Prep Genrl Harvest Right Freeze Dryers

Old Gringo

Senior Member
Do any of you have a Harvest Right freeze dryer?

If so, what types of things do you freeze dry?
Just got ours a bit ago.
Planning on freeze drying excess from garden. Thinking of startng on freezer meat that might be close to expiraon date. Pre-frozen items save time in process. One nice thing is fresh seasoning. Basal, chives, cilintra (can't spell that) Flavor is better than dried. Let us know how you do.
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
Old Gringo - We have done 3 batches of 72 eggs (each batch) of raw eggs -- blended. Can you say we are over run with fresh free range eggs? ;) Also 2 batches of 8 lbs of hot sausage that has been crumbled and browned, a couple of hams, and some mock tenders that were precooked, as well as probably 8 lbs of cheddar cheese now.

I am wanting to try things like fried rice, and possibly chili. Looking for tons of ideas.

I can't wait until the garden comes in this year. :D
 

Jackpine Savage

Veteran Member
I was going to start a thread on this!

We've had ours going for a month or so. So far off the top of my head we've done eggs, mashed potatoes, venison steaks (A+), shredded cheddar, asparagus, tomato paste, clementines, garlic, and onions.

How are you storing your dried food? We've been vacuum sealing in canning jars but have been having a hard time getting jars to seal and stay sealed. We've tried used lids, new lids, and Tattlers. Also tried heating the lids with a heat gun.
 

school marm

Senior Member
I've had mine for six or seven weeks now. While we're excited to try FDing a lot of fruits, the main impetus for getting it was to FD meat, dairy, and eggs for my insulin-dependent husband so that he can reduce the amount of insulin he takes when really challenging times hit us.

So far we have done eggs, sour cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, cheddar, swiss, mozzarella, colby-jack cheeses, ice cream. Bacon, pulled pork, French dip. Mushrooms, bell peppers, kiwi, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, pineapple. Ham and vegetable linguine.

Today I cooked up hamburger and that will get FDed tomorrow.
 

Carlyblue

Veteran Member
I have looked at the Harvest Right freeze dryers. I see they have 3 different size units. What size did you purchase?
 

Thunderbird

Veteran Member
We freeze dried strawberries, pineapple, apples, peaches, cherries, cooked steak, ham, breakfast omelets, onions, potatoes. Almost anything. Warning we had no luck at all with salad dressing/mayonnaise anything.
 

EYW

Veteran Member
We freeze dried strawberries, pineapple, apples, peaches, cherries, cooked steak, ham, breakfast omelets, onions, potatoes. Almost anything. Warning we had no luck at all with salad dressing/mayonnaise anything.
It's the oil in those products.
 

Thunderbird

Veteran Member
We had the middle sized unit. fine for a small family. For a group buy I would get the larger one, I have no suggestions on how to share it. I do not understand the smaller one.
 

Broken Arrow

Heathen Pagan Witch
We have the small size FD'er, and I run milk, both store and raw, veggies, including onions, garlic, potato's, and any canned veggies that are at their expiration date. I've also done left overs from dinners, and I intentionally make double batches of some things so I can FD them. Eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, regular cheese, fruit, bone broth into powder to drink one cup at a time, ice cream, grilled chicken, and chinese food. Some things do not store well for long term. I've found that meat products start to go rancid within about 6 months. High sugar, and high fat foods do not really do very well.
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
I have looked at the Harvest Right freeze dryers. I see they have 3 different size units. What size did you purchase?
We purchased the Medium. Figured that would be more than enough for this household. Saying that, we are also thinking about a cottage industry possibly with it.
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
I was going to start a thread on this!

We've had ours going for a month or so. So far off the top of my head we've done eggs, mashed potatoes, venison steaks (A+), shredded cheddar, asparagus, tomato paste, clementines, garlic, and onions.

How are you storing your dried food? We've been vacuum sealing in canning jars but have been having a hard time getting jars to seal and stay sealed. We've tried used lids, new lids, and Tattlers. Also tried heating the lids with a heat gun.

We have done the ham and the mock tenders in the bags that they included. Everything else we have done in mainly half gallon mason jars, and have a few quarts. As far as sealing our jars, we have the wide mouth jar attachment for our food saver, but actually use a brake bleeder (search for youtube videos on this), to seal the jars. They have been sealed real good, and we haven't had any fail. We got to 20lbs on the brake bleeder to duplicate what the food saver does. Our food saver doesn't suck much anymore, and the replacement doesn't have the correct hole for the hose for the jar sealer.

