Freeze Drying Adventures - Fruits, Mint & Mochi Balls

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Another day, another freeze drying adventure. Our Harvest Right machine doesn't get much rest! Of course we give the pump the recommended amount of time to cool down but once it's ready, we don't waste any time getting another batch loaded.

Freeze Drying Adventures - A Little Bit of Everything

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Container of freeze dried raspberries! We kept some whole and some we made in to powder.

Freeze drying is the best way to store food as it keeps all the nutrients and unlike dehydrating where you lose a lot of the nutritional value and the food gets hard and leathery. Freeze drying removes the water from food at extremely cold temperatures. Plus it lasts a lot longer than canned or dehydrated food. 25-30 years depending on what you freeze dry.

At the beginning of March we purchased a Harvest Right freeze dryer.

Freeze Drying Adventures - J E L L O

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Someone posted in one of the Facebook groups we are in, that they freeze-dried Jello and it tastes like cotton candy. Say what?! I enjoy cotton candy. I was very intrigued and we have lots of boxes of Jello so we gave a couple different flavors a go.

Freeze Drying Adventures - Popsicles, Ice Cream, Cheesecake!

On this round, we decided to try root-beer float bars, orange creamsicles, cheesecake Tony brought home from work, ice cream sandwiches, some ice cream pie leftover from Pi Day, and scoops of strawberry ice cream.

Freeze Drying Adventures - Breakfast Foods!

 

I'd been dying to FD bananas and Tony read or heard about doing cereal so those two items made the list as well as yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, bread and french toast.  Read further to see how it went reconstituting some of these items with water!

Freeze Drying Adventures - Real Meal

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Next up for the freeze dryer:

Oven Baked Chicken Breast 

Instant Pot Chicken & Rice

We were able to get a good chicken deal at Albertsons - boneless, skinless chicken breasts for .99 cents/lb! SO good. We took advantage and stocked up on a bunch of chicken and then looked for recipes and got recipe suggestions from friends. Time to get to work!

Freeze Drying Adventure - Marshmallows & Pumpkin Pie!

Here we go - freeze drying marshmallows...

Let the Freeze Drying Adventures Begin!

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It doesn't have a name yet but meet our new freeze dryer from Harvest Right - in my top favorite color! How lucky is that!? I have said it before and I'll say it again, I feel like there was divine inspiration in being able to purchase a FD at this time. We've wanted one forever! We first saw/heard about them at a Preparedness Fair in Utah (I think in Roy) and we were so intrigued by it. But the price tag at the time was sure not something we could manage at the time so I joined the email list and kept my eye on the prices. Even over the years with the price coming down, it was quite expensive.

Then, someone in our ward posted they were selling theirs. I messaged them to see if it was still available and was told someone else was interested but if they decided to pass, we were next in line. The next thing I knew,  I was getting a message telling us no pressure but we were up if we wanted to purchase the freeze dryer. I didn't think Tony would say yes, I didn't think we had enough money for the price they were asking but! check it out. It all worked out in the end. And we have been so very happy with the FD so far.

Keep reading to see what we freeze dried first!