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 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

Preserving · Recipes

Quick Pickled Red Onions

April 21, 2024 Sarah

I’ve pickled red onions often, using various methods, and I’ve always searched for ways to replicate the pickled onions served in cafes. While tasty, water bath canning them never produced the results I wanted. The onions were cooked and didn’t have the snap they needed. Then I played with this quick pickling method, and I think I cracked the code on having vibrant onions that still have the crunch but are not raw. Red onions with all the taste, but not the fiery essence that raw ones can have.

However, it should be noted that onions used to be ‘poverty food‘ and now are treading into bougie land. I was reading up that Mexico had issues with the white onion crop (and they grow most of them) and they are incredibly expensive this year. More troubling is when yellow onions are the same price as sweet onions.

Quick Pickled Red Onions

Ingredients:

1 red onion, about 6 to 8 ounces
1 cup rice vinegar, unseasoned
½ tsp granulated sugar
½ tsp salt, fine sea salt, or kosher (do not use table salt)
1 clove of garlic, peeled and halved
5 black peppercorns
5 whole allspice berries
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
3 cups water

Directions:

Add ¾ cup of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and seasonings (except for the garlic) to a clean pint mason jar. Put on the lid and shake gently until the salt and sugar have dissolved. Add in the garlic.

Meanwhile, bring the water to a boil.

Trim the onion on both ends and cut it in half. Remove and discard the outer layer. Thinly slice the onion.

Place the onion slices in a metal sieve, hold it over the sink, and slowly pour the boiled water over the onions to par-cook them. Shake the water off.

Pack into the mason jar, pressing down as needed.

If there is space, pour in the remaining vinegar to cover fully.

Put the lid on and gently roll the jar so everything is mixed.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least a day before enjoying. They get better as they pickle slowly in the refrigerator.

Notes:

Do not use table salt. Salt with iodine added can affect the color of preserved foods. Not always, but there is a real chance, so why take it?

And yes, you can use this same recipe to pickle shallots and any color of onion you crave.

~Sarah

Gardening · Homesteading · Preserving

Seed Saving: Heirloom Bean Seeds We Grew in 2023 And Saved

March 22, 2024 Sarah

One of the most important things you can do as a gardener and homesteader is to preserve open-pollinated/heirloom seeds that grew well for you. Keep growing them, but also share with others so they can keep these seeds going. One single bean seed can produce many, so even 6 to 8 shared seeds is huge. By the second year of growing, you will have enough to eat.

These are the shelling beans we grew in the summer of 2023. Shelling means you can let the bean pod dry up on the plant and seed the pods once the outside is crispy dry. They can be stored in mason jars for eating in the cold months. They work well as beans in soups and cassoulets. If rain is predicted, we will pull beans by late August and let them finish drying on the counter or greenhouse.

Tiger’s Eye Beans. Originated from South America: Chile, and Argentina. Bush bean.

Hidatsa Red Indian Bean. One seed can produce a plant that produces 100 pods. Each pod holds 6 to 8 beans. They are called” half-runners” because they grow about 3 feet tall. They are drought-resistant.

Painted Pony Bean. It is a prized bush bean, and the markings often survive the cooking process.

Scarlet Runner Bean. It is an incredible bean known for its pole-climbing ability. It’ll grow very tall, so start building a teepee even before you plant it. Massive pods. It’s very popular for children’s gardens, and pollinator friendly.

Yellow Indian Woman Beans, also called Buckeye Beans now, were brought to the US from Sweden and grown in the harsh climate of Montana by the Indigenous people. They are bush beans.

Jacob’s Cattle Beans. Bush plant.

Rockwell Bean. This bean is named after the late 1800s pioneer Elisha Rockwell, who came to Whidbey Island and farmed in the now-Ebey Preserve. It’s a smaller bean and doesn’t grow as tall as some, making it perfect for the PNW region. It is a bush bean, but needs to have something to trellis on.

Orca Bean. Also known as the Calypso bean. It is a bush bean, with 4 to 5 beans per pod.

~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