The Most Honest Freeze Dryer Review

I did I did I jumped on the bandwagon and I got  myself a Harvest Right freeze dryer I know it's   crazy what we're going to do today though is we're  going to unbox and run this huge monster together   and I'm going to share with you the reasons why  I got a freeze dryer and they may not be what you   think that they are maybe what most people get  a freeze dryer for um at the end though we are   going to run the freeze dryer for the first time  I'm going to run a batch of strawberries and then   we're going to eat the strawberries dried plus  we're going to eat them reconstituted so that   I can give you a very very honest feedback on  what freeze dried food tastes like although I   think many of us are used to you know trying the  dried freeze dried I am particularly interested   in finding out how it is when it's reconstituted  so let's jump right into this and see how hard it   actually is to put together together cuz it's just  me doing it and if I can do it you can definitely   do it Harvest Right does this whole process where  when they have it delivered to your house they   have FedEx call you and schedule it so that way  when the FedEx driver arrives you can actually   inspect the product and they encourage you to  do that they even sent me a video explaining   exactly how to do this so that you don't accept  a product that has been damaged in shipping the   FedEx driver was like super patient and helpful  and he had a lot of experience with doing these   so he even helped us you know take it apart  and show us what to look for and everything   came perfect there wasn't even a dent on the box  it was awesome I want to take a minute to kind of   talk about why I got a freeze dryer in the first  place my garden isn't super huge I do garden year   round but a lot of the times my harvests come  in kind of slow and I don't have like any kind   of animals on my property like chickens or cows  for dairy or meat or anything like that so really   the only things that I would be freeze drying is  the things coming out of my garden or anything   I got on sale at the store that I thought was a  really good price so it was hard to justify why   I was getting this freeze dryer you know years ago  when I even contemplated getting it and so a lot   of the times I couldn't you know Factor it in my  head how it could be a financial savings and so   even today I still struggle with what the return  on investment would be with a product like this   because it is quite expensive and it does pull  a lot of electricity and you still have to buy   the food if you don't have a significant Garden  or animals like I mentioned earlier if that's   something that you guys are interested in to see  you know what is the ROI on something like this   let me know and I will sit down and work on the  math and do a whole video if that is something   that you're interested in I think it's going to  be rather complex because it's it's going to be   something that I'm going to have to calculate  year over-ear which is not a big deal I can   definitely do that but I wanted to say all that  to say that this was not the reason why I got   the freeze dryer the reason really why I got the  freeze dryer is because probably the number one   reason is I don't particularly enjoy all home  canned foods fact I don't enjoy a lot of them   I like jams jellies pickles soup broth all the  Tomato products and such but then when you start   getting into the meats and the vegetables I feel  like everything just gets really really mushy and   I'm into texture and it just was not holding up  to what I enjoy from a texture perspective so   then I got more into freezing but then my freezers  got full so then it was up in the air on whether   we go by a freezer another freezer to store our  excess or do we freeze dry and so that was kind   of bouncing around in my head obviously a freezer  is actually less expensive than a freeze dryer by   quite a bit the electricity is a little bit  less with a freezer than a freeze dryer but   it runs continuously and a freeze dryer does  not run continuously so then there was a lot   of other factors that came into play so I have a  huge Garden Harvest and sometimes I have so many   tomatoes in my garden that or in my freezer that I  have no space for anything else and that happened   this last spring so much so that we couldn't fit  any kind of meat in our freezer and so we were   kind of going to the store every couple of days  to get those things and that was really just a   hassle the harvests that come in that come in  and excess you know I would like to be able to   do something with it and I'm not a big fan of the  canning and I'm running out of freezer space the   other big reason was herbs there are a couple  herbs in the garden that just don't dehydrate   well say in teas so I do it for seasoning and  teas and the ones that are sticking out to me   the most are basil and parsley and then also some  of my medicinal herbs that I use for you know our   health and such and I feel like they're losing  a lot of their nutritional value through the   dehydrating process they're also losing a lot  of their flavor um another reason is to reduce   food waste um because it's just my husband and  I when we get things like cream or eggs or