What's in the Freeze Dryer 6/21/24?

 

Today I finished up the following:

2 trays of hominy corn nuts
(This was a #10 can)

1 tray of canned mixed veggies
(carrots/peas/corn) for soups.
I put most of it in a mylar bag and
put the leftover in a jar. 

2 trays of canned beets for chips.

The hominy corn nuts are really good! 
I seasoned one tray with a Cajun Seasoning
and one tray with garlic/salt.
I like the Cajun ones better.
We'll see what Joe thinks.

I absolutely LOVE the canned beets freeze dried! 
They make a wonderful sweet/savory chip for dipping.
I'll be doing more of these!

The canned mixed veggies
take up a lot less space now,
opening up shelf space.

I'll be doing canned green beans this week
for the same reason.
Time to turn over cans that are close to being outdated
and get them off the shelf and into mylar bags.

So far, I'm loving this Freeze Dryer
EXCEPT for the noise!
It is very noisy - but I'm learning to live with it. 

More soon...

Love, Annie

This Year's Garden and Freeze Dried Pasta

Not my photo but mine looks just like this.

Well, this has been a real learning curve. 

My Spaghetti and Meatballs took a total of 42 hours! I later learned I could have cut off a few hours (maybe 5?) by pre-freezing the trays. However, that's a problem because they don't fit in my freezer. 

I've been harvesting strawberries and freezing them then putting them in a bag so hopefully that method will work for my berries.

Back to the Spaghetti/Meatballs. It turned out great. Rehydration only took about 2 minutes and it was just like fresh.

We had done it in 10 portions per tray. But when we rehydrated one portion to test it, though it tasted great, it really wasn't enough for a serving. So we ended up putting two portions in each MRE bag.

The MRE bags are small and I doubt I'll use them again. I think it would be better just to FD everything on the tray then put it all into quart bags or jars so that's my plan.

Sealing the bags presented another problem. The sealer we got from Harvest Right won't seal the Harvest Right mylar bags, believe it or not. When I called to see about getting a new sealer, I was told we only could do that the first year and since my son has had the FD for two years, they would have charged me $130 for a new sealer. 

Piece of junk!

So I got on YouTube and discovered those bags can be sealed easily with a simple iron or hair straightener. I'm going to try the iron with this next batch since I don't use it on clothing anyway.  The mylar bags don't need to be vacuum sealed since I will use an Oxygen Eater in each one. 

So... we ended up with 18 Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) of Spaghetti/Meatballs.  Each portion is generous. With a salad and bread it should be plenty. And these will be great in the van or for camping as they are so lightweight and all you do is add water to the bag - no bowl needed. 

Today, I decided to clean out my food storage and make more room. So I brought in cans of mixed vegetables, which we rarely used, and put them on a tray. I also brought in canned beets and will make chips out of them (2 trays).  Joe bought a #10 can of hominy and I seasoned it and put it on 2 trays to make a snack like corn nuts that won't break his teeth.

I weighed each tray and put them in the FD.

We'll see how they turn out.

Tomorrow my plan is to do as much white rice as I can get on the 5 trays. This will make "instant rice" so it will not require cooking. Joe eats a lot of rice, so I'm excited to see how it turns out. 

The Garden

We didn't get home from Spain until the last week of May so the garden is late getting in. Here is what we have so far this year:

I harvested all of my walking onions except for this patch.

Tomatoes and one pepper plant

Chives, a giant kale, golden raspberries,
 and the damage caused by the flood in the yard
while we were in Spain
which led to a $189 and a $298 water bill!

This is a little canteloupe melon with some volunteer tomatoes
In the bed are some yukon gold volunteer potatoes
and chives.

Just planted beans today. Rhubarb in background. The canteloupe in the foreground isn't happy. Not sure why but a new one is coming up next to it and it looks healthier, so it may take over. 

This fig tree is 3 years old.
It only has one fig on it!
I have a tree that I had Joe transplant in the side yard
and it is loaded with figs this year. 

My golden raspberries are starting to put on.

Purple potatoes and kale under the cloches
to protect the baby plants
from the danged cabbage butterflies. 

The only thing not happy in my garden is my asparagus.
After 3 years, it just isn't producing much. 
I may have to move it to a different bed this autumn.

