Oh my gosh! I’m so happy your making more videos!you are so lucky you got sponsored by a company to get a freeze dryer. It’s my dream to have one of those. I’ve been prepping food like you for many year for our family of 7 . They are so pricey. I’ve noticed you’ve using a pasta machine. Is it possible to let me know the model number of your Philip pasta machine please. Nothing better then making delicious homemade food . God bless and happy new year to all your family!❤️
Great channel, we are aspiring to transition our lifestyle to be more like y’all.. could y’all do a day in the life of video. I think it would interesting, I realize some days are busier than other days.. but just a typical day. For us it’s homeschooling, shift-work, and real estate investing. Just trying visualize what it would look like for us to make it fit. We maybe cant do it on the same scale, but maybe we can. Cheers from south Louisiana
I got my freeze dryer four months ago and absolutely love it! I freeze dry every thing in sight just to test it out. It is by far the best way to preserve food. Did you mention that this process retains more nutrients than any other? I also love how you named your dryer "freezerator". Mine is the "Freezomatic"
I'm glad you love it too! It's been awesome for us so far. We have an abundance of eggs and it's been so nice to preserve them long term. I'm sure it will be going 24/7 during the garden season😁
We are still getting to know our HarvestRight, so any ideas you come up with Id love to hear about them. Generally we make bigger dinners and put the leftovers in. We have done soups, which have all rehydrated wonderfully. Even bone broth turned out great. We did raw ground beef patties and rehydrated in less than a minute, grilled up and they tasted great. HarvestRight has mentioned sprouting your wheat berries, then freeze drying them before grinding into flour. That is my next try! Thank you for all your hard work towards your videos, our family of 6 is on the exact same page. We are shopping for our Dexters now, can’t wait to see more videos on your animals!
Whenever you cook a meal .. especially soups and stews .. make a double batch and freeze dry the leftovers. Then when the growing and preserving season hits you full force you can rehydrate the meals for a quick meal solution. Also freeze dried fruits and veg make great snacks and salad toppers. You can even spice some of the veg if it is being preserved as a snack.
Yesss!!! We have just touched the surface of freeze drying! Can't wait until this summers harvest so we can do exactly that - freeze dry some entire meals and snack portions. Yum yum!
I somehow stumble upon your video tonight and thought you did a great job with the freeze dryer. We have been freeze drying for about a year. A great tool with the freeze dryer is a vacuum sealer. We use the jar attachment and whenever we open up a new bag of desiccants we put it in the jar and vacuum seal them. It keeps them fresher for longer. One thing to know is as soon as the food comes out it is sucking all the moisture out of the air, so you do want to seal them up quickly. Good luck.
I'm so happy for you! Can you imagine how fantastic that will be next year while preserving?? When you get backed up, you can just freeze the veggies and then freeze dry them at you convenience 😁 As always, it's so good to hear from you Corpus Christi TX
You are so welcome! And thank you for tuning in, AND appreciating the content we put out. Lots of viewers ask how to use preserved foods in meals, so we are trying to incorporate that more into the videos. You get some good tasting recipes too, double bonus!! ;) 🍽
You are really going to enjoy having the freeze dryer. I store mine in glass jars and mylar bags. I would just caution about freeze-drying skittles. Because you may go broke.😉
You have a great channel! I like it more than others because you actually do the work in the videos in addition to talking about it. Best wishes to your lovely family!
@@TheSeasonalHomestead Thank you. I had thought so, but didn't want to assume. I'm changing my kitchen over to copper accents and the Cafe line has the option of copper. Also has the glass top posed any problems when canning in your experience?
Question, what is the benefit to freeze drying the cooked ground beef vs. just pressure canning it? It seems like rehydrating it would add an additional step to the process but is it better to freeze dry over canning?
Can you do a video on cost of owner ship. Machine, packaging, oxygen absorbtion, time... Looking into this but not sure about the costs and return on investment.
I’m curious as to why you did not use a gravy separator and remove the broth from the oil and add the broth back to the batch before freeze drying …the Fat has been removed …certainly the drying time will be longer but the good flavor minus the fat would still be there..
Just a thought: I'm wondering if nutrients are being washed away when you drained the reconstituted beef?? You might consider just making a bit thinner sauce and just add the dry beef directly to the sauce. I have a large freeze dryer on order ... it's been a few months, so I assume my wait is almost done. So excited!!! Ok, another thought. Gamma lids are pretty pricey. Since the food is already well protected in the mylar bags, you might consider using a rodent-proof tote box instead and save the gamma lid buckets for other things?? I bought several big black tubs from Costco for my freeze dried stuff so I can continue using the gamma buckets for other things. I'm all ready ... now I just need the machine! 😀
Good ideas. I had that thought too of rehydrating in the sauce next time with some extra water. I wasn't expecting the beef to rehydrate so easily! It came as a surprise. Congrats on getting a freeze dryer! It's so fun, I'm excited for you.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead I've purchased freeze dried beef before and used it to make meals for camping. LOVE IT! Really looking forward to making my own. Yes - I'm sure it will be a lot of fun 😀❤
I've heard you can freeze dry milk. Use it for creamer and other things dry, and reconstitute and tastes great. I want a cow, and the land to put one on.
