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Most of us know about pre-packaged freeze dried food. A few even have home freeze dryers (at $2,000+ a pop).
I got to researching the techniques and have an idea for experimentation for anyone living up north.
The concept of freeze drying is that small pieces of food that are first frozen, and then the air is removed, which allows the water to sublimate. (Sublimation is the direct change of water from ice into a vapor, without the intervening liquid form.) That leaves very very dry food that can be vacuum sealed to limit moisture getting back in, and it can be stored safely for years in that state.
Much of the costs involved in freeze drying are from the vacuum pump and freezer coils. What if...?
In cold climates during midwinter, a decommissioned pressure canner (there are old ones around not considered safe for canning anymore) could be the vacuum vessel quite safely. A simple brake vacuum pump from Harbor Freight could supply the vacuum.
Choose a day when temperatures are predicted to be well below freezing for at least 48 hours, place the items in the old canner in a protected spot, attach the vacuum hose, power on the pump and ignore it for a couple of days.
I would include a filter material in the hose connecting the vacuum pump to limit any pump oil from feeding back easily.
This is just a wild idea. It could work, but I'm not sure it would. I do like the idea of not spending $$$ by using nature to do the work and keep the noise outside.
Tear the idea apart, or try it and tear the idea apart then. It won't bruise my ego in the slightest, and if you come up with valid reasons why it won't work, I'll be grateful. If it does happen to work, have fun.
... a decommissioned pressure canner (there are old ones around not considered safe for canning anymore) could be the vacuum vessel quite safely. A simple brake vacuum pump from Harbor Freight could supply the vacuum.
I tried that one time.
The design of a pressure cooker is to hold in pressure. they do not work for vacuums.
A couple of years ago, I bought my Dw a Harvest Right home Freeze-Dryer. She loves it.
I remember reading about people in the arctic freeze drying food by putting it outside when it was double-digits below zero. I don't remember the technique any longer and don't remember how they did it without a vacuum. Maybe because the air is so dry at that temperature it sublimates as it freezes. I had also read that indigenous people in the Andes did something similar by hiking the food up to colder altitudes during a certain time of the year when the nightly/daily freeze/thaw cycles freeze dried the food over about 10 days.
You can freeze dry food in a regular home freezer. The process takes a couple of weeks so the outcome isn't as tasty as when its done quickly.
I looked this up but OUCH! I'm sure it's wonderful, but too pricey for me.
Has anyone had a good experience with a Freeze-Dryer under the $500.00 price point?
I have just become interested in food storage of this type, and would like to hear from others who are experienced in doing it and could share their experience, tips, and what helpful equipment they may have used, and what level of success they have had with freeze drying for long-term storage. How was the quality of the food down the road for consumption, etc.
"Has anyone had a good experience with a Freeze-Dryer under the $500.00 price point?"
As far as I know, no such device exists. You can buy food dehydrators at that price point (and less) but drying food isn't the same as freeze drying it.
From my research, and I've done quite a bit of it, there is no way to break even with a home freeze dryer unless you can acquire the food for free and you have cheap electricity. Otherwise the purchase price of the freeze dryer, the maintenance costs, the electricity, and the cost of the food is higher than what you'd pay to have freeze dried food delivered to your home without any effort.
The Harvest Right Large and Extra Large freeze dryers both require a 20amp dedicated circuit (most home outlets are 15amp, and not dedicated), so lets assume that they take 2,000 watts while running. A freeze dry cycle is 20 to 40 hours long. One can do the math. In Hawaii (49 cents per KWH) that means it costs over $39 worth of electricity to run a 40 hour cycle. That's just for the electricity. That doesn't count the cost of the food (or food inputs if one is producing their own) and the cost of freeze dryer ($5k not counting shipping). I can buy a lot of freeze dried food for $39. I can buy even more for $5k. I see the used freeze dryers here come up for sale from time to time, mostly from people who didn't realize how much they cost to operate. Some of them thought they were slick and their "free" solar power was the secret sauce to make it happen. Well, 10 hours (at most) useable solar power during the day doesn't help much for a 40 hour freeze drying cycle.
