I mentioned on Instagram recently, that of all the amazing, interesting, and innovative appliances I’ve worked with, this was possibly the most amazing, the most interesting, and the most innovative. It’s the first appliance of its kind for in-home use. I’m going to try really hard to not sound like an infomercial when I tell you about it, but I’ve found that’s sometimes how it comes out, haha. I love sharing cool things with you guys, and bringing light to products and companies that you might not know exist. I’ve been obsessed with this appliance over the past couple of months and I’ve been so anxious to tell you about it! Even if it’s not in your budget, or you’re not interested in purchasing one, I hope that you’ll enjoy reading this post simply to appreciate the technology and see what I’ve been up to in my kitchen lately!
My husband and I actually heard ads on our local radio a few months ago for the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and we were completely intrigued. I purchase and use freeze-dried foods often for snacking, in recipes, and for my home food storage, and had no idea you could actually purchase an appliance to do it yourself. I called Harvest Right myself and asked if I could come visit their offices to learn more about it before purchasing, since I would be travelling near them for business anyway. Not only were the people behind the company gracious, kind, and inviting, but the Freeze Dryer itself was as awesome as I had hoped it would be. I really loved hearing the story of how this company came to be and about the years of work and engineering that went into making this available for the consumer.
The Freeze Dryer itself carries a substantial price tag, so I realize it’s not an every day appliance like a microwave, or something you buy just “for fun”. For a little perspective, up until now freeze drying technology was only something that large companies could offer in commercially packaged goods. A comparable freeze dryer before Harvest Right cost over $30,000 and it processed about the same amount of food in a single batch as this one. The people behind Harvest Right spent years figuring out a way to make a $30,000 freeze dryer into something that a consumer could purchase for about 1/10 of the price, plug into a regular home electric outlet, and easily use at home. It was a pretty huge technology undertaking. Although still expensive at $3-4K, the freeze dryer can dry about $10,000 worth of freeze dried food in a year. Studies have shown the average American family also throws out about $2,500 – $3000 worth of food each year, so all of that helps put things into perspective a little bit!
I’ve found with appliances that do unique things, it’s crazy expensive if it’s something you’re not interested in, and a sound investment if it is. This is about the same price as both the steam oven and the pellet ice maker I’ve shared before on this blog. So even though this might not be in the budget for some of you, I want to share it, because there area a lot of people, especially those who practice food storing/food storage like myself (where are all of my LDS friends, you guys will get that!), who will be interested in making an investment in something like this. And if that’s not you, then you might just find this post fun to read when you see what happens when you freeze dry stuff! I know of several church groups, families, and groups of friends, who have purchased freeze dryers to share, and I thought that was a cool idea, too. I love things like this, and I’ve already seen the rewards from the investment my family made on it so I thought you might enjoy seeing it, too!
The freeze dryer is about the size of an oven, or mini fridge, but it’s completely movable. The best place to keep it is in a storage room, laundry room, or garage, but you can move it around if needed. It is quite heavy and somewhat noisy when running, so it’s not something you would probably keep in a kitchen. Plus you need some room for the pump and drain. This video helps you see what’s involved in actually setting it up.
I keep mine on a rolling cart and it works great. I’ve had it in my garage, but as the weather heats up, I’m going to keep it in our storage room. It has a heavy-duty vacuum pump that comes with it. It is fully automated and very simple to use. As you can see from the photo below, it has a switch and 2 knobs, and a display panel that let’s you know what’s happening. Although not complicated, there are some very specific instructions for both use and maintenance. Once I figured it out, it was smooth sailing and I’ve literally had a batch of food going just about every day! This machine does require some maintenance, most notably, changing the oil on a regular basis and cleaning the pump.
So let’s get one thing straight right off the bat. This is not a dehydrator. I’ve found that a lot of people don’t know there’s a difference. You can buy dehydrators at Walmart for 30 bucks. That’s not what we’re talking about here. A dehydrator uses warm air to slowly heat and dry out food over time. That’s why things shrink, shrivel, and change texture and flavor in a dehydrator. Imagine putting scoops of ice cream in a dehydrator. Can you picture how they would immediately pool into a sticky liquid when exposed to warm circulating air for 24 hours? Here’s a great visual for you: I put scoops of fresh strawberry ice cream in my freeze dryer and this is what I got:
They are completely dry, airy, light as a cloud, and they melt in your mouth. Almost like a little puff of meringue. When sealed in a mylar bag or a can they’ll still look just like that and taste delicious in 15-25 years. So how does it work? The technology is pretty amazing, and it’s what fascinated me from the get-go about this product. First, you place food on metal trays.
