Freeze-drying A Naturally Sweet Healthy Snack

November 3, 2024 Sarah

We spent the summer and early summer working on freeze-drying food for the winter, especially eggs when they were plentiful in the long days. It works well for us, do the work when it happens and eat later. A Little Red Hen tale always. Don’t be lazy when it is on. Often we freeze-dry a lot of the same things over and over (that we use often).

This treat is one we do often. It uses the prime harvest time or even when the best of it shows up in markets. Process it, and you will eat well for months.

And what is that?

Carrots!

Just out of the Harvest Right Freeze-dryer, ready to be put into small MRE-style mylar bags.

Yes, it is that simple. Raw carrots were freeze-dried. They become even more sweet when dried and can be eaten as a snack. You can, of course, soak them in water and cook with them after drying, but it is so easy that there is no need to blanch the produce beforehand. Just peel and slice up, then proceed.

What is the sweetest vegetable out there? For me, I would say carrots. When you freeze-dry them, they become intensely flavored and even sweeter.

Buying dehydrated carrot dice is easy, but they are not the same. Dehydrated carrots are tiny bits that must be rehydrated before eating. They are pre-cooked, so they work fine for meals with a 15-minute rehydration time or to be added into say stews and soups and left to simmer.

If freeze-dried raw carrots can be found commercially, they are often marketed as a dog treat (lucky them!).

So, if you want a fun snack, it will be a DIY project!

Freeze-Dried Carrot Coins

We usually prep 15 to 20 pounds of carrots at a time. If you are harvesting from your garden, you can process them as they are ripe, and once you have enough, put them on a run in the machine. This makes it very easy.

Try out the carrots. You want them to be as crisp as possible and taste great. You won’t get a good final product if they are soft, limp, or mealy.

This also opens up choices. Buy or grow the fancy carrots for a different look. Freeze-drying white, yellow, and purple instead of orange? Easy!

I buy carrots when I see them at good prices or when the harvest flow is happening. I give them a good wash, then peel and trim.

Slice into coins or on the bias (so at an angle). We have done it both ways. I find that the bias cut is best for enormous carrots. For smaller carrots, cut coins.

I spread them out on rimmed baking sheets and freeze them. Unless I work on a big lot (say 15 to 20 pounds at once), I transfer to bags once frozen and keep them frozen until I have enough. This lets you harvest carrots over a couple of weeks in summer and early fall. (We have a Large size unit, so we pack it pretty full)

Once you have enough to run a batch, lay the carrots on the freeze-dryer sheets and put them on. The machines are automatic, so it is quite easy.

Once dry, open the machine and test a carrot to ensure it is fully dry. If not, put it on for a few more hours. Otherwise, bag the carrots (or put it into mason jars) and seal it with a desiccant and an oxygen packet. If you use the small MRE-style mylar bags, you have a ready-to-go trail snack. Be sure to note the date dried and what is in the bags.

Enjoy your naturally sweet and crunchy treat!

Tip: When enjoying freeze-dried treats, drink water with it. Your stomach will appreciate you.

Want to see what else we have freeze-dried?

All the tutorials.

The Black Friday November Harvest Right Sale Is On!

This is Harvest Right’s best sale all year long, with the machines hundreds of dollars off. If you have been contemplating getting one, this is the time.

~Sarah

Freeze Drying · Preserving

Preserving The Spring and Summer Bounty: Freeze-Drying Eggs

June 11, 2024 Sarah

As we approach the Summer Solstice next week, homesteaders have been harvesting a lot of eggs if they have chickens, ducks, turkeys, and even quail. I know that for us, with only 17 hens currently, I can take in a baker’s dozen per day, most days. For us, we are nearly at 16 hours of daylight. The chickens are feeling great right now!

That adds up quickly, and I can be staring down at 12 dozen in the refrigerator (I prefer to store my unwashed eggs chilled, as always, do what works for you!). When it hits that half my refrigrator is egg cartons, it is time to process the eggs.

Are you even a homesteader if you don’t have a ton of eggs right now?

What we do in this season is to freeze-dry them for later use. In winter, when the light is just over 8 hours a day, we are fortunate to get 1-2 eggs a day (we don’t use lighting for our birds in winter, and let them rest). Being able to pull out mason jars full of bright yellow eggs? That is a huge deal. No need to go buy eggs, paying $5 to 10 a dozen for anything worth buying at the store.

They store well in both mason jars and mylar bags, tightly sealed.

The beauty of it is, you can work on this over days, as you have time and eggs. Liquid eggs go into the freezer to be frozen before they are freeze-dried.

Freeze-Drying Eggs:

Collect and wash the eggs in warm water. Let hangout on a kitchen towel to dry.

Crack each egg into a cup, then transfer to a blender. When the blender is about ¾ full, put the lid on and on low, process the eggs till they are fully mixed. You want the whites blended in fully.

To control the mess, I cover my counter with parchment paper.

