BGW

Thanks Kerry now I understand. An easier way to blanch, how smart! Will have to try this.

Not sure what/how? blanched in microwave means. Since FD retains 90% +- of nutrients, Kale excels and is also an antioxidant. Would like to try it if I understand the blanched part.

Thanks, Kerry. How healthy the kale would be that way, is there any seasoning on it? Thanks for the tip on the Ice cream, I will try it again.

Kerry, Is the Kale just for soups, or could it be cooked just like fresh Kale? The berries and ice cream look really good, my ice cream did not turn out well = "blew up". I just did pulled pork with barbeque sauce, baked chicken, sliced roasted pork and banana slices to fill in any open areas on my trays. My family is amazed as to how the FDed foods taste! Thanks for the post and pics!

Thanks Jim, for all the good info, you have really been busy! I like the idea about the crotons. Can't wait till garden time to try the tomatoes. "Mylar and seal for long term storage or vacuum sealed in Mason jars for shorter term storage" is this because the mason jars won't be good for long term storage ? I assume you purchased frozen veggies to FD? I did that to dehydrate veggies corn, peas, green beans, etc and they are really good for soups. Dehydrated Hash browns and they were awesome! I do not think I will FD hash browns because they would so fragile and hard to store, much like the spaghetti squash I FDed. I am anxious to do the garlic, did you mix other food with the garlic? Thanks again!

I tried my tests today. I did multiple tests at 900, 850, & 800 mTORR. I want to see if the seals hold and open them to see the amount of vacuum they appear to have compaired to the Food saver. I'll report back in a few days with info. If it works it will be nice to seal 8 to 10 jars at one time with a deeper vacuum. Thanks Jim, Anxious to see what the outcome is. I FD char broiled angus burgers ( 30 Patties). they were very hard with sharp edges, I put them in lunch bags, and then vac sealed in plastic bags. It was amazing how much grease soaked into the paper bag. Needless to say they will be eaten within 6 mo or so. I tried one ( soaked overnight ) and it was very good! Looking forward to FDing pork and kraut and black eyed peas from New years day meal. A side note with vac. sealing in jars, I have found if the FD food is powdery, it seems to get under the seal and causes failure sometimes as long as several days later. I put coffee filters over the food and then vac seal, so far, so good.

This is a good idea! Do you have any feel for how long to run the vac pump for sealing the jars, have you had a chance to try this?

Welcome, ArpaRN This is a really good place to share and learn about FD'ing. FD'ing seems to be so new for home use that there is little info available, so how great it is for this forum. A big thanks to Kerry Beal for starting this, she has shared a lot of her FD'ing experiences and we do appreciate her!

Welcome, Jim! Since my last post, I've FD'ed raw homemade sauerkraut, raw eggs, beef vegetable soup w/ dehydrated veggies.cooked pork loin, ham, cooked turkey mashed potatoes, bananas, and apples. I use the bananas and apples to fill trays if needed to make a full load. The sauerkraut was great after rehydrating, my homemade kraut is raw, and it is crunchy . the raw eggs (powdered) were really good scrambled, and they should do well in baking 1egg= 4tsp + 6 tsp water. Thanks, yesterdays for the info on rehydrating meats.

Anxious to hear how the did the mandarin oranges and radishes turn out.

Kerry, Thanks for the door check info. Do you take the wrapers off the ice cream sandwiches before FDing ?

Welcome Scotch, have you given thought to what you will do first?

Good info, I'm glad you are learning how to use the FD to cut down on time. I was a little depressed with the 24 hr cycles I was doing. I guess I will try to experiment with the timing and see if it gets better. Thanks for sharing!

Looks good! How long of a cycle did you use, was it standard settings?. I assume you started with frozen ham?

WOW! That was quick if you just got your machine yesterday, you must be a quick study. Sounds like you are successfully on your way, Congrats :-)

Excited for you! If I needed to use the food up in 5 days, from # 10 can, I would use what I needed and vacuum seal remainder in glass jars. I also use mylar bags. It just depends on ones needs Happy Freeze Drying!

Deryn I will be doing only very lean meats, deer and grain feed beef. The chicken will be from probably left over meals. there are so many things I want to try...... not enough hours in a day! Has anyone bought a # 10 can sealer?

Thanks Deryn, Will keep in mind if I decide to do raw meat. Enjoyed the video. Wonder how say, raw steak would be?

Deryn, I have not done more meats since last post. My concern of FD raw meats is the safety thing, bacteria and botulism. Things I have tried since last post: Italian Green beans, sirloin steak with gravy, oatmeal patties with gravy (kinda like chicken fried steak with no meat) Ketchup, picante sauce which I have tried and they turned out great! Have not had time to sample the other goodies yet, will let you know how it comes out. Planning on FD Ice cream sandwichs for Christmas treats for grand kids.

Welcome Canon, I have been preserving food for SHTF days for about 4 yrs now. I recently purchased my FD and have used it about 3 times. I am wanting to use it to FD meats that are in my freezers. I think I will thaw and cook meat before FDing. Not real sure I am comfortable with FD raw meats. Hoping the end results will be what I am looking for. I have canned a lot of meats with really good results I too am considering getting a # 10 sealer. In addition to sealing FD foods, I could use it for some dehydrated food that I have already done, thinking it might extend the shelf life, not sure about that, but sounds logical. I hope we can share and learn from each other with our FDing!

The vacuum was still good and tight when I opened it, I did not put an oxygen absorber in jar, I think that was the problem. Do you use oxygen absorbers in your FD food? I do not use oxygen absorber with my dehydrated foods and have not had a problem. Have you FDed any meats? Raw and or cooked? I have canned plenty of meats, never dehydrated any. I'm really enjoying all the knowledge on this blog. Thanks to Kerry for starting it!

Thanks Kerry, Hats off to you for starting this blog.... really helpful.

Deryn, Thanks for the welcome. The hamburgers were 1/2" thk. Good idea about measuring the water, but unfortunately I have been doing multiple foods to fill dryer. My concern on FD raw meat was that bacteria might be an issue. I will concentrate on doing just one meat, weigh before FD and again after. I just did some sweet potato casserole, OH MY what a treat! I think I will try coating with chocolate to see how that works. I also FDed spaghetti squash it came out so fragile that I vacuumed sealed in 1/2 gal jars. Did not think it would work, but when reconstituted, it was the same as before FD, amazing! After a few days, I noticed the vac. sealed Speg Squash contents had taken on moisture and the squash was limp...UGH. I re-dried the Speg.squash and this time , I added an OXY absorber, hope this works. I thought if you vacuumed sealed the jar, the OXY would be all gone, lesson learned! Along the lines of using the OXY absorbers. I used an OXY absorber with the raw FD hamburger and vacuum sealed the bag . Has anyone used the vacuum sealer and plastic bags instead of mylar for FD products? If so do you just draw vac. to a min. to keep product from being crushed ? I think I have a lot more questions than answers, so thank you again for your help. BGW :-)

Just started with my FD. Thanks for all the postings and pics, really helpful! I did raw hamburger and raw sirloin steak. rehydrated a couple of the hamburgers and they seemed a bit tough but the flavor was good. Thinking maybe raw meat is not the thing to do? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. Can raw meats be FDed? Is there a rule of thumb on how to tell how much liquid to use to rehydrate? Thanks again for the postings. BGW