Love this! I viewed this over and over last year and tried many of the recipes. I harvested over 300 pounds from my garden. Now I'm reviewing this for the start of my tomato harvest this year. Tomorrow I start my journey again making these recipes. Thank you for presenting this info.
I make Nigerian tomato stew base. You core the tops and place 6 tomatoes in a blender with one large red bell pepper, one habanero, 2 small/medium onion, and thyme, basil, and a Maggi seasoning cube. They salt to taste and fry it in oil until most of the moisture is like a thick sauce. It is so good when you cook meats with a mirapoix and add some of the stew base and some broth to reduce until thick. So yummy. Wish I had this freeze dry machine.... It would be great.
Here’s a tip for you when you have lots of tomatoes, but don’t have time to freeze, can, or dehydrate them. Core them, and throw them in freezer bags in your freezer. When you have a snowy Saturday, pull them out, run them under hot water, and the skins just fall off. I can mine. Saving up for that dehydrator! Great video!
Snowy Saturday -- not a lot of those here in the Florida panhandle. When my younger son was 4, it snowed enough to stick. We woke the kids up so they could see what it looks like. (Spoiler alert: it looks like a field of cotton ready for harvest.) My son's eyes were huge and he said "Mommy! Snow IS real!"
My daughter game me 50 pounds of green tomatoes because winter in approaching and they will never rosy up. So I have been turning them into green salsa, green pasta sauce, and green pickle chips. Amazing flavors, distinctly different from the red s.
The "white stringy stuff" on top of the tomato blends is the sugar from the tomatoes. The sweeter / riper the tomatoes, the more you will see this. Just blend it back when you store it.
we only core the maters, puree, pre freeze, then freeze dry. Skins stay on. About 20# fills a size large FD. We leave the maters raw. Once dry (7-10 days) we pulverize in a blender then vacuum sealer in quart jars. The powder makes 3-4qts of sauce. We also FD our own basil and garlic to make a complete sauce. We recently started FD sausage. It took time to get accustomed to using the materials but it's our main way now.
Just received my Harvest Right yesterday and my husband is now in the process of setting up a space in the garage for it and the cart. Hopefully it will be all set up today. I am very excited to get started........Thank you for your videos.
I FDed a lot of tomatoes this year too.there is a lot of water in tomatos. The FD works great to remove it. But beware, as the video shows, you can fit a Lot of tomato in one quart jar! The powder makes fantastic tomato juice drink. Also killer Bloody Marys!
Just bought tray liners, the no suck kit & the upgrade kit from your online store. My daddy ordered a FD for me as a gift! Thanks for all the great info☺
I could grow year round in Colorado, but Iowa is a different animal in the winter. I wasn't prepared for extended growing this winter but I'm going to try my best next year.
I live in Ohio, I grow year round indoors. Herbs, greens, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, artichoke...all came indoors and are growing well. Doesn't matter where you live.
I feel like you would really love a water preboiler. It's just an insulated reservoir which keeps boiling water ready for instant use at very low electricity cost. zojirushi is what I use and it's been a game changer for instant, effortless rehydration.
Good video - I received my freeze dryer last week so I am looking for tips and ideas. And bonus, you chew with your mouth closed unlike so many others. Thank you.
@Retiredat40Live.Life>Simple. I learned with my new Retro blue freeze dryer. I pull out the whole tray control it disconnects really easy. Slip red button up and squeeze the tab to release. Pull out the whole unit and set aside. Put a tray in the tub upside down and put your jars in there with the lid on and ring almost tight. On the control panel select custom and test then select vacuum. Put your rubber ring back on and Shut your valve. click on On the vacuum control and Let it run until it gets to about 400 pressure and waalaa your jars are all sealed. You will get a tremendous seal No oxygen absorbers needed.
I add desiccant packs to all my jars. I have found that freeze dried foods soak up moisture fast especially the one with a bit of sugar in them. Like tomatoes and other fruits.
When you were doing the tomato slices, it looked like you put 2 layers on tray, then parchment paper, then another 2 layers. Is this correct? How did you know how many layers to add? Did all the layers dry equally well? Thanks. Great video.
On most things it should not be needed but the best way to determine is weigh it after cycle and add dry time and weigh again. If the weight is the same, it's done, if not it needs more time
I have two of the older machines with the oil pumps. Wondering if I upgraded to the newer pump if it would speed up my batches? Or is it the machine that makes it cycle faster? That's quite a big difference in time between the two. Love your videos..