Place a freeze-dryer tray in the freezer, and slowly pour the liquid eggs into it, till the tray is nearly full. Put a tray lid on carefully so there isn’t any spilling. Gently slide the freezer closed and remind everyone in the house not to bother the freezer for an hour or two. This ensures my kids don’t do their usual of ripping the door open quickly and jostling the still-liquid eggs.

Repeat until you run out of eggs. How many eggs it takes to fill the trays depends on your egg size and the size of your freeze-dryer (we have a Large Harvest Right). It took me about 6 dozen eggs. I had to do it in 2 batches over 2 days, as our freezer in the house, I can only stack 3 trays. Then I moved the trays down to the bottom and did the other 2 trays.

Once fully frozen, turn on the freeze-dryer for 15 to 30 minutes to get it ready (following the directions for your machine – essentially, the machines are now automatic on the cycles and sense when it is dry).

Insert the trays and let them process until they are fully dry. To check for being fully dry at the end of the automatic cycle, use a gloved finger in the center of a tray to ensure it is fully dry.

I had not tried drying the eggs directly on the trays, before I used silicone ice trays to freeze them in, and then placed the frozen cubes of eggs on the trays. The eggs pulled away nicely from the trays once freeze-dried. One less step, and I will continue to do it the tray way from now on. I got out a large stainless steel mixing bowl, and with gloves on, I knocked the eggs into the bowl (easy to do) and crumbled/powdered any chunks with my fingers.

Using a canning funnel, I loaded quart mason jars (6 of them) and 2 quart-sized mylar bags for the 5 trays, adding in 1 oxygen absorber packet and 1 desiccant packet. Being raw eggs, I take that part very carefully.

We then seal our jars and pouches in our Avid Armor Sealer (also see on Amazon).

Mark when you dried them and tuck them away for the long, cold, and dark days of winter. Store in a cool, dry place, preferably out of the sun, for the longest shelf-life.

To rehydrate:

Start with 2 Tablespoons dry egg powder and add 2 Tablespoons cool water; stir to blend, and let sit for a few minutes to hydrate. Add up to another Tablespoon of water (for a total of 3 tablespoons) to thin as needed. Use as you would fresh eggs for scrambling, egg washes and omelets, or in baked goods.

For More Information:

What freeze-dryer do we use? A Harvest Right Large. We are a family of 5, sometimes 6, and grow food, so it offers the size we need to preserve. If you are a smaller family, or live where you need the machine to be in the kitchen, a Small or Medium may be a better choice for you.

Want to read what else we have freeze-dried? All the posts.

~Sarah

Freeze Drying · Preserving

Freeze-drying Frozen Vegetables

May 3, 2024May 3, 2024 Sarah

One of the simplest things we can preserve in our Harvest Right Freeze-dryer is frozen vegetables. A couple of times a year, we run batches to preserve and tuck away. Where we live power outages are a real issue in winter months, and I don’t like keeping a lot in the freezer. I have lost too much food over the years to 3-4 day outages. Once we have freeze-dried the food and sealed it up, we have 1o to 25 years time. Which is quite a long time.

We shop at a restaurant supply store and pick up 5-pound bags of frozen vegetables: pes, petite peas, sweet corn, mixed chopped vegetables, green beans, sliced carrots, and such. The prices at restaurant supply stores are extremely affordable compared to grocery store prices. Here in Western Washington, a 16-ounce bag of frozen vegetables ranges from nearly $3 for store brand to well over $6. The store brand quality is rarely good. In the restaurant supply store, I have found the quality is far better, and the prices range from around $1 a pound to under $2. Which makes it very affordable.

Watching sales is also one way to do it. Buy when it is affordable, and stock up. Then freeze-dry when you have time.

In a large-size unit, I can put 2 to 2½ pounds on each tray. This is tightly packed, but you can always add fewer vegetables.

It’s as simple as spreading the vegetables on the trays and turning on the dryer. It is automatic now. Then pack up and seal.

Why buy frozen vegetables?

Frozen vegetables are blanched beforehand, meaning they are cooked. When you freeze-dry them, they are now “instant” vegetables. Just pour them into soups, rice dishes, and more; they just need to rehydrate. No cooking is needed. And best? You didn’t have to do any of the extra work of blanching (which is a pain to do in the heat of summer).
The vegetables are also already frozen, so just pour them on the freeze-dryer trays and pop them in to dry.

Peas

Corn

Mixed vegetables. The tiny carrot dice are very sweet and great for prepper meals. See here for Pantry Staple Recipes to get a lot of ideas! During those power outages we eat really well.

Harvest Right is having its May Sale from now through May 21st, 2014. This is the equivalent of their annual Black Friday Sale, so if you have been wondering if a freeze-dryer might be for you, take a look. If you are a single person, a Small or Medium will work best. The Large is great for families, and those doing a lot of prepping work.

~Sarah

Freeze Drying · Prepping · Recipes

Meals In A Jar: Instant Egg Sausage Scramble

February 9, 2024November 10, 2024 Sarah

Having meals in a jar ready to use means you have stocked long-term meal storage planning. If you take the time to plan out easy-to-make meals, you will have comfort food prepared to make when needed.