How did the asparagus go? I want to do some onions and garlic. Was the tomato paste good and did you powder it?
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
We freeze dried strawberries, pineapple, apples, peaches, cherries, cooked steak, ham, breakfast omelets, onions, potatoes. Almost anything. Warning we had no luck at all with salad dressing/mayonnaise anything.
I believe the issue with the salad dressings and mayonnaise is the oil as that doesn't seem to FD. Chocolate is another from what we have heard.
 

Jackpine Savage

Veteran Member
We have done the ham and the mock tenders in the bags that they included. Everything else we have done in mainly half gallon mason jars, and have a few quarts. As far as sealing our jars, we have the wide mouth jar attachment for our food saver, but actually use a brake bleeder (search for youtube videos on this), to seal the jars. They have been sealed real good, and we haven't had any fail. We got to 20lbs on the brake bleeder to duplicate what the food saver does. Our food saver doesn't suck much anymore, and the replacement doesn't have the correct hole for the hose for the jar sealer.

How did the asparagus go? I want to do some onions and garlic. Was the tomato paste good and did you powder it?

Thanks for the tip on the brake bleeder, I'll check that out!

The asparagus took about 36 hours. I don't know if I like it for a dry snack, we still haven't rehydrated any yet.

The tomato paste looks like it worked OK, we did powder it in the food processor. Just did that a couple days ago and haven't used it yet.
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
Jackpine - Be sure to buy a new brake bleeder. Hubby does that for me, as if I do that type of things with my hand, I will get trigger thumb. Had it a couple times, and it takes me about 18 months to get back to normal, so I try to not do things I KNOW will trigger it.
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
I believe the issue with the salad dressings and mayonnaise is the oil as that doesn't seem to FD. Chocolate is another from what we have heard.
We have the large unit. I highly recommend getting the oil-free vacuum pump.

I'm told that anything with a significant amount of fats in it (as in oils or uncooked hamburger, etc) will not process properly. The same issue is what prevents the chocolate, I guess. One thing which didn't turn out worth a darn was doing some gummy bears; that was a waste of time, I thought, other than they weren't sticky like fresh ones are.

We've done lots of cooked burger and it turns out great. We've also freeze-dried a bunch of stews and such; those turn out real nice and light but we haven't rehydrated any of them yet.

Rabbit meat freeze-dries up real nicely; we've gone completely to that instead of canning it. Mrs. Walrus did some sliced onions a while back and we haven't tried any of those either; the reason for not trying those things is that we're building up the stores of FD in case we have to boogie; the light foods will significantly increase the amount of food we can haul if we're load-limited (read: amount of excess notice).

I take that back about the rabbit; we have made some stews and casseroles with the FD meat and they did real well.
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
Running a 4 tray unit.

Everything goes into mylar bags.

So far, we've been concentrating on the first things that might become unavailable...fresh foods.

Mostly the ingredients that you want to make normally plain foods better, onion, celery, carrots, etc.

I do pick up 93/7 ground beef when it's marked down, brown it and FD.

Did a bag of potatoes, ran 'em through a french fry cutter first to get a uniform thickness.

As a general rule, we avoid things that store well enough on the shelf, pasta easily available can goods and such.


Definitely still learning about the particulars of the process.
 

Kathy in FL

Administrator
_______________
Jackpine - Be sure to buy a new brake bleeder. Hubby does that for me, as if I do that type of things with my hand, I will get trigger thumb. Had it a couple times, and it takes me about 18 months to get back to normal, so I try to not do things I KNOW will trigger it.

My mother has trigger finger ... but it is her middle finger and not her thumb. My grandfather, her father, had it as well. So did his father, my mom's grandfather. A couple other people in the family from that line tend to get it as well. Makes me think it is a hereditary thing. All I know is that Mom says it hurts and that I don't want it.
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
Kathy
My mother has trigger finger ... but it is her middle finger and not her thumb. My grandfather, her father, had it as well. So did his father, my mom's grandfather. A couple other people in the family from that line tend to get it as well. Makes me think it is a hereditary thing. All I know is that Mom says it hurts and that I don't want it.
Kathy -

Mine is DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis and is from overuse strain of the thumb (for me at least). Many of the activities that I do put an extreme amount of pressure on the thumb, and when I do them for long periods of time it will start to irritate the tendon. It was so bad the first time I got it, that I couldn't even hold a pencil let alone a coffee cup. As the years have passed, it seems like it takes less and less to get it flared up. We are working outside a lot right now since it is warmer to clean up more of the massive damage to the trees from a freak ice storm at the end of October, and I ahve been carrying small limbs and/or dragging them. That is putting tremendous pressure on the thumb tendon.