"Has anyone had a good experience with a Freeze-Dryer under the $500.00 price point?"
As far as I know, no such device exists. You can buy food dehydrators at that price point (and less) but drying food isn't the same as freeze drying it.
From my research, and I've done quite a bit of it, there is no way to break even with a home freeze dryer unless you can acquire the food for free and you have cheap electricity. Otherwise the purchase price of the freeze dryer, the maintenance costs, the electricity, and the cost of the food is higher than what you'd pay to have freeze dried food delivered to your home without any effort.
The Harvest Right Large and Extra Large freeze dryers both require a 20amp dedicated circuit (most home outlets are 15amp, and not dedicated), so lets assume that they take 2,000 watts while running. A freeze dry cycle is 20 to 40 hours long. One can do the math. In Hawaii (49 cents per KWH) that means it costs over $39 worth of electricity to run a 40 hour cycle. That's just for the electricity. That doesn't count the cost of the food (or food inputs if one is producing their own) and the cost of freeze dryer ($5k not counting shipping). I can buy a lot of freeze dried food for $39. I can buy even more for $5k. I see the used freeze dryers here come up for sale from time to time, mostly from people who didn't realize how much they cost to operate. Some of them thought they were slick and their "free" solar power was the secret sauce to make it happen. Well, 10 hours (at most) useable solar power during the day doesn't help much for a 40 hour freeze drying cycle.
We've done some research and ultimately we decided something like this should be treated like a boat. Never own one but find a friend that does.
We already can food with and without a pressure canner, we already had most of the equipment, a vac sealer (good one) keeps are frozen foods good for a year or more and we have a dehydrator. It really doesn't add any value for us.
We've done some research and ultimately we decided something like this should be treated like a boat. Never own one but find a friend that does.
We already can food with and without a pressure canner, we already had most of the equipment, a vac sealer (good one) keeps are frozen foods good for a year or more and we have a dehydrator. It really doesn't add any value for us.
Good way to put it. In this case, Mountain House is the boat owner. I'm sure industrial freeze dryers work differently than home models, but must still be electricity hogs. MH is located in Oregon with some of the cheapest commercial electricity rates in the nation.
We have a lot of experience with salt-corning, dehydrating, hot-water-bath canning, pressure canning, and freezing food.
I thought that Freeze-drying was the next logical step for us.
We have a few complaints with this product, it is not perfect.
It is not compatible with living in a solar-powered home. and it is loud, it needs to sit in a building not where you are living.
We played with it for a few years, then we quit as we were just knocking our heads against the brick wall of its design flaws.
But last week, after it sat gathering dust for five years. I found a new location for it, I moved it and I ran 10 pounds of shredded potatoes through it. Its first run failed, but its second run did perfectly.
Because we were discussing it, my Dw pulled out a bag of freeze-dried chili from many years ago, and we ate chili tonight.
I remember reading about people in the arctic freeze drying food by putting it outside when it was double-digits below zero. I don't remember the technique any longer and don't remember how they did it without a vacuum. Maybe because the air is so dry at that temperature it sublimates as it freezes. I had also read that indigenous people in the Andes did something similar by hiking the food up to colder altitudes during a certain time of the year when the nightly/daily freeze/thaw cycles freeze dried the food over about 10 days.
You can freeze dry food in a regular home freezer. The process takes a couple of weeks so the outcome isn't as tasty as when its done quickly.
They still do this. Some of the older natives on the arctic coast hang laundry outside in subzero temps. I saw Sadie Neakok doing this in Barrow in the early 1980’s so I stopped and asked her about it. She had some blue jeans hanging on the line at -20 degrees. So we walked back outside and she had me get the jeans off of the line. They were stiff as a board. Then she had me grasp them by the waistband with both hands and told me to shake them like a bullwhip. Ice crystals came flying out of them and hit me in the face. Brought them inside and as they warmed up they were dry as a bone.
As I was out on patrol that day I noticed the meat racks around town that had seal and caribou meat on them. She told me it dehydrates and freeze dries the meat. I learned a lot of new things that day. Sadie was a storehouse of information. As a newbie to the arctic I talked to her often and she was always willing to share.
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