Freeze Drying Your First 500 lbs of Food Batch 35 Sweet Potatoes
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- čas přidán 20. 08. 2024
- Freeze dryer batch #35 - 10 lbs of sweet potatoes Started freeze drying this batch July 1st.
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First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.co...
Batch worksheet link: docs.google.co...
Cost of the sweet potatoes: $15.00 for 10 lbs (after peeling)
Total batch time: 40 hours 35 minutes to 45 hours 35 minutes
Weight before drying: 10 lbs, Weight after drying: 527 grams (about 1 lb 2oz)
Power use: 34.31 kWh
Bagged into: 13 quart 7 mil Mylar bags with 300cc oxygen absorbers.
This list is about getting started on a 500 lb mixed pantry of freeze dried foods in 100 days.
(This may be a bit optimistic and perhaps it'll only be 400 lbs)
Goal of about 85 lbs per category. (100 lbs per category if we don't do the Meals/Dishes)
1) Meats:
2) Vegetables:
3) Fruits:
4) Dairy:
5) Grain / Starch:
6) Meals / Dishes:
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PackFreshUSA
We have been buying oxygen absorbers and 7 mil Mylar bags from PackFreshUSA since early 2018. During all that time (1000's of bag and oxygen absorbers, and about 6 year before before we added this affiliate link) we have been happy with the products and service we have received from them.
I earn from qualifying purchases from the links provided. - packfreshusa.c...
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Harvest Right - If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our link. It helps us and costs you nothing!
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Before buying a freeze dryer, perhaps research to find out more about the downside of the machine; some people have problems with their machine and it's big and heavy and hard to return!
When trying to decide what to freeze dry you can start by asking why.
Start by asking yourself this question. Why are you freeze drying food? Knowing this should help you decide what you should freeze dry first.
I'm freeze drying because:
Just to freeze dry leftovers?
You want to make your own food for camping/backpacking?
For if/when the SHTF?
For a short term emergency?
You have your own garden and want to freeze dry the food?
You love Costco but don't have a family of 6?
You are good at finding the food sales but only have 1 freezer?
When you cook homemade chili just for yourself you make 10 gallons? Because you have 3 full freezers and are worried about power outages?
If I knew then what I know now, I would have freeze dried things in a different order. Or maybe not, because I started freeze drying because we had 3 full freezers, I was thinking of getting another one, and I decided I should buy a walk-in freezer instead. I started looking into walk-ins and realized they were expensive to buy (even used ones) AND expensive to own and operate. Then I found out Harvest Right was making home sized freeze dryers. One of my first thoughts was "I like Mountain House!" I have used their food for backpacking almost 45 years and we even kept some in our travel trailer, for just in case.
Freeze dried food will stay fresh for many years and be ready and waiting when you need it.
We do videos showing how we are using our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer to freeze dry food for long term storage. (We have the medium size machine that we got in August of 2017) We talk about how to load and unload the freeze dryer, how to know if the food is dry, is it better to freeze dry raw food or cooked food, and do a few taste tests. Freeze dried food is also great for prepping or just for camping and snacking!
Want to support the channel? Buy me a coffee :-) www.buymeacoffee.com/DanZm
If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our affiliate link. It helps us and costs you nothing! affiliates.harvestright.com/995.html
First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
Batch worksheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13DCB2hXo9_ZYrhIUicLk2IrEaQGszwbaJTcEH8wJxk4/edit?usp=sharing
We do sweet potatoes a little different. We wash, peel and slice them about 1/8 inch thick. Then we put them in a bowl, sprinkle them with sugar cinnamon, shake them up to coat all slices, and put in refrigerator for about 3 or 4 hours. Then we lay them out on the trays, put trays and all in freeze to pre-freeze; then they go into the freeze dryer when ready. When they come out we eat them as chips. We never do cook them, unless you consider going thru the freeze drying process as "a cooking process". When we want to mash them up, we cook and mash them prior to freeze drying. Then we put them on trays as mashed sweet potatoes. We do not add anything to the mashed potatoes, until we reconstitute them by adding back boiling water; then we add butter, cinnamon, sugar or whatever you want on your sweet potatoes.
Parchment paper is washable, I wash it and hang it to dry and reuse many times.
I appreciate these videos so very much. i am learning so much from how to prep food, ideas for what to cook, how long, methods you have already figured out for pre- freezing to the freeze drying and packaging - most comprehensive videos! you are very very good! Please keep posting !