The trays sit on shelves inside of the freeze dryer. Once the door is shut and the fully automated machine is turned on, the food is frozen down to between -30° and -50° degrees (that’s cold!) You can process about 6-10 pounds of food at a time, an amount that generally fills 1-2 #10 cans, or about 2 gallons if that’s easier to visualize.
After it’s frozen sufficiently, a vacuum pump automatically turns on. The interesting scientific fact about water, is that it can’t exist in a liquid state inside of a vacuum. So as the machine very gently warms the frozen food, the water is instantly turned to vapor, leaving your food basically in its original state in form, color, taste, everything. It’s simply missing all liquid. While canning and dehydrating deplete food of up to half of it’s nutritional value, freeze-drying retains almost 100% of the food’s nutritional value. These raspberries below are completely dry. They will melt in your mouth, can be ground into a fine powder, be used in baking and recipes, or can be re-hydrated again with water. See how beautiful they still are?
Speaking of beautiful, I noticed a HUGE difference in the food I freeze-dried myself, and the food that I buy from the store already freeze-dried. Here’s a quick side-by-side of a popular brand of strawberry and banana mix you can find in grocery stores (left) and my own batch on the right.
So, why freeze dry??
There are so many uses for an appliance like this, here’s a few that I personally am enjoying and applying. I’ve seen how through all of these ways, this freeze dryer definitely pays for itself over time:
– Food Storage and Emergency Preparedness: Freeze-dried foods can be sealed in cans, or mylar bags and last up to 25 years or more (remember, retaining almost all of it’s nutritional value). In today’s crazy world of natural disaster, or in times of budgetary challenges, having a good food store is never a bad idea. In addition to fresh fruits and vegetables, you can also freeze complete meals like casseroles, or meats, cheeses, dairy, etc. Even eggs! It’s a great way to add more protein to your food storage, locking in good prices if you find them.
–Cuts down on at-home food waste: I am notorious for freezing leftovers only to then throw them away months later. You can freeze-dry entire meals and then re-hydrate, and food actually returns to its original state in color, appearance, and flavor. I made waaaay too many mashed potatoes the other day, so I simply freeze-dried the leftovers! They are loaded with all of the good stuff, and now they have become instant-potato packs in my pantry.
–Preserving Garden Bounty: This is one I’m excited to use as summer is approaching. I can never eat my garden goodies as fast as they grow and so much quality food from my garden goes to waste, which is sad. There are some things I love to can or freeze, but I can’t wait to preserve my fresh produce in the freeze dryer because it plumps back to life so beautifully. It’s the absolute BEST way to preserve herbs, especially, as they retain 100% of their flavor. I freeze dried tons of Zoodles this week and popped them in bags. They’re so easy to drop in a pot of soup and ready in literally seconds.
–Culinary Creativity: At the most basic level, freeze-dried foods simply taste great and are really fun to snack on! This is bonus feature to me, since my main motivation in getting a freeze dryer were the reasons mentioned above. Have you ever bought the little packs of freeze-dried fruits commonly available at grocery stores these days? Since all of the water is removed, the flavor is concentrated and foods take on a whole new level of deliciousness. I’ve found that the uses in the kitchen are endless. Often, the biggest challenge in introducing fresh fruits into recipes, for example, is that the water adds too much moisture, and interferes with the fat. Removing all of the water allows you to add concentrated flavor. For example, I took those raspberries you saw above and gave them a quick pulse in my food processor, creating a beautiful red berry powder. 100% fruit and nothing else:
Then I added the raspberry powder to a fluffy buttercream frosting, something that’s usually hard to do since the high water content in fruit often separates frosting and waters it down. The result? Gorgeous, fluffy pink frosting with perfect fresh raspberry flavor.
What Can be Freeze-Dried?
