Is CANNING a Thing of the Past?
We’ve decided to take our food preservation to the next level by getting a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer!
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Living Traditions Homestead is all about living a simple and sustainable way of life. We believe the world has gotten too “busy” and that people are missing out on many of the true blessings this world has to offer. We started as a small urban homestead in Gilbert, AZ and after the city grew up around us, decided it was time leave corporate America and take a big leap of faith by moving our family to the Missouri Ozarks.
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Congratulations on the Harvest Right. I’ve been eyeing them for a while but just haven’t pulled the trigger due to other needs higher on my list. We finally saved up enough to build a decent fence around the property.
When you showed the ice cream sandwiches. I started thinking about astronaut food you get in the science museums! 😁
Would like to see doing meats i assume have to cook first ?
See meats in survival and MRE s
You can freeze dry raw meat as well…reconstitutes and cooks up well!
Reminded of the little ice cream balls that the zoo in San Antonio has. I guess they are freeze dried also.
Laura Flaherty I was thinking the same thing as you about astronaut food.
Please speak on how much electricity the freeze dryer takes when you get your next electric bill.
The Watt usage is on the Harvestright website. 1100-1500 watts/hr. A 30 hr
run will be 33000-45000 watts = 33-45 kw (kilowatts). So the $2-3 / use,
looks about right. Use it 20 times in one month = $40-60. Only problem I see
is how much can you really dry in a month or two, when a lot of veg comes
ripe at the same time and has a short unpreserved life, so to maximize your
harvest, you’ll still need to can/freeze a good portion. I do agree storage space
will be far less.
@Lynda Buchholz How about how many watts of electricity needed if you are on solar, for instance?
@V.J. L. I am sorry I haven’t kept track of that. I just watch to see how many hours of sunlight I have to power my batteries. About the first week in October I don’t get enough sunlight to power the freeze dryer and my house. Before that I have enough as long as the sun is shining. I have a 9 Kw system.
The other Utube ch retired at 40 freeze drys Milk you guys need that ! Good luck watch his vid for tips
@mark t old garden gnome When my FD is running and have to harvest something I just prepare said item and put it in the freezer until FD is free then put it in. Freezer holds it the day or two.
We’re lucky in Australia being able to grow all year round…
@Diana Clark we can do meals from scratch.. we grow all year round where I am.. I’ve canned a lot which is in a second fridge because it gets like Vegas here during summer & we don’t have cellars/basements here.. we normally eat fresh from the garden & can the excess ..no point in spending 5 grand on a freeze dryer over here…
@Bibby 7200 yeah same though here. I’ll stick with canning, I even though about getting a dehydration machine, see one at Jb, but the reviews are bad. 🤷♀️
@DLR Young dehydrators are great
The heat is there but many farmers in Australia don’t have enough water because it is sold to china for their nut trees.
@Cookie Splitter That would not be happening now with our total split with China. China is gunning for us now and does not allow Australian in their country etc. Our prime minister called them out about the start of the corona virus and they didn’t like it one bit.
Is the freeze dryer energy efficient? What’s the estimated cost of running it ?
Thank you so much for sharing with us. I can’t wait to see freeze dried meat…. God Bless Y’all …
@Darren Collins if you are preserving 97% of the nutrients in a batch of home grown food that costs you say a conservative $3 a pound… and your SMALL machine can handle 7# of food…$3 to save what would have gone bad in a generous 3 years canned…. 50% nutrition is now WORTH $1.50 a pound times 7# 10.50 minus the three bucks in electricity to save it and the $.50 in bags to vacuum seal it… your still $7 ahead. IF you do one batch a day … $7 x 365 = $2555 essentially the cost of the small Harvest Right. Pays for itself in a years worth of steady use. Knowing my family will have healthy organic from my yard food to consume without the worry of what’s on it??? Will we have food if shtf? Will we have what we LIKE to eat? PRICELESS.
@Prochain Purlieu that’s why I use my harvest right almost every day!
Please do some videos showing how you cook with what you have freeze dried.
@Minnesota gal they are crazy expensive.
@Prochain Purlieu your costs are relative to where you live. Electricity is expensive in my country.. and wherever you live it still comes down to whether you can afford the initial cost and then the increase in your fuel bill. Sadly for alot of people it will be way out of their league. I think it looks awesome but until it becomes as common as a microwave is nowadays (they were expensive when they first came out) and as cheap its beyond me.
I’m interested in seeing the freeze dried eggs and how things are reconstituted!
I’ve freeze dried dozens and dozens of eggs and raw is the best way I’ve found. Letting the powder sit with water for a few minutes is best and they scramble up perfect.
How incredible and amazing! Everything looked so good. Was curious if those gasses gas off or is there a drainage hose to maintain? Also wondered if pungent items (onions, peppers) can be processed w other items at the same time? Sorry questions. So interesting!!