Thanks so much for the kind words! (And for watching and commenting:)
At first I thought your check and recheck procedure was a bit "a...-retentive" until I ran a batch of raw ground beef, sliced raw bottom round roast and cooked smoked pork carnitas. (I usually don't run a mixed batch but I needed to clear up freezer room)
The pork carnitas finished at 30 hours, the ground beef took the 36 hours and the raw sliced bottom round took 40 hours.
Usually i would have run the batch until the mTorr stopped dropping for an hour or so which is certainly not as precise as the check and recheck weight procedure.
Great series (Freeze drying 500 lbs of food) and thanks for the level of detail.
🤣Trust me, it feels "a bit "a...-retentive" every time I do it, but it's proven reliable for me so I will keep doing it. My mTorr gauge lies to me; I've had it show the impossible - negative numbers! I owe the universe pressure!
I think my favorite parts of your videos are when you speed up the chopping and bagging. The weird rustling sound synchronized with the sped up video is really satisfying 😁
I do like how you make the point of writing a total weight on the package.. great idea I've adopted it!
Thanks! 👍 And hopefully we never need it!
But we did once get a bad bunch of bags and had to re-work hundreds of bags. (Almost all before it was too late) The Freeze Dry Video I Never Wanted to Make - czcams.com/video/B0KUfoHuCk4/video.htmlsi=zmNF_VmMpmrR9yBa
I love how meticulous you are. I do none of that! 😂
I don’t either but I am going to start weighing my food for dryness. It makes so much more sense than guessing only to find food spoiled
Sweet Potatoes are one of my favorite items to eat. 😊
Your videos are very helpful! Thank you!!!
Thanks for watching!
At Thanksgiving our Meijers had. Sweet potatoes fo $.25/#. I bought an extra 20# to freeze dry. I love baked sweet potato so did them in batches. The first batch I baked then sliced, froze and freeze dried. It took 27 hours. Today's batch I am going to bake then mash, and put them in pans of 1#
I'll add butter ect after rehydrated
What a great price! And that people, is how you save money on future food bills. Buy a bunch when it's a great price like that and store them for later! Ours were $1.29 to $1.49/#
👍 for the parchment paper idea! I showed my husband how you make them with a saw. He looked funny at me and said...keep ordering them from where you get them now.
I need to learn how to use the saw so I can do it myself.
🤣 I'm too cheap!
I bought silicone sheets and cut to size and now just need to wash them off and they are ready for the next batch. No more parchment paper needed.
You’re funny! I am not a morning person either. Luckily my husband is. 😂
My idea of early morning is 10am!
@@SchoolReports mine is 11
Cooking is cooking, boil, bake or grill, they still will be cooked!
👍👍👍👍👍
It looks as dry as my grandma she pass away before I was born btw
I just noticed that your original wt does not include the thermometers.
True. And I also remove them before the final weights after drying. czcams.com/video/f_WkoSftvD4/video.html
Thank you for the numbers! Trying to figure out how fast it will pay for itself. (I know its a worthwhile investment, since we have ran into supply chain shortages on my medical necessary diet (food allergies) in rural America.)
Thanks for watching.
Here is most of the data from these 50 batches. (I don't know if you had already seen it) First 500 lbs data spreadsheet link: docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing
@@SchoolReports I had not seen that! Thank you! (In one year, figured i could save over $350 in just FD one meal for my kids!). Thank you for the numbers again!
The bags the freeze dryer comes with are not the stand ups. Been fighting with them but need to use them up
You can buy bag holders to hold them while filling, but the same issue shows up again when you go to use the freeze dried food, if you want to rehydrate in the bag!
I _really_ like the stand-up bags.
I just found your channel, and I'm enjoying catching up with all your videos. To store your 'finished' products in mylar bags, I see you're using the [costco-type] storage bins with numbers. Is this how you store all of you mylar'd foods? What is your catalog system to find/know what is in each bin?
Thanks! I'm enjoying this series.
Yes, all of our bags are in the bins. (For this series we're using a separate set of bins.) We track them in an Open Office spreadsheet (Excel would work) sortable by month/year, bin number, and food. There's not much to show about it, but I'll try to put up something about it. These show a quick glimpses with a little of it. czcams.com/video/gCRgz9TktmM/video.html & czcams.com/video/a1CuXgKTxog/video.html
I think I have a video showing a little more detail, but I can't remember which one it is! I'll look for it.
@@SchoolReports Thank you for both of those links. I'm new to FDing, have done several pounds of meets, cheeses and veggies. You are certainly inspiring me to go beyond. Thanks again!
Those were concerning x-rays! Hope everyone is okay.