Almost anything. Fresh fruits and vegetables are the most basic, but you can also freeze dry full meals, like a plate of lasagna or your favorite soups or stews. Even meat! I freeze dried a bunch of rotisserie chicken and then added it to soups during the week. You can freeze-dry cheeses, and dairy as well. I found my favorite coconut Greek yogurt on sale so I freeze-dried it and then pulsed it in my blender into a powder. I’ve been adding it to smoothies, pancake mix, and baked goods. I keep it in a jar next to powdered sour cream and powdered cream cheese. All of them work so beautifully in recipes.
I have always purchased freeze-dried foods for my babies as their first solids because they just melt in their mouth and make it so easy to eat. Our very favorite are yogurt drops! Simply drop yogurt in little drops onto the trays and you have these crunchy, delicate little drops of fruity deliciousness.
I cannot make these fast enough to keep up with demand at our house! They make the best snack to keep in my purse or take in the car. And it’s simply 100% yogurt. We found sugar free instant pudding was also a hit. Such a fun sweet treat, that my kids love to munch on.
When we visited Harvest Right, my kids got to sample a freeze-dried gummy bear and it’s all they could talk about! So of course we had to give those a go. These started as itty-bitty bears. They puffed up and turned into giant, airy, sweet, crunchy little snacks. Almost the texture of Pirate’s Booty!
All of the items in these glass jars are freeze dried. Don’t they look fresh? They taste just as fresh as they look. Check out that bright green asparagus and those ruby red berries.
Did you spy the avocados? You can freeze dry avocados! They’re just as colorful and flavorful as when they were fresh. I re-hydrated them and made guacamole and it tasted fantastic. This is a game changer, considering the very short window you have after purchasing an avocado! As an example of just how gentle this process is on your food, take a look at this kale:
That is AFTER freeze-drying. It’s completely dry. If I were to crush it in my palm it would turn to dust, but if you spritz it with water is pops right back to life and it isn’t wilted and gross, it’s green and beautiful. Isn’t that amazing?? This is another good one for keeping in powder form if you’re into green smoothies.
Don’t even get me started on freeze-dried pineapple. It is literally like candy.
I can’t even describe how yummy it is. All of that sweetness and flavor is concentrated in these melt-in-your-mouth drops of crunchy deliciousness. My kids reach for these jars more than the boxes of store-bought snacks in our pantry. Last night when we watched a movie, they wanted to snack on the jar of grapes instead of skittles. They’re that good!
Besides all of the useful reasons of freeze-drying, it’s also just plain fun. I have been having such a great time experimenting in the kitchen with the different foods. Once of our favorites was taking those freeze-dried strawberry ice cream scoops from the start of this post and dunking them in chocolate. The outside is creamy and decadent,
and then you get the light airy crunch of the center with rich strawberry-cream flavor. Pretty killer!
If you want to keep up with Harvest Right, make sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. And their You Tube Channel has tons of great info as well. I totally loved this segment of Glenn Beck talking about his freeze dried ice cream! They just barely joined the Instagram party as well, so go show them some love and follow them there as well!
Let me know if you guys have any questions, and especially let me know if you get one! I’d love to swap recipe ideas and come up with cool stuff to make with the freeze dried food, or share tips on building your family food storage if you do that.
This post contains affiliate links, read more about them, here.
Questions & Reviews
I’m also wondering if you can freeze dry watermelon?!
Yes, you can! But since watermelon is almost ALL water, you’re not left with much 🙂
Awesome.
I love this! I am saving up to get one for sure! I am wondering if it is loud when it is running? I will definitely use it for food storage!!
It’s definitely a little noisy. I keep mine in the basement in a storage room so I don’t hear it much 🙂
How do you seal your freeze dried food in the mason jars? Do you prefer that over the mylar bags?
You can actually put the mason jars into the freeze dryer and it vacuum seals them! Mylar is great for long-long term storage, jars are good for stuff you eat. We eat most of ours so that works for me 🙂
We just got our harvest right freeze drier! We are having a hard time finding other people who are experimenting and learning about this machine. Do you know of a forum or online group? Maybe I can email you? Thanks!!
Yep, just shoot me an email and I will direct you to the right spot! (If you already did, I will answer it! I have been a little MIA for the past month)
I love mine and I enjoyed reading everything you’ve done with yours so far!