you   know the things that maybe don't use quite as  often cream cheese sour cream sometimes those   small containers go bad in our fridge because we  just don't use that much between the two of us and   so that was another reason another reason if that  isn't enough was that I have something in me that   is just unable to cook for two people I I'm going  to blame it on my Italian Heritage and my family   and how I was raised and how you know we just  we cook hook for a crowd I don't know why so we   always have leftovers and that's cool leftovers is  fun but after the first day of leftovers usually   my husband is just about over it so that's another  reason why I'd like to have something to do with   those leftover meals and then our final reason  probably is the last time we went on an RV trip   we had some struggles with our RV fridge and  this is totally common RV fridges tend to be   completely unreliable ours is based on solar so  it's also based on whether or not you know we're   getting a good amount of Sun during the day um  we have a secondary way of giving it power but   we have to be stationary in order to do it so  there's there's this whole thing and on top of   that the trailer has a maximum weight capacity  especially in the back of the trailer which is   where our kitchen is located and sometimes when  you're camping and you're off grid and you don't   have electricity you know making an entire meal  is kind of a bit of the pain in the butt so being   able able to have these readymade meals where  you just add hot water which we can use from   our propane heating up water on our propane  was just all of those reasons ended up being   the reason why we were like let's go ahead and  do it not necessarily for the financial savings   but for all of the other reasons the convenience  the health the nutrients in the food the flavor   in the food a a new way of preserving our Harvest  where we keep some of that texture those were our   primary reasons okay I got it all set up it wasn't  particularly hard uh but I will say that if you're   new to putting things together it wasn't like  super detailed it was some of the stuff I felt   was probably out of order like turning on the pump  before plugging in the free jart like some of the   stuff didn't make sense to me to me so I did it  my way it seems like everything's okay but I did   follow the directions as closely as possible  but they they weren't perfect not for somebody   who is not technically inclined so consider that  but now we're going to get loaded on some trays   the only place in my house that I had that had  the availability to put a freeze dryer was in my   spare bedroom I know you're probably thinking like  why don't you put it in your garage well freeze   dryer or the Harvest Right freeze dryer has some  information on it that says that it can't operate   over a certain temperature and once it gets above  I think it's I want to say it's 80 or 95° that it   operates less effectively my garage for about 7  months of the year is at least 90° cuz I'm here   in Florida so that isn't really an option if I  plan on using these things uh very often which I   do I did go ahead and purchase some uh tray lids  and so that way that when I freeze them in the   freezer that I can um stack these on top so it's  not food laying on food uh I also have heard that   you can actually freeze dry on these I don't know  if I'm going to uh do that but I've heard people   actually use them as like a second set of trays  they do not come with the unit uh I bought them separately I know we mentioned that we were doing  strawberries and we are going to do strawberries   but Harvest Wright recommends that you do a bread  run first so you put bread you moisten it with a   little bit of water and then you run the freeze  dryer for the full cycle and the purpose behind   this is so that you know most new equipment  have that like new chemically smell sometimes   it's burning off some oil some you know if you've  ever like got a brand new toaster and used it for   this her first time and you're like what does  that smell well that's what's going to happen   here they warn us about that and they suggest  using a braad bread run because the bread will   absorb that scent and then after the bread run  your rest of your food will not smell like that   you know industrial chemical scent so I have  some bread I could have made my own but I'm   like wow I'm not going to do that much effort  for something that I have to throw away after   because it's got like a chemical smell to it  doesn't sound that appealing so I'm going to   get my trays out I did get the Harvest uh premium  pump and I got the five tray medium right so there   is a medium that is a four tray but I bought  mine during a um special I think it's like a   Black Friday special and the one that they had on  sale I believe the only one you could get at that   moment was the five tray which I'm totally fine  with because I want five trays I don't want four   trays um I'm told that if you have the four trays  that you can actually stack higher the food um   and with the five trays it's a little skinnier  so you can't pack as much food um on you know   that level but it's just me and my husband and  you know I don't think I'm going to use it that way from what