Well, the homesteading journey continues!
I recently bought a medium sized Harvest Right Freeze Dryer, like a week ago, and to say that nothing went smoothly would be an understatement. My boyfriend picked it up for me, as it was to big to fit into my car. We decided on a place to put it and soon realized how extremely noisy it was.
After finally getting it set up, I loaded the trays and started it up. Needless to say, there were some minor hiccups in the drying process of this first batch but I was eventually able to get it dry.
What a mess!
The berries, both blueberries and raspberries, dried very well and are really good and sweet. The figs weren’t my favorite as they turned out fairly hard. The Asian pears would have been better if I had peeled them first but have a good flavor. Dill pickle slices just melted in the mouth. The funniest was the different candy I tried to freeze dry. Let’s just say, probably won’t be freeze drying much candy in the future, at least nothing chocolate.
The gummy worms exploded to 4 times their normal size. They looked like something from an alien movie. The fun sized snickers and milkyway bars puffed up about the size of golf balls. M&Ms melted. So did the recees’e peanut butter cups. Twix just became this melted chocolate mess.
We’ll see what this second batch turns out like. This one should be better as it is all fruit.
Here’s to learning new things!
Pleasant Garden Homestead 