As a senior that is severely physically limited, I know how right you are about not being able to work as hard as you age. Another consideration is as time goes on there can be more mouths to feed! With Kevin's parents moving close and the girls eventually marrying and having families, more food becomes necessary so better ways to preserve it for lean or drought years is smart. When my wife and I planted our 1st garden 49 years ago we never considered the enjoyment we would have teaching care of livestock, construction, gardening and preservation of our foods to our children, grandchildren and now our great grandchildren. Our 5th great grand child (our 1st girl) will be arriving in about a month! I so much enjoy your podcasts! Yes, I still can learn from you and our younger generations as well. I had never seen a freeze dryer work and keeping food for up to 30 years excited me as a way to aid future family that I will likely never meet! Please continue to keep us updated an God bless you and yours!
Without any shame, I bought a cheesecake today to run through my freeze dryer. My husband saw it in the fridge when he got home from work, and said "someone had a sweet tooth"... I said "someone is going to freeze dry cheesecake!" 😁
Me too and I did buy the freeze dryer, lol. I had been considering the purchase and this video then seeing the cheesecake sold me on it. No shame, cheesecake will be appreciated in the apocalypse, lol.
Would like to see a pre-cooked whole meal (roast & veg or lasagne), freeze dried then re-constituted to see if it is possible & how it turns out. Freeze dried home made MRE's. Interesting.
Linda's Pantry is a youtube channel that does just that. She was doing Thrive years ago for hunting meals/prep meals and buying their freeze dried foods a making meals in a jar. Bet she's bought one of these now.
I love your channel. Just wanted to say that I appreciate that you are not shy about talking about the fact that most of us don't have a whole lot of extra money on hand, may be living on a small income and want to stay debt free. Thank you for taking the time to talk about that.
exactly.... like the carrots, peppers, and maybe mushrooms? dehydrating and freezing usually are good enough for soups and stews. I would imagine some meats would have a better texture than dehydrating. Please do a follow up .... using some of these foods for cooking.
I was a cook in the Air Force. We used alot of freeze dried food when deployed. When reconstituting the seasonings in the water infuses through the food, which is amazing! My favorite of all was cottage cheese, because I can control the moisture (im not a fan of really moist cottage cheese).
I am so excited that you 2 will be sharing your experience with the freeze drier. We have grown to trust you and give us the real truth. So many RU-vidrs have fallen into an advertisement that you have to wonder on their honesty. I just went through my list of subscribers and drop several because I felt they were only following making a dollar. It will be interesting to see the electrical cost, but it cost to run a regular freezer or the cost of canning. Keep up the good work.
I like that you bring up the cost in comparison to canning, freezing or dehydrating. I wonder with the freezer running 24/7 and the risk of an electric outage. The canning process let's off alot of heat and so does dehydrating (at least mine does) so I'm wondering if there is a temp difference in the room when using it.
Looking forward to some nerdy freeze dryer math! When I looked into it quickly, it seemed to be too expensive compared to canning. I don’t do as good a job as you guys do on the analysis though...
@@SuperMzjames There would be if you used the dehydrator or canners in the home as opposed to, in a screened room out in the elements..I never operate my AC when canning...Freezing is dependent on environment too, depending on your location.....But on the others side of that equation would you be storing your freeze dried in a controlled zone or open to the fluctuation of weather in an uncontrolled storage facility..Freeze dried take up about half much room as canned goods and are more flexible in storage requirements
"Not being able to work as hard as we do now in food production effort as when we are older" was a Lightbulb comment for me. That put a lot of things into perspective when considering having enough to eat when you're older, due to health or economic circumstances, by putting in the effort NOW, you can secure your future food needs if and when you might not have the means or health in 20+ years to do so. Brilliant and effective use of time and resources more-so than canning. Just from the Ice Cream sandwich analogy, you saved $44 if you were buying them to store. I bet over a very short period of time it would pay for itself. I do a lot of hiking and backpacking, and freeze dried or dehydrated meals are very expensive when you buy them one meal at a time. Great informative video, Thank you!
