I bought a freeze dryer to preserve some of my harvest from my garden in a way that would last a long time while maintaining the nutritional value. I love to can, and having home canned items on my shelves is one of my favorite things, but those items should be eaten within a couple of years of processing them for optimal flavor, texture, and nutritional value.

I have done several vegetables lately and have tested how some of them reconstitute. 2 of the items I did recently were potatoes and carrots, just a couple of trays of each to see how they’d work. This also helped me use up a bunch of tiny potatoes that I didn’t want to have to figure out how to use later.

I got them all washed up and then cut them into even slices about 1/4 inch thick. I figured this would be good for most recipes that called for sliced carrots and/or sliced potatoes, and if I wanted to powdered them, it didn’t matter how I cut them.

I then cooked them until they were done, but not mushy. I boiled the potatoes and steamed the carrots. From there I cooled them down and laid them out on towels to thoroughly dry. I didn’t think the freeze dryer needed extra moisture.

I laid them out in a single layer on the freeze dryer trays and then popped them in the freeze dryer and a little less than 24 hours later they were done. Perfectly crisp and ready to package. I packaged them all in mylar bags and put them away for use later.

I made a soup a few days later and decided to throw a package of celery (I freeze dried earlier in the fall) and carrots. I was worried the carrots would now totally dissolve, but that’s why we experiment. I tossed them in when I added the water to the veggies so they had plenty of time to rehydrate.

They didn’t fall apart. In fact, they held their shape and tasted like fresh cooked carrots!

My carrots didn’t grow fantastic in my garden, so I didn’t have any more to test. I waited and waited for the Alaska carrots to show up in the grocery store, and finally, yesterday they were there. I will be processing about 15 pounds of carrots over the next few days.

My next experiment was butternut squash. I don’t care for summer squash, but I do like most winter squash, butternut being my favorite. I even have a bread recipe with butternut squash in it.

I started by splitting the squash in half, scooping out the seeds and baking it until it was tender. From there I scraped the squash out of the skins into a bowl and left it to cool for several hours. This squash was pretty dry, but had it not been I would’ve placed it in a colander while it cooled to drain any excess liquid.

I spread it out evenly over my 4 freeze dry trays and got it going in the freeze dryer. Even though this was pretty dry feeling when I spread it out, it took quite a bit longer than the carrots and potatoes. But, it wasn’t individual slices, more like a 1/2 inch thick layer over the whole sheet, so it took about 36 hours to freeze dry.

When I pulled it out I was worried it may not have gotten dry all the way through, but it had. I was able to easily break it into smaller pieces and get it sealed in bags with an oxygen packet and get it stored away.

A few days later I needed a side dish for dinner and decided to try the squash. I poured hot tap water (mistake) over the squash and it mostly rehydrated. I should have used boiling water. I wasn’t sure how much I’d need so I had to just keep adding until the squash was rehydrated and the consistency I wanted it to be. It tasted just like I’d cooked it that day. I did learn to use boiling water not just hot tap water.

Up next – mashed potatoes. I love the convenience of the packaged mashed potatoes, but would love to make my own out of my own potatoes. I am having a lot of fun learn how to freeze dry and how to use what I’ve been freeze drying. Now to the next issue – where to store all my bags of food!

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