The instant egg sausage scramble recipe pulls together quickly and packs into a pint-size mason jar. This recipe will require cooking, but you won’t need refrigeration. That is always a bonus. No worry if the power goes out.

This is a great recipe to use freeze-dried and dehydrated ingredients in, and I have included links to posts showing how to dehydrate and freeze-dry some of the ingredients. (I’ve also included links for items that are harder to freeze-dry, but you can buy commercially.) Being able to freeze-dry your ingredients is a massive thing to me. We can have all the fun ingredients we want and can put together meals as we see fit.

This recipe can be packed into a pint glass mason jar for long-term storage, or you can also pack it into a “MRE” style mylar bag for storage. The mylar bag makes it very portable.

Instant Egg Sausage Scramble

Ingredients:

½ cup freeze-dried sausage crumbles
¼ cup freeze-dried onions, crumbled (how to freeze-dry)
¼ cup dried mushrooms, finely crumbled
1 tsp freeze-dried, dried garlic or granulated dried garlic
Pinch sea salt
½ cup freeze-dried cheese (used Swiss)
½ cup freeze-dried uncooked egg (how to freeze-dry)
1 Tbsp olive oil or butter

Directions:

In a wide-mouth pint-size mason jar, add the sausage, onion, mushroom, garlic, and salt. Tap gently to settle it.

Place the cheese in a snack-size zip-top bag and seal it, pushing out all air. Repeat the egg powder in a second bag.

Fit into the jar, pushing down to fit it all. Seal tightly.

Store in a cool, dry, and dark area in your pantry.

Note:

It may also be packed in a mylar bag.

To Prepare:

Remove the two bags and set aside.

Add ¾ cup of warm water to the dry ingredients in the jar. Stir well.

Add 1/3 cup cool water to the cheese bag. Seal and set aside.

Add ¾ cup cool water to the egg bag. Seal and shake till the egg powder dissolves. Set aside.

Let sit for 10 to 15 minutes to rehydrate.

Heat a frypan over medium-low heat, and add the oil or butter. Drain off any water remaining in the sausage mix, add to the pan, and saute until it smells good. Shake the egg bag again and slowly pour in.

Drain off any remaining water in the cheese bag, and sprinkle the cheese on top.

Use a spatula to scramble gently until the egg is cooked as you like.

Note:

You can soak the sausage mix in cool water; just let it sit for 20-30 minutes.

~Sarah

Freeze Drying · Prepping · Preserving · Recipes

Freeze-Drying Eggs

February 8, 2024November 10, 2024 Sarah

During the pandemic years, freeze-dried and dehydrated eggs were hard to source. People were stocking up, especially at the tail end, when Avian Flu forced many commercial growers to kill their hens. This led to very high prices. At one point, Augason Farms was over $100 a can on Amazon.

The price for Augason Farms dehydrated eggs has dropped to $58.20 on Amazon for a #10 can.

To give an idea of how many eggs are in the cans, Augason Farms is 72 eggs, so .81 cents an egg.

If you raise hens in season, you will have a lot of eggs to deal with. This is when you process the eggs for long-term food storage. Or, if not, find a local store that sells five dozen eggs at an affordable price and process those.

Now, let’s say you happen to have a freeze-dryer on hand. You can start using those eggs.

If you can source eggs for under .33 cents each, that is a good start. Size doesn’t matter, so pick up what is cheapest – medium and extra large are often less than large due to consumers wanting a standard size.

Eggs from our hens, washed and drying on the counter.

I cover the counter to keep the mess down (cracking eggs is always messy).

Freeze-drying Eggs:

I suggest starting with about ten dozen eggs if using a Large-size freeze-dryer. If eggs are homegrown, wash and let eggs dry. If commercial eggs, proceed.

Crack each egg individually and add to a 4-cup measuring cup. Once full, pour into a blender. Run till eggs are mixed, on low. This is an important step – you want to break the whites apart and blend them well.

Pour into molds, then cover molds and let freeze fully.

Once frozen, pop out (using the handle of a wooden spatula across the bottom helps them pop). Either place in gallon freezer bags for later processing or spread out on your freeze-dryer trays. I highly suggest lining the trays with the liners or cutting parchment paper to fit.

The trays are ready for the freeze-dryer. The freeze-dryer is auto-sensing, so turn it on to run the cycle.

Once it says the run is over, with a glove on, poke a few to make sure the interior is fully dry. If any show moisture, put it back on for another six or so hours.

It’s easy to powder the eggs; just add them to a jar, put a lid on, and shake. They drop down into powder quickly.

Pack the eggs into glass mason jars or mylar bags, add an oxygen absorber packet, and seal. For long-term storage, use a vacuum sealer as well.

To rehydrate: Start with 2 Tablespoons dry egg powder and add 2 Tablespoons cool water; stir to blend. Add up to another Tablespoon of water (for three total) to thin as needed. Use as you would fresh eggs for scrambling or in baked goods.

~Sarah