I understand that's probably more  of a concern if you're freeze drying candy which   apparently is like this whole new trend and I'm  not going to lie I love candy so so I probably   will give it a shot at some point in time once  I freeze dry enough things that I'm comfortable   doing it but for now I think I'm just going to be  doing regular food and in particular my first few   runs are going to be fruits and vegetables and  then I'll move on to readymade meals and then   I'll move on to uh Meats oh probably herbs I'll  definitely be doing herbs so forgive the fact   that we are using a bed to arrange this like  I said this is my spare room so this is all   I have so I'm going to arrange the bread on here  I think in the future I'll probably set this in   the kitchen do all my prep in the kitchen and  then come out here with the trays completely loaded Publix had this bread on sale Boga  so I'm keeping one loaf for myself and   then we've got one loaf that's going  into the freeze dryer so thankfully   it's not like I had to spend a lot of  money on this bread does feel wasteful though okay now that we have the bread there  they say to moisten the bread a little bit so never moisted bread before this is an interesting process okay now here's the real test  I'm going to seal it close it start it okay it did ask me a question there that  I didn't realize uh I had to answer which was   what kind of pump I have and I have the premier  oil pump I hear that's better than the oilfree   and I hear it's better than the standard because  you don't have to change the oil quite as much so   right now it says that it's cooling the vacuum  chamber so wait 15 minutes so it's going to get   it down I guess to make it cold and then it'll  start freeze drying it's rather loud so we're just   going to watch it the stages of the freeze drying  process start with the prefreeze so the prefreeze   is only 15 minutes and I was not supposed to put  my trays in but I did by accident um I don't think   it had any problem with the bread run but normally  you let it prefreeze before you put your trays in   and then it begins its freeze and it freezes until  you get down to about -20° or so then it switches   to freeze drying and it's also trying to hit some  sort of number of low temperature and vacuum pole   and I don't know exactly what that perfect  number was but it's definitely below -20 and   it's definitely on the low side of like 400 on the  um the vacuum pole after that then it moves to the   drying stage and it is in this stage probably the  longest and this is where it's actually you know   evaporating the water out of the food and then  that turns into a gas and then it sticks to the   edge of the uh freeze dryer as a solid which is  ice after that there is a little bit of extra dry   time that you can do if you like so it's all done  this was the bread run so all this is just going   to go into the compost but I'm very curious at  what textur is like oh wow oh it is just like okay   like Styrofoam that's exactly what it's like and  these guys feel really Dr I don't feel any cold   spots I don't feel they always tell you like look  for cold spots but you know moist spots when you   break it in half is it really crunchy and it it  really is uh so I think it's done that was so easy   it was a little like I don't know I was a little  anxiety ridden through this whole process mainly   because I you know being the prepared person I am  I had to like go on to every Facebook site there   is and join it and a lot of people talk about the  problems that they have and so as the machine was   progressing through every single you know cycle  and transition and all those things I was watching   I got up in the middle of the night and checked  on it like I was super up obsessed with it um and   none of the problems that anyone has ever talked  about happened to me the one thing that did happen   that actually I hadn't seen a lot of people talk  about in the forums and um maybe it's because   the climate I live in I live in Florida it's hot  and humid we're in the middle of winter and it's   still hot and humid and so uh we get kind well I  get condensation on the front of the machine so   the the glass door that closes when it's freezing  the ring around it and the door have a significant   amount of condensation to the point that I had to  put a towel down my husband is well was in heating   and air conditioning he was in HVAC so he's  very familiar with refrigeration and vacuum and   pressures and all this stuff and he believes that  that this Gap right here this tiny tiny little   Gap is allowing enough air to escape to cause that  condensation and the the slight icing of the Ring   I don't think it's a big deal but we did go ahead  and order something over night I think it's called   backer tape or backer tube or something like that  I'll show it to you when he puts it in but um it's   basically like a foam insulation in a tiny tiny  tube and we should be able to fit it into there   to try to you know reduce that Gap but it really  did not impact the process at all it didn't you   know it still got down to very low temperatures  it got down to very low pressure uh the vacuum   was pulling like a serious vacuum um it it heated  up the trees when it was supposed to everything   happened