"Wet" canning can't be beat. That's when you wash your fruits and vegetables first, put them in canning jars like Ball, do the water process and you have food that taste fresh when you go to cook and serve your family. Can't beat the tastes. My mother canned tomatoes, beans, peaches, pears, applesauce, jams, jellies, pickles.etc. excellent!!
Lol 😆 Dollar Tree has freeze dried mango 🥭 and pineapple 🍍 for $1.25. 99 Cent Only Store has a huge variety of freeze dried fruits for $1/each. Between jars and a nice variety I spent around $50. Freeze dried apples 🍎 Freeze dried cinnamon apples Freeze dried banana 🍌 Freeze dried Peach 🍑 Freeze dried cantaloupe Freeze dried pear 🍐 Freeze dried mango 🥭 Yup. Q
Thank you for this Kevin and Sarah, we keep going back and forth on if we should make this investment. Your videos on this topic have me thinking on it again.
On my "if I win the lotto" list. I'd love to have one, just cant justify the cost. I need a new roof first...and remodel my bathroom, and... But if I could, I'd love one!!
im 57 and everything i own is paid off , i spent my life paying intrest on houses , cars , trucks , i dont owe anyone anything except the tax office on my property , very good advice !!!!!!!!!
I've freeze dried dozens and dozens of eggs and raw is the best way I've found. Letting the powder sit with water for a few minutes is best and they scramble up perfect.
@@trump2q2qandbeyonddixieand34 then add a thin film of olive oil to prevent the water from evaporating, so the eggs don't become exposed to air. The floating egg test works to make sure one isn't going to crack open a rotten egg and the lime needs to be rinsed from the eggs before use anyway, so it's a great opportunity to do that. I freeze-dried eggs by dozen for my home-made custard (small HR mylar bags were perfect) and by 18 for scrambled & baking. For all other purposes (I'd be totally happy w/only scrambled eggs for breakfast, but they are my husband's least favorite, while my favorite), then I limed 3 5-gallon buckets of eggs. I keep thinking our chickens are done for the year, but we're still getting 1-4 eggs daily...soon though...soon.
@@trump2q2qandbeyonddixieand34 👈🤡 The message in your username is unconstitutional, also, your *Bankrupt Casino God-King* lost a free and fair election MAGA snowflake! 🤣
Enjoy the videos. We’re just south of you in NW AR. We appreciate your work, advice and motivation. It encourages us immensely. Thank you and bless your family!
I feel that Freezer Drying is safer than having food in liquid stored for any length of time. The Freeze dried products are so easy to reconstitute and they taste good also, if you have to travel with them you don't have the worry of breakage or seepage, some stored jars might have a hair line crack, so yes this is the safest way to store food, thank you for sharing this product. A couple of days ago I actually entered into a contest for a free Medium Freeze Dryer I am so excited!
Hi. You guys work so well together; almost on cue!👍The freeze dryer is definitely a game changer especially since you process so much food for storage. Less work too🤗🤗🤗
I just had another thought! My wife says that that was a surprise lol. Freeze drying, what a great way to stock your tornado shelter! Now you won't need to rotate your food supplies every year or so. Less work so you can better apply your time and your quality food lasts so long? A big win all around!
I hope you update us on this product for many months to come. On every thing from cooking with the freeze dryed food to maintenance and any glitches that may come along. Thank you for Sharing this with us. I love the idea.
How incredible and amazing! Everything looked so good. Was curious if those gasses gas off or is there a drainage hose to maintain? Also wondered if pungent items (onions, peppers) can be processed w other items at the same time? Sorry questions. So interesting!!
I love this soooooo much! Thank you! I'm getting one and freeze-drying Everything ! . LOL ... What fun !!! and your goodies last near forever! No more freezing and freezer burn. NO more having to toss out all your food when the power goes down! ( and the generator won't start ) I LOVE the fact that it holds 98% of the nutrition. That is most important to me... I Can't-Wait To Get One!