Getting older totally blows sometimes.
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
As a general rule, we avoid things that store well enough on the shelf, pasta easily available can goods and such.
I listened to a presentation day before yesterday in which the guy made an interesting comment about freeze-drying pasta. He pointed out that things such as pasta, rice, beans - what have you - will rehydrate much faster after having been FD than cooking the same from scratch and only require boiling water poured in. I hadn't thought about that. Also, the mylar pouches can be cut in half and used as bowls in a pinch.

After considering it for a bit, I concluded that it made sense in a couple of specific cases: 1. Where your fuel supply is precious or difficult to replace, and 2. If you're on the move and don't want to take as long to shut down and eat or otherwise expose your site by cooking smells which would give away your location.

I was all hung up on whether or not said pasta, etc. should first be cooked before FD - silly me, eh! Of course it should.

Am I missing something? Are there other good reasons to FD things which we would normally store as shelf staples?
 

Millwright

Knuckle Dragger
_______________
I listened to a presentation day before yesterday in which the guy made an interesting comment about freeze-drying pasta. He pointed out that things such as pasta, rice, beans - what have you - will rehydrate much faster after having been FD than cooking the same from scratch and only require boiling water poured in. I hadn't thought about that. Also, the mylar pouches can be cut in half and used as bowls in a pinch.

After considering it for a bit, I concluded that it made sense in a couple of specific cases: 1. Where your fuel supply is precious or difficult to replace, and 2. If you're on the move and don't want to take as long to shut down and eat or otherwise expose your site by cooking smells which would give away your location.

I was all hung up on whether or not said pasta, etc. should first be cooked before FD - silly me, eh! Of course it should.

Am I missing something? Are there other good reasons to FD things which we would normally store as shelf staples?

I guess it depends on your projected use.

At some point, maybe I'll try some cooked meals.

There was a deal on Mountain House buckets of pouches a few years ago, that's my grab-n-go stash for now.

An unavailability of "fresh" ingredients is my main target.


Also, how long does a batch of eggs take to run?

That's a lot of water to pull out.
 
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Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
We just took a load (3 trays) of cooked chicken breast out that I had cut up into bite sized pieces. It was about 8 pieces total, and we put into 2 of the mylar bags. Also, I had a tray of pepper jack cheese that I grated. It filled a quart jar. I believe it was a pound maybe a pound and a half of cheese. I tasted it, and it probably won't last long. ;) The chicken was delicious too.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
We have the small size FD'er, and I run milk, both store and raw, veggies, including onions, garlic, potato's, and any canned veggies that are at their expiration date. I've also done left overs from dinners, and I intentionally make double batches of some things so I can FD them. Eggs, sour cream, cottage cheese, regular cheese, fruit, bone broth into powder to drink one cup at a time, ice cream, grilled chicken, and chinese food. Some things do not store well for long term. I've found that meat products start to go rancid within about 6 months. High sugar, and high fat foods do not really do very well.
I think you'd need to vacuum pack (or refrigerate/ freeze) meats for long term.

Summerthyme
 

Broken Arrow

Heathen Pagan Witch
I think you'd need to vacuum pack (or refrigerate/ freeze) meats for long term.

Summerthyme
Ive put some in the freezer and it stays ok, but it can pick up moisture in there too. Its just a sad fact that meats with fat still on them dont last very long, even if you trim it really well, or in the case of hamburger, rinse it with hot water to get the grease off, it will go rancid.
 

moldy

Veteran Member
I like my FD, but I really don't use it as much as I thought I would. Guess I'm just old-school!!
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
We used it hot and heavy when we first got it, and probably have about 300 eggs put up. I've done ground sausage (cooked), cheese (delicious just FD), asparagus, bell peppers, carrots, broccoli, peas, ham, and pork loin. I've been busy outside and haven't put in a load in for a bit.

I plan on using it while the temperature is still relatively cool. Somehow, I doubt I'll run it that much when the temps get around 100. I'd rather my electric use go to the AC during those times. I'm sure I'll be putting up some harvest out of the garden this year, and can't wait to do that. In the meantime, if I see great sales on items, I will be putting them up.