perfectly so I am just so incredibly  stoked um I mentioned that a lot of people have   said that they've had issues but um I think God  was speaking to me in this moment cuz he knew how   anxiety ridden I was last night I happened to go  on to the site and and read you know I'm reading   cuz I want to learn everything and somebody had  posted like hey I'm thinking about getting one   of these but you guys talk about so many issues  that you know it seems kind of scary to spend   that kind of money and have issues within just  a few hours there was 500 comments I stopped   reading them after a while but 500 comments of  people talking about the perfect experience they   had and apparently I am one of the ones that had a  positive experience so the bread went well but now   here's the big one I got to get strawberries done  and they need to be done in about 50 hours because   I have family coming to stay and they sleep  in this room and that thing when it's running   in the vacuum running is very loud and I cannot  imagine anybody is going to want to um sleep in   here with that so we're going to let that machine  defrost we're going to put that backer tape on it   and or tube on it and then we're going to get  these strawberries in and cross our fingers and   hope that they finish in time if they don't it's  okay I'll cancel the the thing and put them in the   freezer and then we'll restart it once my family  leaves but but yeah I'm GNA go ahead and get these   uh in the compost and get the strawberries uh  into the trays and get this guy defrosted and   we're going to run the strawberries before we  jump into the strawberries I just wanted to show   you really quick that insulation that we added  to help with the condensation um this is just a   small uh this one is rubber but we also have a  a insulation one that is foam we're trying the   rubber first and after running the strawberries  that looked like it worked out really really well so now we're ready to start the strawberry  run and so I had these strawberries from a project   that I was working on for my neighbors for  Christmas I gave out a strawberry banana jam   and so I had U miscalculated how many strawberries  I needed so I had a bunch of extra strawberries   these are not the strawberries from my garden  these are strawberries from the store The Garden   ones they're just now starting to produce um so  hopefully I'll be doing another round of these um   so what I did was I flash froze these which means  you just cut them into pieces and you put them on   a tray on individual on a single layer so that  that way they're not touching and you put them   in the freezer and then they freeze for about an  hour and then you can separate them and put them   together into the same bag and then they won't get  stuck together now a couple of mine did get stuck   together here mainly because I probably didn't  freeze them for as long but it was no big deal   the next trays I'm going to do are some banana  some pureed banana I've had this in my freezer   for probably about 6 months and I need something  to do with it I've been using it for smoothies um   but you know they just are hard to separate once  they're frozen solid like this so I thought hey   this would be a great candidate to use on the  freeze dryer and then I had some of my tromino   squash which was a huge Harvest that I had from  this thing and I have three more bags of sliced   truco squash in the freezer that I am going to  freeze dry after this uh this run so what I'm   doing right here now is I'm going to be weighing  each one of the trays for multiple reasons so the   first reason is there is a maximum capacity on  these trays I believe it's uh I believe it's 2   and 1/2 or 3 lb I believe it's 3 lb now it used  to be 2 and 1/2 but now it's three and so I weigh   them at the start to make sure I'm not over the  maximum amount and also I'm weighing them so that   at the end of the process I can subtract how much  they weigh at the end of the process to how much   they weighed at the beginning to know exactly how  much water to add back to them to reconstitute I   don't think that's necessarily a huge deal  when it comes to fruits and vegetables but   maybe when it comes to whole meals that will be  more important because I had such a short window   I also spread these out and did not put like  a significant amount you can put way more on   these trays than what I did um I was just trying  to make sure that they would finish quicker so you   can see a lot of space in between them so this  has been going for about 24 hours and then it   ran I think another 6 hours because I was sleeping  it ran overnight and once I woke up I was able to   pull them out and what I'm doing right here is I'm  I'm writing down all the weight of them and then   I'm sticking them back in the freeze dryer for 2  extra hours the reason I'm doing this is because   once they freeze dry and the Machine tells you  that they're dry it is a really good idea and   highly recommended that you weigh them and then do  them for another 2 hours and then weigh them again   to make sure that the weight has not changed and  the reason for that is to tell you if the weight   changes that means there was still moisture in  them the machine might have said it was done but   there