Would like to see a pre-cooked whole meal (roast & veg or lasagne), freeze dried then re-constituted to see if it is possible & how it turns out.
Freeze dried home made MRE’s. Interesting.
the manufacturer web site has informative videos that show alot if you cant wait like me…lol
Sounds like an interesting idea… home made MRE
@Phavana Aramkul With better quality ingredients
I know you guys didn’t get to show the vacuum sealing, but does one have to vacuum seal both bag and jars after each opening? Maybe an instructional video in the near future. 😁 Enjoyed 👍
As a senior that is severely physically limited, I know how right you are about not being able to work as hard as you age. Another consideration is as time goes on there can be more mouths to feed! With Kevin’s parents moving close and the girls eventually marrying and having families, more food becomes necessary so better ways to preserve it for lean or drought years is smart. When my wife and I planted our 1st garden 49 years ago we never considered the enjoyment we would have teaching care of livestock, construction, gardening and preservation of our foods to our children, grandchildren and now our great grandchildren. Our 5th great grand child (our 1st girl) will be arriving in about a month! I so much enjoy your podcasts! Yes, I still can learn from you and our younger generations as well. I had never seen a freeze dryer work and keeping food for up to 30 years excited me as a way to aid future family that I will likely never meet! Please continue to keep us updated an God bless you and yours!
On my “if I win the lotto” list. I’d love to have one, just cant justify the cost. I need a new roof first…and remodel my bathroom, and…
But if I could, I’d love one!!
Yes same with me…roof, insulate house, remodeling bathroom upstairs now lol
I just got one. They take interest free payments and when you pay it off they send it to you. This is how I got mine. Also shipping is 10+ weeks out.
@flunewz awesome!
I feel that Freezer Drying is safer than having food in liquid stored for any length of time. The Freeze dried products are so easy to reconstitute and they taste good also, if you have to travel with them you don’t have the worry of breakage or seepage, some stored jars might have a hair line crack, so yes this is the safest way to store food, thank you for sharing this product. A couple of days ago I actually entered into a contest for a free Medium Freeze Dryer I am so excited!
I’d love to see a video on how well these freeze dried foods rehydrate.
I would like to see what some of it looks like reconstituted and how it tastes and is the texture the same. Also when you eat it in the dried state does it fill you up like if it were in the original state? What a great video. Thank you.
Please be aware that mylar bags are not sustainable, much like many other single use plastics, they are very bad for the environment as recycling is very difficult, if not impossible. Jars are a much better option as the glass can be recycled many times.
Wondering what type of maintenance is required and what happens if something “breaks”….
Most of the maintenance is getting water out of the vacuum pump oil. Oil less vacuum pump would solve that problem but that pump costs about 2/3 as much as the medium FD. Improvements have been made with the oil type vacuum pumps. My second pump works much quieter and better. Harvest Right customer service is great. I have been very pleased with them the few times I’ve had to contact them.
To check out Harvest Right Freeze Dryers for yourself follow this link: https://affiliates.harvestright.com/881.html
Maybe reconstitute some foods
Lovr to try one .i have wanted to freez dry for years i will.check the sight out thanks for the info .ps glad to see the family moving in close
I just got mine a month ago, it’s been running every day!
I have a HR too, if yall liked the ice cream sandwiches…. wait until you try skittles in the freeze dryer. So good! Just make sure you give them enough room on the tray to expand a little, dont pile them up on top of each other. They look like the striped pool balls when they are done.
Thanks for sharing .
Hey Kevin & Sara, What is the power supply on the freeze drier? Can it be used in an off grid situation? And how much would it cost for the operations. We love your channel so keep up the great work.
When you talked about preserving for the long term -as when “your older and can’t work as hard” that really hit home for me. I’m 28 and was raised by my grand parents and they worked hard in the garden. But now as they are unable to do so us grand kids do – but no where near what we use to as health in the family over the last 2 hears have made it very difficult to keep up with. Still have a garden but just not at the same level. This would of been an awesome for thought for them to be able to have the same amount of quality that they had before.
I as well live a debt free life and working towards a smaller scale home stead life- looking for property that is not outrageous in price- at least 5acers but of course the more then better. ❤️ My hubby and I raise pigs and chickens threw highschool for FFA and I just miss it so much and can’t wait to be able to raise them for ourselves once again.
“Not being able to work as hard as we do now in food production effort as when we are older” was a Lightbulb comment for me. That put a lot of things into perspective when considering having enough to eat when you’re older, due to health or economic circumstances, by putting in the effort NOW, you can secure your future food needs if and when you might not have the means or health in 20+ years to do so.
Brilliant and effective use of time and resources more-so than canning. Just from the Ice Cream sandwich analogy, you saved $44 if you were buying them to store. I bet over a very short period of time it would pay for itself.
I do a lot of hiking and backpacking, and freeze dried or dehydrated meals are very expensive when you buy them one meal at a time. Great informative video, Thank you!