I love to watch gardening and food preservation video’s on YouTube. I get great ideas on what to grow in my garden, how to grow things, and what to do with them when it’s time to harvest them.

One common item that most of these people have is a freeze dryer. I have purchased freeze dried items on many occasions and I love the versatility and taste of those items. They are also shelf stable and can last almost indefinitely. This appliance then, has been on my list of things to purchase for a very long time.

Freeze dryers are very heavy machines, and the company will not ship to Alaska. But, it was still something that I wanted if I could figure out how to get it here, and had the money at the same time, because they’re not just heavy, they’re are expensive. There have been people we know who have driven down specifically for a freeze dryer and offered to pick up more than one, but I never had the money to do it.

Early this summer my brother-in-law decided to drive down to Utah to visit his son. He had several items he wanted to bring back, but had extra space if we had anything we needed from the lower 48. This was my chance. I not only now had a way to get it here, but I also had saved up enough money to purchase one! I bought it, had it delivered to my nephew’s house, and my brother-in-law brought it back to Alaska with him.

It then sat for several months… All the literature said that it was quite loud, and to put it somewhere it won’t bother you as it runs for 24-30 hours for some items. I wanted to put it in my basement, but my daughter, son-in-law, and their new baby are living down there so I hesitated because of the noise warning.

I also needed something permanent to place it on. I didn’t have anything sturdy enough, it weighs 170 pounds (mine is the small freeze dryer). My husband searched online for local carts, messaged people, never got responses, nothing. Until about 3 weeks ago. Someone responded to his message and he went and picked up a heavy duty cart on wheels.

The next week he and my son-in-law set up the freeze dryer, and I got the computer part of it all set up. The first batch was recommended to be bread that gets thrown away when finished. This helped get any smell or manufacturing whatever’s out of the machine and also helped me learn how to do it on something inexpensive. Turns out, it’s really not as loud as I had imagined. There is one point that it beeps kind of loud for less than a minute, when it goes from freezing to drying. But it’s not any louder while it’s running than a white noise machine.

I had a bunch of very ripe pears sitting on my counter, so the next item to go in was pears. I’ve had freeze dried food before, but no one else really had, so no one knew what to expect. When they came out my husband’s first comment was that they had the consistency of styrofoam, but tasted good. He wasn’t sure he’d like them. I put the finished pears in a large jar and just left them on the counter. They disappeared pretty quickly.

Since then I’ve done most of the herbs in my greenhouse, some raspberries from my raspberry patch, and some rhubarb I had in the freezer. All of which have come out perfectly. Today I will be pulling out some pineapple and some wild lowbush cranberries I picked a few days ago. I will then do one more batch of herbs, and then I’d like to do some experimenting. I have found the texture of the finished product to vary depending on the food and use.

I’m excited to try meat as well. Meat can be freeze dried in cooked or raw form. It is then shelf stable until water is added back in. You need to cook the raw meat after rehydration, so labeling is very important. But I love that I don’t need to put it back in my freezer.

Freeze drying has many benefits. There is a substantial difference between say freeze dried vs dehydrated items. Freeze dried foods retain 97% of their nutritional value while dehydrated foods retain between 50-80%. I don’t think freeze drying can take the place of dehydrated, frozen or canned foods, but it’s a great addition to the home preservation methods.

I am thrilled with how my freeze dryer is working and how well it does it’s job. I am also pleased with the quality and taste of the finished product. It also comes with an impulse sealer, mylar bags, and oxygen packs to package everything and keep it in good condition until I’m ready to use it. It’s an expensive investment, but I am so glad I was finally able to get one.

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