was still moisture in them because the  number went down and so that tells you that   they weren't dry enough and they're not going to  hold in storage for that long storage period if   they're not completely dry mine after the 2 hours  they were exactly the same weight so they are dry   dry dry for this run I decided to put them into  mason jars and what you're going to see here is   not the ideal way to store these but I am testing  it out right I want to make sure that when I dried   them properly that I did dry them properly so  I'm putting them in a mason jar and I'm vacuum   Sealing steing them what you should do and what is  recommended is that if you're going to put them in   a mason jar you also add an oxygen absorber and  you vacuum seal them if you aren't going to use   a mason jar you should use a 7 mm myar bag this  is a special type of bag that keeps out light and   it keeps out air from absorbing a regular plastic  bag is going to absorb air believe it or not and   then you put an oxygen absorber in the myar bag  and then you uh use the heat sealer to seal the   myar bag closed now like I said I did not do that  because I'm doing something I think is referred   to as conditioning and what that means is is I'm  sealing these up well not the strawberries because   those were gone within just a few days they are  addicting but the other things like the powders   the strawberry powder the banana powder and the  whole zucchinis I'm doing something I like I said   I think is called conditioning and this means  that I am putting it in there and I'm going to   let it sit for weeks or even months and I'm going  to observe them over a long period of time to see   if they are you know adding or you know increasing  in its moisture content see if any mold forms so   that's going to tell me whether I am doing this  properly because it is a little bit of a learning   experience and man it would be awful to waste food  that you've spent so much time growing or money   that you spent shopping for it and then going  through this whole process of preserving your   food and sealing your food to find out that you  didn't dry it enough which is my biggest concern   so we got our strawberries all freeze-dried our  zucchinis which I have a lot more to do and then   I had some extra strawberries I didn't want to put  them in a half jar so I made strawberry powder and   I made banana powder and I'm going to use these  in smoo smoothies I'm super excited about these   but uh let's do our taste test now I'm going  to get a little bit of water and we're going   to rehydrate one of these strawberries I have two  I'm going to drop in there and I'm told you just   put them in water for a couple minutes I also have  two that are completely freeze dry so let's try these flavor-wise are amazing text is  a little weird you know I'm a texture   person kind of reminds me of remember those  little Lucky Charms when you're a kid and   the little marshmallows that they had in  the Lucky Charms it kind of reminds me of that not as crunchy it's actually a little softer  I like it oh man those rehydrated really fast okay   save one for my husband cuz he's very curious  all right so I I think it's rehydrated let's try it tastes just like a strawberry like a  fresh strawberry well it's actually pretty surprising first off I'm surprised at how quickly  they rehydrate and second I'm surprised at how   much they're like their original form now I want  you to see like I don't know if you can see that   so well it's not crisp like a strawberry typically  is but it kind of reminds me of like Strawberry   Shortcake and you just made the strawberry filling  part that goes in Strawberry Shortcake where it's   a little bit softened because it's been in the  gel and the it's kind of like that but it's not   like full soft it's not full soft it definitely  has some texture my husband's been very curious   so I'm going to send this into him and see what he  thinks thank you so much for hanging out with with   me today and figuring out how this whole freeze  dryer thing works if you haven't subscribed to   my channel yet make sure you head down and  hit that subscribe button so you don't miss   any future videos also if you found this video  helpful in making your decision as to whether   or not to get a freeze dryer and you have decided  to move forward and get a freeze dryer I would be   incredibly thankful and honored if you use my link  below down in the description um it is at no cost   to you and it does help uh fund the channel so so  I really appreciate if you would do that otherwise   I hope you enjoyed this episode and happy  gardening and happy freeze drying [Music] now

Channel: Homegrown Florida

Views: 35,004

Keywords: Freeze Dryer, Food Preservation, Preserving Food, Freeze Drying, Food Storage, harvest right, harvest right freeze dryer, homegrown florida, food storage, freeze dryer harvest right, freeze dryer review, harvest right freeze dryer noise, harvest right freeze dryer problems, harvest right freeze dryer review, harvest right freeze dryer troubleshooting, harvest right setup, harvest right unboxing, harvestright freeze dryer, harvestright.com freeze dryer, long term food storage

Id: ySqy4s_cIOA

Length: 28min 46sec (1726 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023