Sara:
Your grapes look great! I bought 2 4-lb. containers of grapes from Costco and cut them in half crosswise. I dried them through 2 cycles and they were prefrozen. I noticed from your picture that you cut yours lengthwise. How long did your grapes take to dry? What cycles did you use? Were your grapes smaller than Costco’s somewhat jumbo size? Some of my grapes were dry but many were not. It also seemed to me that the top trays dried more than the lower ones. Also wonder about the way they were sliced. Any thoughts or info would be greatly appreciated.
Also, what size scoop did you use for your little strawberry balls of ice cream that you later dipped into chocolate? They look SO good!!
Again, thanks for your help.
Kristine
Hi Kristine,
I don’t really remember what cycle I used, it was from the very first week I had my FD and the first time I tried them! One trick I learned though, from an expert, is that grapes need increased freezing time because of the high sugar content. I would definitely slice them length-wise so they have the most possible surface area open and then increase the dry time as well just to be safe. Good luck!
i guess you are to only fill the tray so full i filled with peaches and it swelled up now having to defrost to get trays out and redo them or freeze them or what? I have xxxmt code and all vacume exits are sealed only thing i can think of is it froze up don’t know what else to do
Hey Rose, are you a member of the Harvest Right Facebook group? That’s a great place to ask questions like this- everyone there is super helpful! If you need the link, shoot me an email at [email protected] and I’ll pass it on!
How did you freeze dry grapes? Pineapple? I have a freeze-dryer but I have trouble getting grapes completely dry – they tend to be chewy. Any tips?
Both grapes and pineapple have a very high sugar content, so they need to freeze for longer! I bump up both the freeze time and the dry time just to be sure.
we just ordered ours today! On sale until Sept 9th I think.
Anyway so glad I found your post we live In a rural area so I am looking forward to experimenting and preserving my harvest as well as additional storage options!
I’m also planning to use it for dog treats and supplement their kibble besides emergency dog food by using up my veggie ends and wild game odds and ends.
I was very interested in all the snack possibilities. And pantry supplies.
Do you store in the jars? I ordered the 5 mil Mylar bags but I am always worried about mice getting into bags. I have TONS of half gallon jars I would love to use. I also ordered and currently use the oxygen packs. I see there is also a product similar to the oxygen pkg. that regulate humidity. I wonder if they would be needed?
Will be following you on this one!
Thanks
Place your mylar bags in a big storage bucket with a lid, that will keep them safe 🙂
I see on your sight you talk about freeze drying eggs but no instructions. Can you tell me how this is done with the raw eggs? Thanks for all the good ideas. We are loving ours. Now doing tomatoes as fast as I can and then onions, peppers and then will powder with spaghetti herbs. Just wish it held more! Look forward to your idea on eggs.
Just crack all of your eggs and whisk them up before pouring the liquid onto your trays. You will probably want to increase drying time since it’s all liquid. After they are done, pulse in a food processor for a fine powder.
Thank you for all your info! I just got mine today…. I got one in canary yellow! And on sale! It is awesome! Have you or anyone else started a group on yahoo groups? I am not a FB or NSA fan. Have you noticed that when doing a batch and it is hot in the room the machine is in that it adds several hours to the total process time? Also, they don’t go into great detail about how long the food can be left out when the freeze drying is done before you put it into canning jars and vaccum seal. Do you know if you need to put oxy absorbers in the vacuumed sealed jars?
Just west of boise”…..
Lisa
I don’t know about any groups besides the facebook one. Make sure you have good air circulation wherever you are using it; it will get warm if you shut it in a small room. You will want to put your food in a sealed container (jar, bag, ziplock, etc.) as soon as possible or it will start absorbing moisture just from the outside air. Have fun with it!
They have a awsome layaway plan
I just got my HRFD about 3 weeks ago and I LOVE IT! We have a huge pear tree in our yard that I have always felt guilty about not taking full advantage of it bounty ( or at all ) I did my first batch of pears yesterday -peeled and sliced – and they were fantastic! The freeze dryer makes the flavor of all the foodsI have tried ( black-eyed peas, corn ,strawberries, peaches and now pears) more intense and delicious ! The black-eyed peas actually had a delicious nutty taste to them and I had to stop myself from snacking on them!!! You need to warn people one thing about this freeze-dryer – how hard it is to put this yummy stuff in long-term storage! ( and not eat it up as soon as it comes out!)
