Don’t believe it when someone tells you that purchasing emergency food storage is more economical than freeze drying it yourself with a Harvest Right. It isn’t even close. When comparing the expense of freeze drying your own food to the cost of store-bought freeze dried foods, in-home freeze drying will cost as little as one-fifth as much. That means you could save $20 to $50 on each #10 (gallon) can equivalent that you freeze dry yourself.
The food you freeze dry in a Harvest Right is many times better than prepackaged emergency food. Home freeze dried food is not only higher quality because you choose it; but is also a much wider variety. Your home freeze dried food can include all your favorite meals, meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy, eggs, and desserts. You can’t say that about store-bought freeze dried food. For more information, including a cost comparison chart, click here: Harvest Right vs Purchased Emergency Freeze Dried Food.
Does Harvest Right have any guide for drying times for certain foods? Sometimes I wonder if I customize the dryer for too much time.
There is a page in our Owner’s Manual that shows a list of popular foods and their approximate freeze, dry, and total batch times. Because portion size, thickness, water content, quantity, and cellular structure of food are all different, it’s only a reference for approximate batch times. When food is very dense, or pieces are large, it may require extra freeze time and/or dry time.
I dried some green beans and I hade one tray left so I filled it with dill pickle slices they were very salty but crisp. so I put them thru a mortar and pestel to grind them fine and put some on pop corn VERY GOOD. I will try the powder on other things that may need a little more flavor. fun to explore