Brandon Pattison
WKR
http://harvestright.com/home-freeze-dryer-machine/
Very cool but for $4000 I think a dehydrator will work just fine.
Very cool but for $4000 I think a dehydrator will work just fine.
How about the maintenance ?Personally, it has been worth every penny for me. Between hunting, camping, ice-fishing, etc. I’ll go through 50+ meals per year. So in that regard, it pays for itself (in my case) in 5 years or so… beyond that, we have a large garden, and can make all kinds of snacks for kids, etc… also makes it nice for a late night home and need a quick meal…. if making it pay for itself is a concern, one can sell all kinds of novelty items (freeze dried skittles, etc) and turn a decent profit.
… for those that may be interested and are wondering, I get 8 hefty meals per load in the medium harvest right. Also, no need to worry about separating ingredients like dehydrating. Also no concerns with diary, etc. either.
I was thinking to put one in the garage.The biggest problem is that the unit can not run in a hot environment. So freeze drying in a hot garage won’t work. The machine gives you a failure/damage warning. That sucks because that’s when everything one grows, ripens.
We keep ours in the house, so we haven’t had the overheating issue. Maintenance is minimal, with oil changes being the only maintenance we’ve done… we opt to change and filter the oil after every few cycles…. For those that are curious, the “retired at 40” YouTube channel has a lot of good content on the harvest right freeze dryers.How about the maintenance ?
What other things do you and your family freeze dry the most? Ive been back and forth on one of these for a year or so. We have 2 very small children and my main attraction besides backpack hunting meals is easy healthy non perishable food for the kiddos.I have the medium Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and absolutely love it. I can make pretty much any meal into a freeze dried meal for backpacking. When packaged correctly these meals can last for 30 years. Takes a while to pay for itself if all you do is backpacking meals but we have found so many other uses around daily life for freeze dried foods.
Pretty much any fruit you can freeze dry. Our kids love fruit but it seems to go bad if you buy it in bulk before they eat it all. We FD apples, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, etc. after buying in bulk. The kids love it for snacks and it will last forever. We FD yogurts and dairy products. Eggs are great to FD and always have on hand. There are a couple Facebook groups for Harvest Right that plenty of people have plenty of ideas on.What other things do you and your family freeze dry the most? Ive been back and forth on one of these for a year or so. We have 2 very small children and my main attraction besides backpack hunting meals is easy healthy non perishable food for the kiddos.
Unfortunately I’ve been drooling over them for 4 years and the price hasn’t budged. Dehydrated meals were a game changer I can only imagine how awesome freeze drying would be.I'll check in on this thread in another 5 years, maybe they will be affordable by then!
Have you found that if you don't seal the food in air tight packaging soon after FD does it absorb atmospheric moisture and go soft quickly? What's your preferred packaging for different uses?Pretty much any fruit you can freeze dry. Our kids love fruit but it seems to go bad if you buy it in bulk before they eat it all. We FD apples, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, pineapple, etc. after buying in bulk. The kids love it for snacks and it will last forever. We FD yogurts and dairy products. Eggs are great to FD and always have on hand. There are a couple Facebook groups for Harvest Right that plenty of people have plenty of ideas on.