I have a question for you too . Have you tried freeze-drying baked goods – for example banana nut bread? I have a delicious recipe for B.N.B. but it makes a lot! Would it just be better to freeze dry the bananas ? Thanks so much for your post. If you ever make a HRFD group count me in!!!!
So glad you are enjoying yours as well! Baked goods don’t freeze dry well, so definitely better to just do the bananas. Are you a part of the HR Freeze Dry group on Facebook? If you haven’t found that yet, let me know and I’ll send you a link!
Can’t find the HR Freeze dry group on Facebook. Please send me the link! Just tried FD some blueberries that I had frozen this spring – they were good but I think my pears with the cinnamon sprinkled on top were better.
I’ve had mine for about a week, and I’m quite impressed. My question is do you ever do a run when you’re not using all the shelves? Doesn’t seem like it would be very productive, or do you just spread things out a little thinner? Also seems like one should do “like” items in the same batch? As not mixing meat with veggies (unless it’s a casserole or such)? And how would one do a regular casserole ~2″ thick in those little shelves? More like a soup base or stew? Thanks for any info.
I always fill all the trays, and I stick with mostly “like” items. They don’t have to be alike in flavor, more so in water and sugar content, if that makes sense.
My husband and I have looked at this and weighed the pros and cons for several months now. We decided tonight to take the plunge and order one. The only way we could afford it was to wait until one of our credit cards offered a promotion for 0% for several months. An 18 month offer equals out to $211 per month. Right now, we can afford this monthly payment. We might not be able to later. My husband retires in 3 years. This will save us tons on groceries because we can buy when everything is in season that we don’t raise ourselves. This company that sells them also finances. I know some don’t like to finance, and that is understandable, but if it helps us save money in the long run, we are willing to cut cost somewhere else to save later. Its just a thought for those that can’t afford to let go of 4G all at once. We can’t either. Thanks Sara for all the information.
Hope you enjoy yours as much as I am enjoying mine!
Thank you SO much for sharing your experience with us! We just bought one. I have food sensitivities so it’s great. I was wondering if you’d ever tried mini marshmellow or ice cream sandwiches and how long the freeze and dry times were for these two? I’ve read conflicting information. Thank you again Sara!
Hey Jenny! I’ve done marshmallows galore! Shoot me an email at [email protected] I’m writing up some tips for a few others who are new to freeze drying and have questions. I’ll include you as well!
Wow, this is like the most awesome thing ever! Thank you so much for posting this and telling about your experience with freeze drying. I HAVE to get one now! I can’t wait! Fantastic blog!
Read all the comments but no one asked if it was noisy to run. I was thinking about
putting in my kitchen, but you state yours is in storage room or garage. If it is noisy, perhaps it could go out on my patio. We are in LasVegas. I have been buying
Thrive foods, so know about the wonderful taste compared to dehydrated, but it would
be less expensive to freeze dry at home than to buy food already freeze dried.
Hi Gail,
It’s not crazy noisy, but definitely louder than say, the hum of a dryer drying clothes. It’s rather large, so the kitchen probably isn’t the best permanent place for it. I had mine in the garage until it got too hot (I imagine that would be a problem in Vegas, as well!) and I now keep it in a basement storage room. If you had a large laundry or mud room, that might also be a good spot for it. Hope that helps!
I have a HRFD and have it on my back patio. It works fine although while it was high 90s and 100s, it never froze below -24F. I was told by HR that is okay and my food was definitely freeze dried! Now that it is cooler, I actually saw it down to -40F and it seems that the cycles are a bit shorter. Hint/tip: I almost always start with frozen foods rather than room temp and run the freeze drier for an hour before putting the frozen foods into it.
FD then rehydrated* and heated a spaghetti casserole – we could not tell a difference to the one just heated and eaten! *Added some water and let it soak it up for a couple minutes then poured out the extra water before heating.
Thanks for your information and enthusiastic testimonial of this fascinating appliance. Have a question: since many of the batches take over 24 hours, has your electricity increased quite a bit as well? Kinda like having the Christmas lights on in December compared to the rest of the year???