@@live.life.simple. My wife and I will be getting our new med. HRFD with premium pump...been waiting now going on 10th week due to back orders. We are also thinking of starting our own channel with our new journey. May we mention and even link your RU-vid channel? I dunno when the first video will be, rough as it may be, since using older camera. Lol Jon and Steph
Can you put pre-portioned pre-freezed things in dry freezer? I'm thinking of liquid things like soup, sauces etc. Will it work if you freeze let's say soup in portion size silicone moulds, plastic glasses, yoghurt containers or something similar, then take frozen soup out, place it on the trays next to each other and run the cycle? In theory, it would help eliminate the splashes and maybe increase the amount of product being dried.
Biting at the bit to receive my dryer from Harvest Right. Cases of canned soups needing to be converted to dry food. Needing that space and reduce food footprint while starting to down size the homestead post cruddemic.
When processing tomatoes for the freezer or canning the USDA recommends citric acid be added to those products to ensure safety and shelf stability. Citric acid raises the ph to a higher level to prevent botulism. Is that an issue with freeze dried tomatoes?
Not that I'm aware of. Frozen food and canned food still have moisture that will allow bacteria to grow. It will be an issue with ingredients that may not freeze dry like sugars, fats and oils
Would using the mason jar vacuum sealer help keep them dry? Could I use the foodsaver mason jar sealer and put an air absorber in the mason...would that help? Thank you so much for these videos! and your products!
Maybe I missed it in your video but did you give a weight if the finished product? I’m really curious how much 100 pounds of tomatoes freeze dried shrinks to?
Thank you so much for the great video. I was wondering if the amounts you vocalize in the video for the tomato soup are for 1 or 2 X's the recipe. You say you are doubling the tomatoes in the beginning but don't specify if the rest of the ingredients are for a single or double batch.
How much tomato soup can you pour into the trays per batch? Do you fill it up to the limit, or half, or.....? I got the big version and it seems my trays holds about 1,5 liter. 5 trays would make for 7,5 liter of soup which would be awesome. But you got way more experience doing this, so rather want to ask than to have fail here. :-) Got inspired when I saw you were freeze dryng yogurt. Looking forward to my next camping trip.
I saw an older vid you did on the machine itself.I talked to my brother that knows about vac machines.he has had machines for 25 years.He seldom changed oil,but added some each day.His also had steel blades not fibre.They also had an oil recovery which was just a vertical tube with a drain back to the pump with a valve.The only difference in his operation is he was pulling air not liquid.Is this why the need to change oil so often? The pump should last a very long time.
This does not pull liquid but does get moisture in the oil. That is what kills the pumps. The newer pumps do a much better job at separating which is why they do not require a change as often. They run consistantly for 24-30 hours straight which is much longer than how they are used in other applications.
I know this is an older video but seeing how freeze-drying is all about the drying would it not have helped if you wiped the door off? I'm going to go back to your 1st video about freeze-drying and watch them all. Freeze-drying is something I am interested in or on but the cost of a unit has kept me away. I now know in the long run it will pay for itself.
MY GOODNESS JUST KIDDING WHEN I SAY THIS CAN I CAMP IN THE WOODS SOMEWHERE AND PAY YOU TO EAT A COUPLE OF YOUR GARDEN TOMATOES......THEY LOOK👀SO GOOOOODDDDD!!! .....YOU COULD SELLL SOME OF THOSE AT A FARMER'S MARKET......GOD BLESS STAY SAFE
I thought the canned tomato paste was condensed by boiling the water out. Wouldn't the freeze dry process accomplish the same thing so that canned paste is no longer necessary?
I think it's also about the texture and breaking down the insides. Not 100% sure. Next time i open a can, i will see if i can make a paste with unboiled.
Tomato paste is made using paste style tomatoes. They naturally are a dryer tomato. However, you can cook down and concentrate slicing or grape tomatoes to a dryer consistency. Big corporations just buy paste style tomatoes because they go thru billions of them. At your own home, you can take the time to simmer and thicken your own homegrown tomatoes. I use whatever tomatoes I have and put them in large stock pots and let them go on very low. They also can be quickly broken down by an Instapot, roasting or you can slow stew them in a crock pot, if you want whole tomatoes. Hope this helps.
I have never had to extend the dry times yet. I would like to try tomatoes. If they are still frozen in the middle do you just add more dry time? And for how long? Thank you!! Love your videos!!
As much as you freeze dry, can I ask why you purchased another Medium size instead of buying a large? Just wondering if there was a technical reason or a huge preference...or...????
We just bought our very first Harvest Right and my husband and I would love to know what Oil you use in yours with the premier pump that we upgraded to. Thank you :)
@@live.life.simple. Well as someone born and raised in Worcester county, I congratulate you on saying it so well I thought you were from the area. So rare.
Off topic question. I noticed that Harvest Right does not provide a door pillow nor do they offer one. Is this proven not to be needed/required. If useful what is the fill of the pillow and I'll have one made. Is it possible to save time in the freezer by dehydrating then freezing items before freeze drying? Sliced tomatoes for instance. If true, how to figure out time in freeze dryer?
