Freeze Drying

You know what freeze dried ice cream is? SPACE ICE CREAM!!!! Yeah, baby, let's make some space ice cream!! Freeze dried ice cream is also called astronaut ice cream, but I think space ice cream sounds better 🙂 While we have done ice cream sandwiches before (read about that here), this is our first time [...]

Yep, freeze dried Jolly Ranchers take two. Lol. It's all about the size this time! That's right, this time we cut the Jolly Ranchers in half! I thought it was going to be difficult, but using a set of those medical scissors that can cut a penny in half makes it super easy and quick [...]

Oh yeah, let's try some freeze dried Nerds Gummy Clusters! Our kiddo loves Nerds Gummy Clusters, so I hope these are good lol Honestly, hubby and I had never even tried these normally before this. So, we tried them as they are normally and they're pretty darn good! So crunchy ones, I think, are going [...]

Time for freeze dried fresh peaches! The canned peaches were so good, we wanted to try fresh 🙂 We decided it was time to make freeze dried fresh peaches since the freeze dried canned peaches were so incredible! I didn't get very many fresh peaches, as there weren't tons of good looking ripe one at [...]

Freeze dried flavored mini marshmallows - not sure how I feel about these yet, lol So I really like mini marshmallows.. but these..? Not so sure about these. Marshmallows are kind of weird when they're flavored. Not sure why, but they just don't hit the same, haha. Like with the normal mini marshmallows, I used [...]

I've been told freeze dried peaches are awesome, so let's find out! I love peaches! For the freeze dried canned peaches, all I have is peaches I canned myself, so that's what I'm using. Just testing it out on two jars to start. If we like them, I'll freeze dry the rest. I decided to [...]

We love Rolos, and I'm guessing freeze dried Rolos will be AWESOME! I'm excited for this one 🙂 Hubby found bags of already unwrapped Rolos, if you can believe that! So for our freeze dried Rolos, the time spent getting them prepped will be cut down so so much having them already unwrapped. Brilliant! Like [...]

I've heard about freeze dried Snickers from more than one person... So let's give them a try! I bought a bunch of Fun Size Snickers to use for this. Probably the only time the fun sized ones will actually be fun, lol. Like other candies, I did Candy Mode on the Ice Queen (Harvest Right [...]

Been told more than once to try freeze dried Jolly Ranchers, so... Here we go!! Got a bunch of Jolly Ranchers, so I hope they really are awesome! Like other candies, I did Candy Mode on the Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) for this. I spaced them out because I've been told they [...]

Not sure freeze dried Sugar Babies will be any different than usual... But let's give them a shot anyway, lol. I really like Sugar Babies. They're one of those candies that I usually forget about. But then when I randomly see them and buy some, I remember just how much I enjoy them! Since they're [...]

Freeze dried Lemonheads might be just like regular Lemonheads, haha. Not sure what they'll do, but I'm curious. The Lemonheads went into the Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) with Sugar Babies and Red Hots. I didn't do anything special to them. They just went on trays ad then went into the freeze dryer [...]

Hmmm... freeze dried Red Hots. Now that they're in, I'm thinking nope. Funny, it only took about 5 minutes for me to think these probably won't work. So, yeah. I'm now thinking these will probably be a lot like the Twizzlers, and do absolutely nothing, lol. They're kid of the same type of candy as [...]

Woohoo!! Another full meal - freeze dried chili mac, here we come! 🙂 We love chili and we love macaroni.. chili mac was an absolute must to have in our freeze dried storage! For this, I made a huge batch of my Totally Rad Chili, then turned it into my delicious Chili Mac! Honestly, both [...]

O.M.G. freeze dryer power outage in the middle of a batch! This has never happened to us before, and I'm shook, lol. Ok, so I had mango and kiwi in the Ice Queen (which is really a Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) and the dang power went out! To be honest, I was on the [...]

Everyone says freeze dried mango is awesome - we shall see! Can't wait for this one!! Lots and lots of people have told me I absolutely HAVE to try freeze dried mango. So ok, let's do it! I actually didn't purchase enough mango to make it the entire batch, so I added some kiwi as [...]

I really hope freeze dried Junior Mints are amazing! OMG are they done yet??? I absolutely LOVE Junior Mints. I very much like Bit-O-Honey and Milk Duds as well, but not nearly as much as Junior Mints, lol. I really hope these come out light and crispy and awesome. I haven't looked anything up about [...]