I would also find it interesting to see what items looked like reconstituted vs original and freeze dried. And taste. Too bad chocolate chips can’t be freeze dried then made into cocoa.
The energy cost is similar to having an extra refrigerator. And i will have to update this post with some reconstituted photos!
Thank you for the review. Although I need to save up for the time being, I intend to purchase a HRFD and I know it will be worth it 🙂
We have had our FD for about a month and would love to follow a blog where people share ideas and tip. So, if you know of one please let us know! We have been drying our pineapple for 48 hours and it is still tacky and we don’t know why? Thank you for sharing your experience with us!
I just bought a freeze dryer and so far have done four loads of entrees, they each took about 48 hrs, I wonder if you have friends who share recipes form diabetics? So far I’ve done meats, stew, white bean/ ham, I love your blog, thank you , Cheryl White
I don’t have any diabetic recipe sources, but I’m glad you are enjoying your freeze dryer!
I so want one of these. I live in Australia and waiting for them to respond to my question about shipping to here. I think you should break up pieces of your strawberries, raspberries or pineapple and stir them through melted chocolate and let it set again…How yummy would that be? Mmmmmmmmmm
Great lil write up & I LOVE YOUR PICS! You gave me some great ideas to try I hadn’t even thought of. My husband & I have had ours nearly a year, and my mom got hers a few months ago – and today I learned she ordered her a 2nd machine. My husband thought it would be a good idea to start a FB group so we could all help each other, share tips, ideas, and you’ve got me thinking about recipes. I found your blog tonight by googling freeze drying foods – I look forward to subscribing to your blog. v/r Deanna Cole
How awesome! Great idea for a facebook group, I’ll have to find it 🙂
Sara,
Hello,I have a few questions concerning the FD veges that you show stored in jars, specifically the cherry or grape tomatoes and the asparagus. How do you use the tomatoes,in their dried form or do you rehydrate them? I guess what I’m asking, do the skins get tough or leathery when eaten?
Secondly,I grow TONS of asparagus and I do not like it any way other than fresh. I’m sure that freeze drying would be the way to go to be able to enjoy my harvest all year not just the eight short weeks that I pick it. My question is: when you rehydrate the asparagus is there any differences in FD versus fresh picked? I noticed that the spears looked a little dented.
Thank you so much . 🙂
Hi Eric,
With the tomatoes, I have only put them in soups and sauces so far and they have turned out great in both. I will try re-hydrating some plain and let you know how the texture is then. With the asparagus, I haven’t rehydrated any yet, so I’m not much help! I would imagine they would be similar to thawed frozen asparagus; not as crisp as fresh. I’ll try it and find out.
Thank you very much for your reply. Please let me know how your little taste and texture “experiment” goes. I’m excited to hear your answers.Thanks again!
I was curious if I missed it, but how long does each batch take?
Also, I notice the grapes are sliced but the blueberries aren’t – is it advisable to slice larger items to make sure the liquid inside can be evaporated?
That chocolate-dipped ice cream looks AMAZING. I always try to pick up astronaut ice cream when I see it, I love that airy crunch, melt-in-your-mouth taste!!
Also, those pudding/yogurt drops look so yummy. I would totally mix some of those yogurt drops with dried berries to have a ‘dry yogurt parfait’!
I loved the idea of the raspberry powder keeping the intense raspberry flavour but without the watering down issue….. just makes me think up a whole new set of interesting mixes! And for me, even when I buy fruit, it so frequently ends up spoiling because I just don’t eat that much of one fruit at a time.
Thanks for the informative post!
Hi Laura, each batch takes anywhere from 24-48+ hours to cycle through – it depends on what you are freeze drying and how much water is in the food you are freeze drying. We’ve had our HRFD for nearly a year and started a FB group with others to share tips and ideas…I’m learning every day. Also I too love this idea of adding FD crushed berry powder to icing (or maybe even coolwhip) as a desert topper. v/r Deanna Cole
Amen, sister!!
That freeze dried food looks AMAZING. I bet that contraption is so fun to use!!
That looks like such an amazing product to invest in! Maybe down the road for me as that’s such a hefty price tag!
My mom heard the same ad on the radio! she was seriously considering one, im so glad i can show her this and help her decide. 🙂