Update on the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

Now that I've had a little time to use the machine and taste the food, I'm in a better position to review this freeze dryer.

Overall, I'm pleased with this contraption. There are pros and cons, which I'll get into in a bit.

I'm very impressed with the quality of the machine. It's solidly built. There's not a flimsy piece to be found.

As I freeze dried each type of food, I pulled out a couple of pieces to rehydrate them to see how they fared.

Everything I've tested so far has rehydrated remarkably well. There's been no difference in texture or taste. The only thing I've noticed is that while rehydrating has been successful, you need to let it sit longer than what I've read in books. Maybe it's just the foods I've tested. It's not a problem, just something I've noticed.

What I've freeze dried:

• Cooked chicken (for dogs)
• Chicken broth
• Corn
• Peas
• Okra
• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• Pasta sauce (leftover from a bigger batch)
  
• Tomato paste
• Apple juice
• Almond milk
  

It was important to me to freeze dry tomato paste. Almost always, I only need a tablespoon or two and I'm always left with a can that I now have to freeze.

Juices and milk always puts me in the same boat. I usually only need a small amount, so I'm forced to either find some other way to use it fast, or freeze it. In the case of almond milk, you really shouldn't freeze it as it separates, but freeze drying does not affect its quality.

The pasta sauce was an experiment. I had a tiny bit leftover and I wanted to see how it would turn out. I'd like to be able to toss in the dried cubes the next time I'm short of sauce.

The corn was absolutely delightful. It was sweet, airy, and crunchy. It was just what I remembered from 25 years ago.

A taste test of the freeze dried chicken broth forced me to put limits on Greg. It was an incredibly delicious concentrate. That's the broth in my fingertips in the photo above.

The peas which were rehydrated with hot water tasted just like fresh.

The one thing I wish I had were more silicone molds to hold liquids. I wanted to buy some from Harvest Right but I couldn't bring myself to pay the very high price. Instead I went to Amazon and found molds that will (kinda-sorta) fit in the machine. 

Height-wise, the cavity of the freeze dryer is extremely limited. This is on purpose so anything you put in there will freeze dry within a reasonable time.

So what are the Pros and Cons of this machine? These are my observations.

Pros

• Very well made, nearly industrial quality.
  
  
• The touchscreen on the machine is close to dummy proof. There's a slight hesitation when you select an option, but once you know that, it's no big deal. The screen will tell you what to do next, and how much time has elapsed for each process. If you forgot to do something, like turn on the vacuum pump, it will ask you if you've done it.
  
  
• It tells you when it's ready to accept the trays and what step you're on.
  
  
• The seal on the machine is excellent. The screen will tell you what kind of vacuum it's pulling and how cold or dry it's getting. It was pretty neat.
  
  
• It gives you the option to dry for a longer period of time in case you think it's not dry enough. By the way, one of the tests for dryness is that you should be able to crush (with your fingertips) whatever you put in there into powder.
  
  
• It also has a nice feature where it allows the food to keep drying in case you're not there to pull it out when the cycle finishes. The nice thing is that you cannot over dry food. That came in handy the other night when the cycle finished after I had gone to bed.
  
  
• It's made in the USA.
  

Cons

• It's expensive. There's no way around that elephant.
  
  
• The vacuum pump is loud. Some people seem okay with the noise, but I have Vulcan hearing and it is way too loud for me.
  
  
• Ironically, the alarm that tells you it's finished is so faint you can barely hear it--even though the vacuum pump is off by this time.
  
  
• It's heavy. It was all I could do to lift my end up on the table top. Poor Greg took the bulk of the weight.
  
  
• It has a an impulse heat sealer for mylar bags which is a plus, but I was hoping for a vacuum sealer. I found out later that it's best not to vacuum seal mylar bags as it has a tendency to crush the now, very delicate contents, so this is not so much a con as it is a precaution.
  
  

My conclusions are that the more I run it, the more I like it. It beats canning. I've always had a love/hate relationship with canning. You spend a lot of time on your feet preparing the food, the jars, and the processing. With the freeze dryer, the most work I do is line the food on the trays and "pre freeze" them so as not to run the machine as long.

Freezing the food prior to freeze drying shortens the cycle and hopefully will let the machine last longer in the long run.

I'm still experimenting, so maybe I'll have another update in a few months. I still haven't done entire meals which for me is not as important since I prefer to make meals from ingredients whenever possible, but I'll definitely try it at some point because it could prove useful during a power outage to have a complete meal ready to eat.

I'm extremely pleased with the chicken I made for the dogs. That will prove very useful to me in months to come especially when it comes to saving space in the freezer.

I'm going to attempt to freeze dry garden seeds. I'm only going to try a few in an experiment. Although the literature says it's perfectly safe, I'd hate to test it on a my seed stash and find out differently.

Why, yes. I never trust anything I read on blind faith. Why do you ask? 😄

I prefer to conduct my own experiments and reach my own conclusions. Sometimes people paint rainbows in order to make a sale. You will never get that from me. I'm a pragmatist. 

Right now my poor kitchen looks like trench warfare. I've got various experiments going on. This will probably continue until I feel comfortable using the machine. I had some reservations because it was so much money, but I get why people love this thing. Once I get the hang of it, I think I'll love it too. 

Next up on my adventures: My friend has always touted her Soda Stream gadget. I have a very bad cola addiction, and in the last three years, the price of name brand drinks have been through the roof. I've cut down, but I miss my Pepsi Max and Coke Zero.

She's offered to lend it to me so I can try it, but I've always declined. I've now changed my mind. The next time I see her, I'll borrow it and see if I like it.

 

Have you ever tried one of those Soda Stream devices? Have you ever made any cola drinks in it?

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