Does anyone know what the brand of stove featured in this video? Looks beautiful...the entire kitchen is big, bright, and beautiful. Is there a house tour yet? Thanks for posting. BLESSINGS, -KATE
Stoves are both GE Cafe brand. One is induction, one is electric, just to have options. We enjoy using both of them EVERY day, and love that they match :)
I should have bought the pasta maker you guys used. I bought the kitchen aid one and for me, it is a lot of work and I still don't make the best pasta LOL.
How big is your home and state are you located? I would like to know the layout of your house. It looks so beautiful! I want to build someday and have an idea of the process.
I'm curious if you use something between the glass cook top and your cast iron?? It looked like it in this video, I'd love to know which brand you've used and liked if so?
Nothing between the cooktop and dutch oven. I think the shadow makes it look like there is something there :) We have lodge cast iron, but recently got a Marquette Castings dutch oven that we LOVE!
Yes, we raise cows for meat. We like knowing where our meat comes from, rather than eating meat with unknown origins, fed all sorts of questionable products. Just how we prefer it.
We have one of these and love it. Best investment. I'm excited to you do videos that show this because we have a lot to learn still. We have stopped canning for the most part because this is easier and better.
Love love what you all do. I am watching all your videos and learning SO much! Thank you. Can you tell me the brand of your pasta machine? Do you have any videos about how to make pasta? Would love to learn.
I've been deciding to invest in a dehydrator, but I think I'll do a freeze dryer first. I've had freeze dried foods many times and they are much better than dehydration. I just wasn't aware there was a non-commercial unit out there. Do you have an affiliate discount by chance for your viewers?
Here's the affiliate link for you 👇 It's also in the description. They're running a sale right now, plus free shipping! You won't regret getting a freeze dryer. They are awesome!! affiliates.harvestright.com/1290.html
When it comes to freeze dry my daughter does more candy then anything to stretch it . Favorite Skittles, Starburst my daughter said your kids will love it.
I have been so curious about freeze drying. This was great. In regards to things like spaghetti, could you have rehydrated the meat using the tomato sauce or do you have to rehydrate using water?
My experience up to this point has been with dehydrated foods. I always had to use water or something very liquid like putting them in soup to rehydrate. In contrast, the freeze dried meat was completely different and rehydrated so fast! I have no doubt that reconstituting it in the spaghetti sauce is a possibility. It was my first time trying it on the video so I didn't know it was possible but I believe it would be. I might add a bit of water to the sauce or better yet next year won't have to boil down and thicken the sauce so much before canning.
I saw the title and guess freeze dried!! I was right ☺️ I want to buy one myself because it seems like it’s worth the investment especially for the longer shelf life!
Hi! I noticed you have a flat top range, and I was wondering-is it induction? How have you found it for canning? I was thinking of getting one for my new house for ease of installation( I wouldn't have to run propane pipes) But I was wondering if it would make things like pressure canning more difficult.
I like to can on a propane burner outside. I used to have a flat-top and I did pressure can on it (though it isn't recommended) but I found the outdoor burner worked a lot faster. My natural gas stove top doesn't have the oomph to bring a big canner to temp in a timely manner.
Hi, great video 👍. I expect you to retry it at 1 year, 5 years, 10 years and let us know how it fairs 🤓. Don’t worry about 25 years as i will be an old fart at that point and I’ll probably be only able to eat mush 🤪.
I want one of these really bad but I also noticed your Phillips pasta maker and would love to know if you're happy with that? I've been looking for a pasta maker but they all have mixed reviews. Thank you!
Yes, I like it! I wasn't sure when I read the reviews but it's worked great for us. We tried the recipe ratio in the manual and adjusted a little from there. So far so good! We use it lots.
Completely off topic, but would you mind sharing where you found your black dining chairs? :) Thank you for sharing your experience with the freeze dryer. It's the first one I've seen in regards to freeze drying meat. Very cool!
Here's a link to the chairs- www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Simple-Living-Milo-Mixed-Media-Dining-Chairs-Set-of-2/9262597/product.html?refccid=CHNGQ53EG6F2YQCOYN53J3JVYA&searchidx=11&kwds=&rfmt=material%3AMetal&option=13518524
I would love one of these but living off grid doesn't lend itself to a freeze dryer 😅 I've asked a group of people on Facebook if they would let me use theirs when we get to that point. I'd love to freeze dry our ground meats and prepared meals. Even cheese comes out good!
Out of all the freeze drier videos I've watched no one has done ground beef great idea! Do you think it would have rehydrated in the spaghetti sauce or does it need water ?
It takes very little liquid to re-hydrate any freeze dried items. Also you can't over re-hydrate, will only absorb what it needs. From the looks of the sauce I would say there is plenty to re-hydrate the beef. I prefer to use beef, chicken and veggie broth to reconstitute freeze dried items that are not going into a sauce.
There are other ways to get freeze dried food that may be more pragmatic anyway. Mountain House meals are awesome and Thrive Life foods are great. This is a niche market to be sure.