I just wanted people to know that 1 batch every 2 days is doable for everyone, it's not too much of a push for the freeze dryer. It's not the machines fault that I am getting behind. Some days I just don't manage to get much done. Some days the ONLY thing I get done is getting the food out of the freeze dryer, and the next food in; spinal cord damage is not your friend.
The freeze dryer really can do at least 180 batches per year.
Do you raise the front of your freeze dryer when defrosting so all the water drains to the back ?
I really appreciate how informative your videos are, i have learned a great deal about the basics of freeze drying as well as very helpful information on charting info and storage. Thank you !
On my older (2017) machine, I did screw the front feet down more than the back feet, and so it is sloped down to the drain in the back.
With my sister's new machine, it has a built in slope (and no adjustable feet) so we didn't raise the front on hers and it seems to drain okay. If the ice load is very high, we do put a metal piece in the bottom to melt a groove in the bottom ice to make sure it doesn't overflow the front seal.
Did you cut your parchment paper or purchase it cut like that.? Im really enjoying your videos!
Thanks for asking! We do cut our own parchment.
Cutting More Parchment Paper for our Freeze Dryer Trays - czcams.com/video/td9lV6ftWhQ/video.htmlsi=CT9S6xh20sTWzbBW
PS - I'm sorry about your fusions; I do hope your recovery will go well.
Thanks!
I just wanted people to know that 1 batch every 2 days is doable for everyone, it's not too much of a push for the freeze dryer. It's not the machines fault that I am getting behind. Some days I just don't get much done. The top fixture was 7 years ago, the bottom was a year ago, the injury was many, many years ago. Unfortunately, some injuries (spinal cord damage) only progress one way.
@@SchoolReports Hang in there, and be a good patient. Take care of yourself.
Wow, neck fixation and freeze drying? How in the world are you managing? Hope you are doing better every day!
I just wanted people to know that 1 batch every 2 days is doable for everyone, it's not too much of a push for the freeze dryer. It's not the machines fault that I am getting behind. Some days I just don't manage to get much done. Some days the ONLY thing I get done is getting the food out of the freeze dryer, and the next food in. The top fixture was 7 years ago, the bottom was a year ago, the injury was a long time ago. Unfortunately, so far, spinal cord damage only progresses one way. You do what you can, on the days that you can.
First surgery I observed was an Anterior Cervical Spine fixation. Much empathy coming your way...each day walking and doing as much as you can is a win.
I really appreciate your videos! I found the perfect cake pans at Walmart, inexpensive, 7.6 in. square, not so rigid as the much more expensive brand name I got through the Amazon link.
Could you fry those chips from freeze dried? I have had freeze dried green beans that were fried and seasoned (they were expensive) and really good
Freeze dry them first and then fry them? I'm sure that would work. Sounds good!
@@SchoolReports Yes, freeze dry, then fry
When your shirt says to “see back”, it would be good to show the back. 😜 (or did I miss it?)
There is a little glimpse of it in the next video. (White Bean Chicken Chili) I thought it was in this video too, but it cut too much. Oops! It says "Rule #2 See Front."
@@SchoolReports Shouldn't your wife be wearing that shirt???
Do you employ the manual defrost to save electricity Or...is there some other reason?
To save electricity, to save wear and tear of the freeze dryer components, and to make sure I don't give molds and mildew a warm moist growth environment; some people that have used the defrost function (and forgot to open the door afterwards) have reported a nasty surprise when opening it later.
Where do you get your supplies at
We have been getting our Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers from PackFreshUSA.com for years now and have been happy with the products and service we have received from them. - They are not a sponsor, we just like their stuff. We get the 7mil bags, mostly the gusset bottom, seal top ones. These are the ones we get the most: The pint bag with OA's packfreshusa.com/pint-seal-top-gusset-7-mil-stand-up-mylar-bags-sets/ packfreshusa.com/pint-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-1000-wholesale/ packfreshusa.com/quart-7x-9x3-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-1000-wholesale/ And these are the 2 quart ones packfreshusa.com/two-quart-7-mil-seal-top-gusset-mylar-bags-500-wholesale/ 300cc Oxygen Absorbers in 10-Packs (1000) packfreshusa.com/300cc-oxygen-absorbers-in-10-packs-1000-wholesale/
I just bought a freeze dryer. I've been watching videos and trying to learn. This is probably a dumb question but why do you weigh your trays?
Thanks for watching and for commenting!
(Not a dumb question. - I've seen them and this is not what they look like!)
There are two different types of the weighing we do and they are for 2 different reasons. The first type, weighing before and after the process, is for _portioning_ and for knowing the amount of water needed for _rehydrating._ This is very useful but not required.