This was a great video,, for many fun reasons. My wife and I would love to see you cook with freeze dried food and speak about the experience. Does it change the flavor and texture of your recipes? Do you have to do anything differently? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for explaining freeze-dried foods and how it works and what it is. I have been wanting to learn about freeze drying for quite some time. You explained it very nicely!
Your instructional presentation is wonderful! The company that manufactures the freeze dryers needs to send you a large one for promoting their product!!!
That’s incredible! I would love to see the kids’ reaction. Bet they will love it. Nice purchase for the homestead. Kevin, this is so good to give to your parents, as well. Healthy snacks. ❣️♥️❣️
I love watching the face of newbies! I have been freeze drying for about 3 years & ours runs probably 6 days a week (older model takes longer) In that time I have had a few (very few) failures but am still shocked at all we can do with it. Congratulations! I am actually saving up for a second unit LOL
I would like to see a complete freeze dryed meal prepared. Thank you for demonstrating the product. It was so interesting and operation was a lot easier than I had ever thought.
I know you guys didn't get to show the vacuum sealing, but does one have to vacuum seal both bag and jars after each opening? Maybe an instructional video in the near future. 😁 Enjoyed 👍
I can help with this. Firstly, after seeing this video, a freeze dryer is on the top five of my bucket list. A freeze dryer fits perfectly with a vacuum sealing technique I developed a few years ago. The problem I had with regular vacuum sealers that are available at the big box stores is that the vacuum bags are so expensive. I was producing sausages and selling them to bars and restaurants. $10 worth of sausages cost me $1.50 worth of vacuum bags. Unacceptable! I had to cut my vacuum sealing costs down. So after trial and error I managed to cut my vacuum sealing costs down to about $0.15 per $10 worth of sausages. Here is how I did it. I bought regular, food grade, clear plastic bags. Not the vacuum bags, just regular bags. You can get them in any size: 4" x8", 6" x 8", whatever. I bought them by the kilo but I think the suppliers in North America sell them by the thousand. I used a hot wire bag sealer to seal the bags. It is a very simple machine that seals plastic bags. Any dealer who sells bags also sells the sealers, which cost about $100. I also used a small, hand held vacuum cleaner (like the kind you would use to vacuum your car). I modified the vacuum cleaner by attaching a drinking straw to the suction end of the vacuum cleaner. I realize this may seem complicated, but it really is not. Just duct tape a straw to the end of the vacuum cleaner. Here comes the hard part to understand. Put the food in the bag and seal the top of the bag leaving only enough room to insert the straw of your vacuum cleaner. Position the bag on the sealer again, insert the straw into the small opening you left and turn on the vacuum. When all the air is sucked out seal the bag. Congratulations, you just saved 90% of vacuum sealing costs!
A freeze dryer has always been on my bucket list but at this time high on it but that's a dream of mine so thankful for your family to be able to have one
I learn so much from your videos! I’ve never really thought about a freeze drier but now it’s on the bucket list! I’d love to see how you cook with the freeze dried food, especially your bone broth! Also, it would be neat to see Sarah’s idea of freeze drying left overs and compare that to the same meal freshly made. God bless you and your family!
I leave near the ocean. Since our kids are grown and moved away, I no longer go fishing as much since there's always more fish than we consume. Any thoughts about freezedrying fish and meats vs vacuum packed?
I have had my freeze drier 3 1/2 years. Great investment. I love it. You will too. Rehydrate with different liquids to create new flavors. Add a little sherry to water when rehydrating steak. Yum
Thank you for the info. Seems very doable. Never really thought about being able to freeze dry food by myself! We get so much usable info from you - blessings to you!
