# Does anyone freeze dry?



## GreenGypsy (Jul 6, 2014)

I'm looking into freeze drying things as well as canning and dehydrating. Does anyone here freeze dry?


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

It's not something the home cook can do.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

suitcase_sally said:


> It's not something the home cook can do.


Not true... You can buy small freeze drying chambers for home use, but they are in the thousands of dollars... . Also, you can freeze dry using dry ice and a home made vac chamber... Although, no matter how you do it, it's not cheap. Much much cheaper to buy the food freeze dried already.


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## midwesterner (Mar 8, 2009)

A hands-on review (in three parts) of the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and some follow-up posts and responses can be read over on the Survival Blog. It can be done by anyone with the financial resources to buy one (or who can form a group that buys one together).


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## Ellendra (Jul 31, 2013)

Three times I've come close to having my own freeze-dryer, but I've always been outbid.

Check with your local university or technical college. Some of them auction off their old equipment when they upgrade. That's how I almost ended up with a freeze dryer 3 times.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

I repeat myself.


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## JRB (Apr 6, 2021)

simi-steading said:


> Not true... You can buy small freeze drying chambers for home use, but they are in the thousands of dollars... . Also, you can freeze dry using dry ice and a home made vac chamber... Although, no matter how you do it, it's not cheap. Much much cheaper to buy the food freeze dried already.


Freeze drying your own food is much better you get to decide what goes into the food
alot of store bought Freeze Dried foods have extra ingr. that are not necessary and are usually high in Sodium and they use the cheapest quality foods they can source.
It costs about $2 per batch of food to run the freeze dryer very minimal.


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## 407243 (May 7, 2021)

JRB said:


> Freeze drying your own food is much better you get to decide what goes into the food
> alot of store bought Freeze Dried foods have extra ingr. that are not necessary and are usually high in Sodium and they use the cheapest quality foods they can source.
> It costs about $2 per batch of food to run the freeze dryer very minimal.


Agreed, and buy on sale and in bulk. i just picked up a couple items including london broil and a boston butt as the sell by date was tomorrow, got them all for less than half. they will be processed (cooked, cut and pre-frozen) and freeze dried within two days. and they will taste exactly how i like it


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