My garlic is almost ready to harvest. 

My strawberries are producing but the berries are small.
We need more heat!

More tomatoes and another pepper plant

My spearmint is VERY happy.
I just thinned it out this week.

Today I planted cucumbers. 
There is dill and basil next to it.

Kale and carrots in this bed

This bed is mostly flowers. Dahlias with some parsley.

My herbs.
Echinacea, thyme, oregano, sage, comfrey, and lavender.

I have a patty pan squash in the corner. 

Celery, potatoes, and newly planted broccoli

This little pear has 5 varieties of pear on it.
However, I just noticed it has a fungus so I need to get it sprayed.

Blueberries are happy

This bed on the side of the house has
a tomatoe, a zucchini and a sunflower in it.

This bed has a tomato,
a yellow crookneck squash and a sunflower.

Thornless blackberries are loaded!

These pots have flowers to draw in the bees.

Dahlias

This little fig tree has quite a few figs

Figs

So, even though I got a late start, 

my garden is looking happy,

and I'm looking forward to a nice harvest!

Stay tuned,

Love,

Annie

Freeze Drying Spaghetti and Meatballs

Yesterday, the electrician put in the dedicated outlet for the freeze dryer and today I ran a test run. Now that I know it works ok, I wanted to try freeze drying.

I have yet to organize the table, but here is where I'm starting. The dryer came with a pulse sealer and a vacuum sealer and lots of mylar bags. Those will all be stored under the freeze dryer once I get it all unpacked. I also will put my dehydrator on that bottom shelf. (That big black thing on the floor is my patio hammock - just need to take it out and set it up for the summer)

Joe makes a mean spaghetti sauce from scratch but I had 4 cans of sauce in my food storage that were nearly outdated. So I decided I would put them together with some noodles and some meatballs I inherited from my son's divorce and make up some camping food. 

Yes, I see they are teriyaki meatballs with pineapple, but I'll never use them otherwise, so it might be an interesting combination and is something we would surely eat in an emergency or camping.

I got all my trays and dividers ready, put the sauce on to simmer (I added some spices) and got the water ready for the noodles. I'm going to use all three packages of spaghetti - thinking maybe it will take up 4 of the trays. 

Here are my spaghetti noodles, 

and I'm cutting my meatballs into 4 pieces.

And here are my trays

I'll have a total of 40 meals.

Mountain House is about $5 per serving:

Mine will be much less:
2 pounds angel hair spaghetti noodles = $3

4 cans spaghetti sauce = $5

Meatballs = $58

Total = 66

Divided by 40 = $1.65 per serving

More tomorrow when it's finished!

Love,

Annie

And Moving On . . .

 It's been a wild ride since we got home. My son got a divorce and we've been helping him empty out his 4 bedroom 3 bath home for the past 2 weeks. I haven't even unpacked yet! 

Today was the last load - and I brought home the freeze dryer that he and I split the cost of last year. I'm so excited to have it here where I can use it more often!  Right now it is sitting in the middle of the room of my den because I have to have a special dedicated outlet put in. That'll be a whopping $525 but worth it in the end! 

I spent the day today on several projects once we moved the freeze dryer over with the help from the Missionaries and friends from my church.

First, I moved rock from one part of my yard to the area under the eaves where the neighbor's cat had decided to make his poop box!
I tried everything, including a motion sprinkler, cougar urine, a variety of spices including cinnamon and hot pepper and NOTHING worked.

So I filled the area with river rock.

Take THAT you annoying feline!

Then I harvested a lot of my Egyptian Walking Onions. 

I want to put cucumbers in that bed so I can make pickles this year.

And the onions, well, you can't kill them.

They will be back.

The ones I harvested are in a skillet right now, caramelizing.

Can you smell them?

In the spot from where I took the river rock,

I asked Joe to put down some pavers

so we could more easily sit on our bench

enjoying our beautiful yard and tree.

Before we moved the rock,

it was ankle breaking getting there!

Last, we put a fence around our side yard raised beds to hopefully keep the neighbor's cat out.  In the other bed, I put stones and upside down staples. 

I hope it works.

All in all, it's been a great but busy day.

Tomorrow, I can finally unpack 

and start cleaning my house.

I also have cucumbers and green beans to plant.

I love Summer!

Love,

Annie