When you talked about preserving for the long term -as when "your older and can't work as hard" that really hit home for me. I'm 28 and was raised by my grand parents and they worked hard in the garden. But now as they are unable to do so us grand kids do - but no where near what we use to as health in the family over the last 2 hears have made it very difficult to keep up with. Still have a garden but just not at the same level. This would of been an awesome for thought for them to be able to have the same amount of quality that they had before. I as well live a debt free life and working towards a smaller scale home stead life- looking for property that is not outrageous in price- at least 5acers but of course the more then better. ❤️ My hubby and I raise pigs and chickens threw highschool for FFA and I just miss it so much and can't wait to be able to raise them for ourselves once again.
Wow, I have purchased freeze dried foods for my storage, but have never seen an in home use before. This was a very interesting and informative video! Thank you so much! I’d like to see how you do liquids..the bone broth, milk etc. thanks again!
I have one ordered and my friend has one... He says that for a 24-36 hour load it costs about $2-3 a load..... Actually not bad for what you're benefiting from it...
About $2.00 per batch. We can get about 2 pounds of food on each shelf - which totals to 8 pounds per batch that takes 24 to 30 hours to dry. We then put our "freeze dryed" food into either quart or 1/2 gallon Mason canning jars with a 500cc Oxygen absorber . We also purchased the "oil-less" vacuum pump which is wonderful. Ours has now been used since the summer of 2018 (2 1/2 years) with zero maintenance.
And for you Kevin, maybe you could do a little extra work for the dry freezer. Make a few new plates for Vegetable and fruits with a bunch of holes in it like a sieve, about 3 mm, so you get a better airflow in the system, which should shorten up the time in the freezer. Greetings from Germany
Lately I’ve gotten the impression I’m the only one in my boat. I don’t even buy organic food right now because it costs more. It seems all of the homesteaders are updating to huge farms, and buying all kinds of expensive equipment. RU-vid must really pay well because I don’t have any friends or family that can expand like RU-vidrs. I hope some shows actually show the rest of us how to become debt-free and stick with things we can afford. Patreon, ad revenue and donations from companies are not available to most of us. I apologize to anyone that’s offended but I want other people to know they’re not alone if they can’t do what you guys are doing
I’m not offended at all and agree with your statement- though I try to grow as much ‘organic’ stuff as I can so I don’t have to pay those outrageous prices charged at the shops. But yes, some of these expensive gadgets are well out of the reach of us frugal-living folk.
@@sowgrowandcook We bought 1 acre of property five months ago. The monthly payments are the same as the trailer we were living in minus paying for water. We have wild pigs and no fence. Trying to do everything on social security at 65+ years old. Not seeing a way to get it done at this point. Maybe I’ll win the lottery LOL
You can get a really good deal on 1 gal mylar bags from LDS stores at a great price......also oxygen absorbers the best price i could find anywhere.....
This is really cool! I would definitely like to see how you use different things to cook with and if you feel the reconstituted texture isn't off-putting.
Had to watch this again. My freeze dryer should be here in a few weeks. Went through your link to get it. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.
I would love to see a video on freeze drying meat. Would you be able to show us that. Thank you so much. You are great people love your show. Love learning about preserving food. L
I've been looking at the Harvest Right for some time. Those strawberries need to be dipped in a dark chocolate sauce that dries hard. They used to have whole, freeze-dried, chocolate-covered strawberries. Very hard to find now.
Thank you so much!!!! I've wanted this for over a year. Of course I couldn't bring myself to tell my hubby...ever. But sitting here watching your video..of course he heard the 2000.00 part.and I didn't know he was around the corner listening..till he got his glasses and came and looked at what I was watching! He's never done that in 4 years of me watching videos..and guess what?!!!! I can get one!!! You all have a place in my heart forever! 💚🌱
@@Christa-tl8jb if reconstituted, drinking plenty of water isn’t an issue, however, many of the foods we freeze dry are best as snacks or eaten in their freeze dry state, which is when drinking LOTS of water becomes an important issue.
I’m thinking about meals in a jar, how fun! I think if I had found this in my 30s or 40s I would definitely be interested in this. 65, hmmmm still a possibility.