Thanks for the video Becky, I’ve been wanting one of these for a while but they are pricey…. I keep hoping they will come down in price and then I will snatch one up. If I do get one I’ll be sure to use your affiliate link. Can you tell us how long it took to complete the freeze dry process once you started it with the frozen trays inside the unit. Also now that you’ve used it, what are you thinking you’re going to use it for? In other words are you going to try and freeze dry 100% of your frozen foods or ??? just kind of interested in your thoughts on what percentage of your food you’ll use it for and what types of food. Thanks so much for another informative video. Happy New Year to you and your family.
Thank you! The only other thing we've tried so far was eggs and we did the entire thing in the freeze dryer. It took almost 40 hours start to finish. But it is a heavy liquid food. For the meat, It took 22 hours for freeze drying the ground beef with the meat already frozen. I didn't try the ground beef from start to finish in the freeze dryer so I don't have a comparison time. I don't think we'll freeze dry everything that is in our freezers. I haven't really decided yet how much we will do but the ground beef worked so well, we will definitely do some more of that because of the ease of use. Freeze drying eggs was really intriguing for me because we usually get a lull in the winter as the daylight hours go down and don't have enough eggs. It's going to allow us to freeze dry all the extras in the spring for winter. I also plan on using it a lot for fruit! Freeze dried fruits are so of like candy but so much healthier. I will also do celery. The dehydrated celery I did this year works but it's a food that takes a long time to rehydrate and never quite gets back to the way it originally was. I'm sure as I use the freeze dryer more, it will open up more possibilities of all the things it can be used for. I'll definitely keep sharing as I use it and learn more :)
@@TheSeasonalHomestead WOW.... 22 hours, that is surprising. I think I was expecting more like 2 or 3 hours. That would definitely make freeze drying ALL your frozen meats a bit more challenging right? Still, nice to have maybe half freeze dried in case your power goes out. Have you tried storing your fresh eggs in lime brine? I've seen a few videos on it and read a bit about it and it seems like the easiest, fastest method if you have your own chickens. Just curious if you've tried it?
These freeze dryers dryers have gone up in cost, if anything. I started looking at them 6ish years ago and for several years wanted to bite the bullet but couldn't bring myself to do it. They've increased by about 500 hundred dollars since then. I'm sure it's also covid and supply chain issues causing the markup. There's also the hidden cost of electricity to run the unit, it's not an energy star appliance, that's for sure 😅
@@superdybonbon True about the electricity, especially if it's running for 22 hours for a single batch. Currently I'm on electricity (not on a homestead yet) but my plan is to be 100% solar when I build my homestead house... I'm in FL so might as well take advantage of the sun power :)
So I'm wondering if you weigh the food you are freeze drying before and after the process to find out what the percentage by weight is of water that was extracted...... you can then calculate how much water you require per package during the rehydration process so as not to use too much. I'd also like to see the results of freeze drying stock, storing it as a powder, then rehydrating it later using the same method. Love watching your work.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead that’s how we do it also 😁 spoons are for soup or cereal; knives are only for bread or sandwich and it’s shared, and forks for everything else 😉 I’m not dining at a 5 star restaurant and I don’t have a paid dishwasher so we like to go minimal 😂 and ice water/ice cream year round even on the -40 degree days 🤷♀️
I do like your channel, usually. But that's an advertising clip, really... that's ... There's really enough advertising around already; disappointed that you would add some more....
Thank you for watching the video. Sorry you feel this way. We try hard to select products we would use regardless of sponsorship. We want to keep our videos genuine and authentic, which we feel we still can do. I hope you can understand our end of this as well, that RU-vid for most content creators is a healthy mix of entertainment and business.
It only takes one time of an extended power outage with your freezer and you would lose thousands of dollars worth of meat or other food if you had it stored that way. If it was all freeze dried and shelf stable you wouldn't lose a thing. That would make up the cost of the freeze dryer immediately. Just one example beyond the fact that it is more nutritious than other types of food preservation and outlasts any other food preservation method. It's an investment for sure, but a worthwhile one in my opinion.
@@TheSeasonalHomestead I think what OutsdoosMan is trying to say is- for $3000.00 and change, you can buy a good quality generator that runs on the same petrol as your tractor, big enough to run all 5 of your freezers and part of the house, and have extra for a 300 gal petrol tank to store the fuel. Of course, there are other reasons to have a freeze dryer. Though it is a luxury, if you have expendable income, it is better spent than some other frivolous toys.
For leftovers…you have a ready MRE that you created so you know how it’s going to taste. In the event of a power outage, esp if you can’t get petro for your generator or you have an ice storm and no one can get to you for 2 weeks, all you need is boiled water and you got yourself a hot meal. They had a lay away program. If you end up throwing out 2-3 meals of left overs, this would make up the difference in one year what it costs. I know many that freeze dry candy and sell to pay off their machine🤷♀️ I do a variety of methods because in the event of a deep freeze like we have been having and power is out for extended time, canned stuff freezes and jars break. In the summer time, freezers break down or power outages for long periods…meat in freezers goes bad esp when you can’t find a replacement like last year. And dehydrated meat does not reconstitute the best, nor does it taste the best. So this is just one more options for food preservation.