I know this post is a day late because it should’ve been posted on Friday, but better late than never, I guess. Anyway, while I was at Sam’s Club this week, I figured it would be fun to try freeze-drying watermelon, something I hadn’t seen before. So, I picked up three watermelons for $6.98 each:
It didn’t take terribly long to cut them up, maybe twenty or thirty minutes. But I only cut up two to freeze-dry because my father-in-law wanted to save one; the things I do for family:
But as I was carrying them to the freeze-dryer, I’d wondered whether the trays would fit because I’d cut the watermelon rather thick:
Plenty of room to spare!
The next morning, I went downstairs to check on its progress and I saw this:
That’s not right! Water was actively dripping out of the unit, and it was still attempting to freeze the watermelon some fourteen hours later. Hmmm…what was the problem?
Well, it became quickly evident that the door was no longer forming a seal with the rubber gasket, something that’s never happened before. In fact, the seal was so bad that it’s like I didn’t even close the door.
The fix wasn’t terribly difficult. I simply had to tighten the two hinge screws to pull the door in on one side. The other side may take more effort to fix permanently, but in the meantime I simply placed a wood shim in-between the door handle mechanism:
You might also be able to tell from the photo above that the rubber gasket is clearly making contact with the door now; it’s the solid dark black ring. Here’s a closer look at the door hinge screws that needed adjusting:
Clearly, that was disconcerting to see, and the second problem I’ve run into. So, after roughly fourteen hours wasted waiting for the unit to freeze the watermelon, I restarted the process. Another forty-five hours later, and the Harvest Right said things were done. Normally, I’d check the food before removing it completely, but the Harvest Right normally isn’t wrong, and since this was a novelty anyway, I pulled the trays:
And another angle:
The watermelon looks about as expected, but I cut one open just to check:
Still looks good. Of course, I ate a piece and, to my surprise, it tasted just a bit gooey on the inside, so I tried another one, and that was a tad gooey, too. Hmmm….was the watermelon not fully freeze-dried or is this just the way it was going to be? I decided that I didn’t care either way because I wasn’t wasting anymore electricity or time on a novelty item. But I think that’s just the way it’s going to be because of the concentrated sugar.
In any case, it tastes very much like watermelon-flavored sugar. It’s not bad, just not for me. I am curious whether my teenage son or, more importantly, whether my younger nephews and niece will eat any. My guess is not at all, which is a shame because now I’ve got two gallon Ziploc bags full of freeze-dried watermelon that nobody will likely eat. But I don’t know that for sure just yet, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that they’ll take a bag home. 🙂
[Edit: As it turns out, my teenage son likes the freeze-dried watermelon and says it’s a “healthier snack.” My wife and mother-in-law also like it. Go figure. Still not sure about my nephews or niece.]
Regardless, I can say that I spent roughly $8 on electricity (59 hours run time * $3.31 assumed electricity usage per 24 hours) plus another roughly $14 on the watermelon for a total of $22. I didn’t use Mylar bags or oxygen absorbers this time to save on costs, so there’s that plus.
Out of curiosity, I decided to check on Amazon and I was surprised yet again. Somebody does sell freeze-dried watermelon and freeze-dried watermelon taffy, whatever that is. But I didn’t even bother to weigh my watermelon properly, so I can’t say whether I got a good deal or not.
Ultimately, this is not what I should be doing with my freeze dryer. It’s a waste of electricity, time, and money for something that’s essentially candy. Now I know!
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