I have been looking at the Harvest Right freeze dryer for years and have not taken the plunge to getting one yet. I'm so glad you have one now because I have been following you for some time now and do trust that you will give real and honest reviews with the pros and cons. I do a little gardening but my son and his partner do a lot of gardening so I think together we will have so many wonderful things to freeze dry that I may be buying one in March when I get my bonus. By the way, I tell everyone I know about your channel, I just love watching.
Hi, I'm not a Homesteader, I'm a city gal, but I still love your video's!!!!! The freeze dryer looks like a very practical purchase for your Homestead. I hope now that your garden is asleep for it's Winter nap, you will be doing more cooking and baking video's. Please!!!!!! Have a Great day.
Finally an explanation of this machines. I heard about it on another channel and they never explained anything about it. This is very interesting and a smart way to preserve our harvest. Thank you!!!
Is the freeze dryer energy efficient? What’s the estimated cost of running it ? Thank you so much for sharing with us. I can’t wait to see freeze dried meat.... God Bless Y’all ...
Mine averages about two dollars a day while running. "Retired at 40 " did a breakdown on energy cost for different items in them. His research matched my utility bills.
@@helpme7479 if you are preserving 97% of the nutrients in a batch of home grown food that costs you say a conservative $3 a pound... and your SMALL machine can handle 7# of food...$3 to save what would have gone bad in a generous 3 years canned.... 50% nutrition is now WORTH $1.50 a pound times 7# 10.50 minus the three bucks in electricity to save it and the $.50 in bags to vacuum seal it... your still $7 ahead. IF you do one batch a day ... $7 x 365 = $2555 essentially the cost of the small Harvest Right. Pays for itself in a years worth of steady use. Knowing my family will have healthy organic from my yard food to consume without the worry of what's on it??? Will we have food if shtf? Will we have what we LIKE to eat? PRICELESS.
We just purchased a Harvest Right a few days ago! So excited! Please, please continue to do videos on your triumphs, fails and discoveries on your Harvest Right from time-to-time. Loved this video. Thanks for all you do.
Hey Kevin & Sara, What is the power supply on the freeze drier? Can it be used in an off grid situation? And how much would it cost for the operations. We love your channel so keep up the great work.
There’s a guy on RU-vid who has a meter attached to his freeze dryer and at his electricity cost it’s about $2.50 to run a 24 hr-ish batch (start to finish).
I just ordered a freeze dryer. I decided to buy one because of how much it costs to buy freeze dried foods. I found your channel and I am excited now! I cant wait to get it set up! Now I will have a way to grow and process my food like I want to.
I would like to see what some of it looks like reconstituted and how it tastes and is the texture the same. Also when you eat it in the dried state does it fill you up like if it were in the original state? What a great video. Thank you.
Since it's missing all the water you'll need to drink plenty of water with dried food. It will take up less space in your stomach and dehydrate you if you don't.
I just want to thank you and your family. I have been watching for about a year and love the content and information. I have since then bought chickens, rabbits, and duck. Next month i close on 4.5 acrea of land and house to expand. This is a start of a new adventure for me and my family. Now im looking on how to preserve the food i grow. Thanks alot from the Woods family.
I would like to thank you for your video on these we decided to pull the trigger and got one on order we should have it by February Thanks again..LOVE YOUR POST
Please do a review of this freeze drier after one year. I really want one, but they are so expensive, I want to see how well you like it. Can you show us the set up? What is the pump and the drain? Where could you put this inside the house? Thank you.
You guys are so awesome to share all your knowledge through trial and error to benefit all of us. Thank you so much, and may your journey through life be blessed!
That's just amazing! Funny thing after the video the very first advertisement was about freeze dried prepackaged food. LOL. The expense was insane. Thanks for sharing and showing this to us. Its definitely worth looking into. Could you show how you did the broth after it was dried. Does it just turn into powder? Thanks. God bless 🙏🏻💗🙏🏻💗
