Freeze Dryer

I'm really excited to do this post! I have long been obsessed with food storage and preparedness! I'm not sure why and it's not a bad thing, it has just always really interested me and I have always been keenly aware of how important it is to have a good amount of food storage. If stocking and organizing pantries was something I could do as a job, (I would never pick that over being a mother and wife), but it sure sounds fun! So I had been researching the freeze dryer for a good year before I finally convinced myself that it was time to just dive in and do it! It was scary for a lot of reasons, mainly the cost, but it's a calculated risk that you as a family have to decide if it is worth it or not to be able to create your own food storage. Whether or not it actually worked was another concern and whether or not the end product was as good as people say was another concern as well. Well I'm here to tell you right now that I am so glad we took the leap of faith to go ahead and purchase one! I have no regrets and am still convinced it is one of THE coolest inventions ever! I have 4 containers full of food storage that I have done myself and it is all my own cooking with ingredients that I purchased. No looking at packages and cans wondering what the heck is in the food you are eating or will be eating if things go south! Just in case you don't know what a freeze dryer is or what it is capable of I'll give you a little lesson.

1. Raw or cooked foods are placed in the freeze dryer where they are frozen to between -30 degrees and -50 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Once frozen, the freeze dryer creates a vacuum in the food chamber.
3. As the food is gradually warmed, the water turns to vapor and evaporates out of the food (sublimation).
4. When dry, the freeze dryer notifies the user that the process is complete by sounding an audible beep.
5. You can then remove the freeze dried food from the dryer and place it in vacuum-sealed containers that are moisture and oxygen proof (preferably a mylar pouch or a can) to ensure freshness until opened.
6. When water is added to the food, it regains its original fresh flavor, aroma, texture, and appearance!

There are some things that you are better off eating freeze dried instead of trying to rehydrate it with water, but for the most part it is really that simple! I have had so much fun trying all sorts of different foods and meals. There has been a lot of trial and error and some big learning curves especially with the maintenance that the vacuum pump requires, but to me it is worth it and it has been fun to educate myself and learn something new. To know that I am becoming better prepared to feed my family and to possibly help others in need if I am able is a really good feeling. I have learned a lot and with everything new and different that I try in it I am still learning. I love talking about it (I would be a great salesman for them!) So basically what I'm trying to say is if you are at all interested in them or just have questions about them I would be happy to take any of your phone calls or emails about them. I won't try and talk you into buying one, but the only thing I wish before I had bought one and was interested in buying one was just being able to talk to someone who has one and had used it a lot. Just to be able to pick someones brain in that situation would have been nice. I went into it pretty blind, sure I had researched ALL I could about it, but still didn't really know what I was getting myself into. So seriously, if you are thinking of getting one or just want to know more about one please let me be the person who's brain you pick if you don't know of anyone esle who has one, I would be happy to talk to you about it! I'll show a few pictures of things I have done. These pictures are of my very first batches of food. As I have done it more I forget to get my camera out, but I do have a few of my first week using it. 

This was my very first batch. There was yogurt drops, pudding drops, apples and some leftovers from the night before. You actually put a pad over the food before you start it. Youa aren't able to see the food as it is in there.

I had the perfect place in my laundry room for the whole setup, but found out quickly that wasn't going to work. Once the vacuum pump kicks on it is pretty loud. With the door closed it wasn't too bad, but it runs pretty hot. Even with the door open it made the room pretty warm, but with the door closed to avoid the noise it made the room really toasty which was not good for all of my other food storage in my pantry. Heat, oxygen, moisture and pests are your food's worst enemies! So it quickly got moved down into our unfinished basement, which turned out to be much better in so many different ways. As I flushed my vacuum pump for the first time and made a huge mess with the vacuum oil I was so grateful that it splattered all over a concrete floor in an unfinished room versus my beautiful and finished laundry room, I would have been one unhappy camper. Not only that, but we no longer hear it and since it is in such a big and open space the temperature change is not noticeable!

There were a few things left to put in jars for snacks later after some little hands got to the food.

This was my noddle and chicken dish I threw in to my first batch because I wanted to experiment with rehydrating a meal.This is AFTER it was done! It retained it's shape and color perfectly! I learned quickly that less is definitely more when it comes to adding water back into your food! I basically drowned this meal and had to drain a lot of water off of it, but it still did the trick and it was amazing how the noodles and chicken just popped back to life and tasted exactly as if I just boiled the noodles and taken the chicken out of the crockpot!

This was my 2nd batch and after the boys had all tried things and realized how good it was they started spouting off all sorts of things they wanted me to try. So we experimented and tried ice cream, fruit snacks, gummy bears, marshmallows, bananas, more yogurt, oranges, scrambled eggs and shredded cheese. 

Here I have 2 trays of taco soup, a tray of sloppy joe meat and a tray of taco meat. 

Here are 2 trays of chili and 2 trays of boiled potatoes.

Since these first 4 batches, I have tried too many things to list and done too many batches to count. But if you are curious about something that would or would not work shoot me an email or message and I'll let you know if I've tried it. I'll tell you this much, there is very few things that you cannot freeze dry, making the possibilities almost endless! Thanks for reading this long post if you made it to the end. I've had so much fun with this new little adventure of mine and I know that it isn't as interesting to everyone else as it is to me so I totally don't blame you if you stopped reading a long time ago. Have a great day and next time your at the store grab a few extras of something for your pantry! :)