Oh, if you have a Winco around, look and see if you can find your oxygen absorbers there, as I found a 50 pack of 300cc for a song. I didn't see any mylar bags, but most things we are putting up in half gallon jars.

I did do a load of skittles just because I heard people raving about them. Apparently, they are a hot item to sell. I didn't buy mine for a cottage industry, so won't be doing them again (we don't eat that junk).

If ever I were to do a cottage industry, it would probably be eggs. ;)
 

Sneaker 11

RECONDO
I put a deposit on one a few years ago, but backed off purchasing as I read comments about compressor problems. Can anyone fill me in on what is happening of late with this issue? Thanks

11
 

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I listened to a presentation day before yesterday in which the guy made an interesting comment about freeze-drying pasta. He pointed out that things such as pasta, rice, beans - what have you - will rehydrate much faster after having been FD than cooking the same from scratch and only require boiling water poured in. I hadn't thought about that. Also, the mylar pouches can be cut in half and used as bowls in a pinch.

After considering it for a bit, I concluded that it made sense in a couple of specific cases: 1. Where your fuel supply is precious or difficult to replace, and 2. If you're on the move and don't want to take as long to shut down and eat or otherwise expose your site by cooking smells which would give away your location.

I was all hung up on whether or not said pasta, etc. should first be cooked before FD - silly me, eh! Of course it should.

Am I missing something? Are there other good reasons to FD things which we would normally store as shelf staples?
Wouldn't a regular food dehydrator work just as well for pasta and rice?
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
Wouldn't a regular food dehydrator work just as well for pasta and rice?
No reason it wouldn't. I think that's a really good question and am glad you brought it up.

If I may have a Clintonian moment to parse words, though, "it all depends on what is the meaning of work".

What I mean by that is that a dehydrator has to heat up the food to dehydrate it. I'm experienced but certainly am no expert on food prep for storage, but I'm told that the difference between dehydrating and freeze-drying food is generally one in which the finished product from freeze-drying retains a lot more of its nutritional value as well as appearance.

But say that's true, so what would be the caveats? I can think of a couple: 1) if nutritional value isn't such a big deal as is the need for obtaining maximum calories, and 2) if the food is pre-cooked and then processed, it may have lost a bunch of its inherent nutrition in the cooking. Particularly if you think of pasta and rice, they're intended to add bulk and calories to a meal, not so much for their nutritional value.

So is the difference negligible for things like pasta and rice, or is it significant? I have to admit I don't really know the answer to that.

Edited to add: Most of our pasta and rice storage is done in vacuum-packed mylar and is not cooked.
 
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amazon

Veteran Member
I'm considering purchasing one. Do any of you have a favorite resource for learning about it? Also, how long does it take to process a batch?
 

Walrus

Veteran Member
The operating manual for it is very good and their customer service people are well-experienced themselves.

it depends. 18 to as much as 36 hours, longer on a few things which were real watery.

I highly recommend upgrading to the oilless vacuum pump if you can when you buy the unit.
 

school marm

Senior Member
How does the cream cheese do? I would love to do some and powder, but was wondering how the fat would work in that. I suppose no different than other cheeses?
Just out of the FD, it tastes great. I've only had my FD for a few months, so I don't know how long FD cream cheese will last.
 

Donna_in_OK

Veteran Member
Caught a sweet sale on some 93/7 ground beef. Ran a full load of it. :D Have done a couple loads of chicken. It will be getting to hot VERY soon for me to feel comfortable running the FD without running the risk of doing damage, so I may have to lay off until after labor day. :( [Well, except when there is a load of eggs... Those HAVE to get processed.]

Have you been using your FD as much as you thought? I should start to get some things out of the garden soon, and will probably process and get in the pre-freeze state until it a) gets cooler and b) I have enough of something to run a full batch (think bell peppers). Wishing it were still cool so that I could run it daily.
 

bbbuddy

DEPLORABLE ME
Jackpine - Be sure to buy a new brake bleeder. Hubby does that for me, as if I do that type of things with my hand, I will get trigger thumb. Had it a couple times, and it takes me about 18 months to get back to normal, so I try to not do things I KNOW will trigger it.


Pump n seal gets a much higher vacuum than a brake bleeder or vacuum sealer.
Non electric, no need to use your thumb.
Pump-N-Seal® Food Saver Vacuum Sealer - Fastest vacuum sealer for marinating - Food Saver - Long Term Food Storage

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj7OjgiiuCI&feature=emb_rel_end
 
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