from Avid Armor Sunday! |
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Quoted: There were a few things that were inconvenient about keeping it running, mostly that you have to be Johnny on the spot when it finishes a cycle to use the time efficiently-that might mean pulling food out before leaving for work at 5am. You can temorarily store the product in zip lock bags, but especially on humid months you can’t afford to wait too many days before packing in Mylar bags or the food sucks up water from the air. Then there is the noise-the novelty wears off quick and you won’t want to keep it in the kitchen. Your power bills will go up about $1.50 a batch, but what does a #10 can of meat cost from online suppliers? $55? now that i've done a few batches i can speak on these things 1) when you start a cycle, add extra drying time and then it'll just sit there and wait on you, it's not like it can dry out too much. i've been adding 18 hours because i can't see any scenario where i can't deal with a batch in that amount of time 2) can't speak to the old style oil pump or the oilless pump but this premier thing is WAY quieter than i expected it to be |
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Quoted: My top tray didn’t scatter shit. Any ideas as to why? https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/30587/IMG_5721-3042357.jpg ok, on this there is indeed a learning curve top and bottom shelves are closer to the ice so don't get as hot and gummies need more heat than say the skittles do |
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Home Depot table lasts longer than cart This is a work bench which has wheels, and is height adjustable. Stout wood surface and drawers for accessories etc. |
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Quoted: Well in a middle of FD run we just got this.... https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/102712/IMG_20231205_160641151_HDR_jpg-3050400.JPG according to a quick check of the internets you can try to check the tray plug-in, update the software... or it might be a board that went tits-up |
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Quoted: didn't want to overtake the deals thread, so chime in if you've got one, used one or know anything about them @BLK_MAJK i know you've got one, i just seent it. show moar pics, tell moar about what you know. as for me, i just bought one, know nothing about them other than what i've seen on youtube and bought from mountain house/augason farms/etc... https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/30587/IMG_5708-3040103.jpg Welcome! Good shit, some items take forever depending on their water contend and if they are already frozen or not. The HR bag sealer is shite, a cheapie vacuum sealer from Amazon will work way better. Get a few rolls of freeze dry bag rolls and make your own. The HR bags are nice but pricey. Not everything will need a oxygen absorber, but for bulky dried products, it can help. Youll eventually need to find vacuum leaks and reseal them with silicone. Its not a matter of if, but when. Not terrible, but annoying. No, warranty wont do dick unless its a large failure. IF you got the premium pump, the seal WILL leak. Apparently the internals are robust, but the seal holding the reservoir to the pump body eventually leaks. IF the pump is run with an external leak, your arear where your set up will smell like burned oil when it gets up to temp. The Britta filter for the vac pump oil is a joke. just get new mineral oil and treat it like an oil change on your car. Be careful..... freeze drying yogurt, bananas, strawberries and ice cream WILL make you do it twice. Not because it sucks at it. No, its actually fucking amazing. You'll just eat the first few batches that come out before you can store them.... |
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Quoted: Someone local is selling 2 medium Harvestright's for $1500 for both. He said both need new display screens. Someone could probably make a side business out of buying broken harvest rights, refurbishing them so that they actually work like they should then reselling them. |
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Quoted: In a vacuum I can still smell those serranos, hell of a stout batch https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/30587/IMG_5734-3046312.jpg You're not using an insulator in your hatch? |
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Quoted: Home Depot table lasts longer than cart This is a work bench which has wheels, and is height adjustable. Stout wood surface and drawers for accessories etc. Hah I hauled one of these home 2 weeks ago specifically for mine as well. It's perfect. I'm going to fabricate a couple mounts to go below the drawers, one for my drain bucket, another for the vacuum pump. |
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