The second type of weighing is the _Dry Check_ weighing, twice (minimum), during the end of the process and is very important. I wouldn't consider skipping it. If the weight drops during the _Dry Check_ it wasn't finished drying and it needs more time.
I've been told more than a few times that I'm wasting my time - that the machine "knows" when it's done! (It can't) I've also have heard from too many people who have found out, after - between days and months - that their food was not all the way dry and has now gone bad. Surprise!
As far as I'm concerned, anyone who is bagging any food for storage without doing a _Dry Check_ using a sensitize scale (or maybe a AQUALAB 4TE Water Activity Meter) is wasting their time, food, and money. Without the _Dry Check_ you're just guessing as to whether or not the food is dry, might as well just flip a coin.
(I could go on and on about this:)
When you say a pound you are referring to a pound before you freeze dried it correct?
Yes. I don't do a very good job pointing out when I'm talking about before drying vs after drying. When I say things like "I bagged them 1 pound in a bag" I'm definitely talking about the before drying weight. Example: 3/4 lb per bag czcams.com/video/f_WkoSftvD4/video.html
So when I do things like this I put them into my dehydrator on very low for only an hour, then into freezer bags. That way they don’t stick. Is this a bad idea?
That's probably a great idea!
I could have dried them off a bit with paper towels, but I didn't think they would stick that much. Oops.
I have seen you save the water in water jugs. Has the water ever been more than a gallon? From what I’ve seen most people use 5 gal buckets so just seeing your knowledge. What do you use the water for? Is is safe for watering plants? I’m just running my first FD batch now so I’m excited to watch more of your videos.
What are you drying for your first batch?
I almost never get more than a gallon. (a little over 8lbs) The most water I've ever had was a little over 11 lbs, (about 5 1/2 quarts and I consider it a bad plan and a mistake and I have avoided doing that again) but I don't recommend water loads over 6 pounds for the medium freeze dryer; with an absolute max of 8 lbs. I only measure and show the water because viewers would sometimes ask about the amount of water removed in a batch. Most of what I'm tracking and reporting in the videos are in response to viewers questions; I usually don't track all of this, though I have found it interesting.
As far as the water, I just pour it down the drain or on outdoor plants, whichever is more convenient at the time.
We are making blueberries. We picked them fresh from a family members trees and froze them. I punctured them with a meat tenderizer. We will be bagging them this morning.
@@kimberlyholmes4946 Wow! Blueberries for a first batch. Gutsy move! Blueberries are one of the slowest drying things I've done, they just don't want to let go of their water. (and pineapple) Make sure they are really, really dry before bagging them.
The batch came out great. I watched many of your videos and did the weight before and after each additional time.
@@kimberlyholmes4946 Awesome! Freeze dried blueberries are great and if you can get a deal on them (or grow them) so much the better.
try air fry them
Where do you get your oxygen absorbers from?
We have been getting our Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers form PackFreshUSA.com and have been happy with the products and service we have received from them. --They are not a sponsor, we just like their stuff. These are the ones we use the most. packfreshusa.com/300cc-oxygen-absorbers-in-10-packs-1000-wholesale/
my dryer automatically dries I got it a few months ago can i rely on its accuracy, I’ve never reopened the bags
Our freeze dryer is from 2017 and I've chosen to not "upgrade" the firmware to a newer version; I like it. My machine also has an automatic mode, I just don't use it because when I do the display doesn't show all of the same data.
That being said, the newer machine's firmware is better, faster and more accurate; it will do a better job assessing the dryness of the food. It still can be fooled. Personally, I wouldn't bag a single for long term storage without doing my "dry check." The exception to this would be if I were doing multiple batches of the same food, of the same amount, loaded on the trays in the same way, with no change in room temperature or humidity, then I might do subsequent batches giving them a couple extra hours and not do the dry checks.
@@SchoolReports new to your channel what s a dry check
@@sm-hi7jt I'm probably a bit neurotic when it comes to water activity levels in the food for storage.
I'm using the fact that the weight of the trays of food should stop dropping when all of the water has been removed. After the freeze dryer finishes, I take the trays out, weigh them, put them back in for more final dry time, and then check them again for weight loss. (Dry check) When the weight loss stops, (no more water to remove) they should be dry. I don't bag the food if there is still water in it.
I show this a lot in my recent videos. Freeze Drying Your First 500 lbs of Food - Batch 32 - Peas, Frozen czcams.com/video/mKh9c9nTzgA/video.html
😀 ❤️ 🐸 *
You are pretty nifty!