I can already tell I’m having a hard time with feeling like I should always be freeze-drying something new to keep this interesting for the both of us. But I also realize that can’t happen forever, so I’ve decided that I’ll just freeze-dry whatever it is I want and then post when I feel like I having something new or interesting to share.
But first, I had a problem crop up already. After my freeze-dried grapes failure, I noticed a few days later (when I went to empty the water bucket) that there wasn’t any water in the bucket! So, I inspected the inside of the unit a bit closer and realized there was standing water in the bottom of the chamber. I didn’t think to snap a photo at the time, so here’s a recreation after removing the tray holder:
It was actually worse that what the photo shows because as soon as I’d removed the rubber door gasket water started pouring out the front and leaking all over the floor. Turns out that I had a clog in the drain for some reason.
I emailed Harvest Right to ask about it, and they said I needed to use a pipe cleaner to clean out the drain hole (you can see the drain hole in the very back of the chamber in the photo above) and then use a mixture of white vinegar and hot water to finish cleaning, which I did. Thus far everything seems fine now, but it does make me wonder if this problem somehow contributed to the grapes not freeze-drying properly? I don’t see how, though.
After fixing the clog, I freeze-dried more Skittles because almost everyone likes them, unlike most of the other candies I freeze-dried, especially marshmallows which nobody liked besides me.
Now, because I didn’t want to spend more money on out of season fruits or vegetables, I decided to try freeze-drying some leftovers, specifically meatloaf, potatoes and carrots:
Truth is, I’m probably the only person in the house who would’ve eaten this for days to come, so I figured why not try to freeze-dry it. If it worked then it opens up a whole new avenue of potential meals to save for long-term storage, which is exciting!
As with everything else, I tried to cut the food into smaller portions, which is why I sliced the meatloaf relatively thin and also broke larger portions in half. I felt the potatoes and carrots were already small enough:
Unfortunately, I only had enough leftovers to fill two trays (out of five trays) which really irks me because I’m not making full use of the freeze-dryer. Oh well. After about nineteen hours–faster than I’d assumed it would take–the Harvest Right decided the food was done. I was skeptical, but after breaking apart a few pieces of meatloaf with a fork, it was obvious they were bone-dry:
I did the same with a few pieces of potatoes and carrots, too:
As always, I set aside some food to test later:
And then I packed the rest into equal amounts:
I got 10.8 ounces (about two-thirds was meatloaf) for long-term storage into two Mylar bags, excluding the food I’d saved out in the Tupperware container. Honestly, that’s a good amount of food in these two bags, enough for at least a few meals. In fact, my wife and I could probably split a bag and be satisfied.
Just this morning, in fact, I decided to try the meatloaf and potatoes I’d saved for later, so I dumped some of what I’d saved out into a bowl of hot water and let sit for about five minutes:
I spent some time trying to submerse the food for better absorption, but to no avail. Most of it just floated the entire time. Then, after five minutes, I removed and plated:
I nuked the food in the microwave for another thirty seconds and tasted it. The potatoes tasted a bit mushy, but nothing to complain about. The carrots were horribly squishy, and I didn’t enjoy them. The meatloaf, however, tasted good, and exactly as I’d expected. If someone had served the meatloaf and potatoes to me without me knowing they was previously freeze-dried, I probably wouldn’t have guessed it, though I would’ve questioned the carrots immediately.
Overall, I’d say this first test of freeze-drying a meal was successful.
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