I'm guessing freeze dried Milk Duds will be super delicious! I'm ready to eat them now, lol. Much like Bit-O-Honey, I love Milk Duds aside from it getting stuck in the teeth and stuff. So having crunchy ones is probably going to be rad! I've seen photos of these and know they'll expand quite a [...]

I want these freeze dried potatoes to be like French fries, lol. Not sure they'll be like fries, but I can still hope For this, I used white potatoes, didn't peel them, just cleaned them really well. I chopped them into sticks, a big julienne chopping. I'm hoping they'll be close to fries, but if [...]

I like cheese, so I'm guessing I'll like freeze dried cheese, lol. Freeze dried cheese is one I've wanted to do for a while... Simply because it has so many uses! I have learned a lot about it on X (formerly Twitter). Some of the uses I've heard of include: ready to go pizza toppings [...]

Being optimistic that freeze dried zucchini and squash sticks will be good 🙂 I'm hoping freeze dried zucchini and summer squash sticks are like veggie straws. No clue if the zucchini and summer squash will turn out the way I'm thinking. I'm hoping the freeze dried zucchini and summer squash sticks will be nice and [...]

Freeze dried pineapple. Again. It's just so good!!! I've made freeze dried pineapple in the past using fresh pineapple I chopped up (check out that post here), and it was good. This time I found organic, non GMO canned pineapple rings to try. I did cut the rings into about fourths or so before putting [...]

I want to try freeze dried cantaloupe 🙂 Not sure if it'll be good, but trying it out doesn't hurt. I love a good cantaloupe, and so do our chickens. So I figured it would be cool to make some freeze dried cantaloupe to see how it is. If it's not super awesome to just [...]

Cleaning the freeze dryer is definitely important! It doesn't need to be done after every batch, but it does need to be kept nice and clean! Ok, the Ice Queen (which is really a Harvest Right Home Pro Medium) needs to be cleaned. Cleaning the freeze dryer is actually super simple and doesn't take very [...]

I hope freeze dried Peeps are good, because I don't like them normally, lol. Seriously, Peeps are so meh, so I hope they're better like this! I am very hopeful that freeze dried Peeps will be better than normal ones. I am doing both the Peeps chicks and the bunnies. I'm being as optimistic as [...]

Freeze dried Bit-O-Honey is probably going to be awesome! This one is super exciting!! I really like Bit-O-Honey anyway, so freeze dried Bit-O-Honey is going to be even better, I just know it! The one major down side of it normally is how terribly it gets stuck in the teeth, lol. Freeze drying these should [...]

Freeze dried mini marshmallows - YUM! I think freeze dried mini marshmallows will be like the charms in Lucky Charms! Let's see how freeze dried mini marshmallows taste 🙂 Not sure if marshmallows are really considered candy, but I'm going to freeze dry them like candy, lol. And I'm assuming they'll be like the charms [...]

Let's try freeze dried Twizzlers! I really like Twizzlers, so lets see how they are freeze dried! I read online that they will be nice and crunchy. Then someone on X (formerly Twitter) said if she remembers right, they do nothing. Since I dig them anyway, I'm excited to try this. I did cut the [...]

Freeze dried Skittles are awesome, so I'm making more 🙂 We call freeze dried Skittles by a different name - BRITTLES! Skittles is trade marked, hence renaming them Brittles. We do plan to sell some, so had to come up with a new name 🙂 I've made freeze dried Skittles before (read about them and [...]

Freeze dried beef stew? Duh, yes please! We love beef stew in this house, so I just know everyone will love freeze dried beef stew 🙂 For this batch of freeze dried beef stew, I just made a triple batch of what we'd normally eat as a family and then freeze dried the leftovers. This [...]

Was curious how frozen spinach would turn out... So I got bags of frozen spinach on super sale, so why not freeze dry them? Freeze dried frozen spinach.. I'm so interested to see how this turns out. I use spinach in all sorts of things.. dips, soups, eggs, etc. I don't always have fresh spinach [...]

I've not yet done carrots on their own.. So lets make some freeze dried sliced carrots! The carrots I used for this were already frozen, I got bags of frozen veggies on super sale, so I bought several different things. I have freeze dried carrots before, but only in a veggie mixture, and those weren't [...]

I've done apples, now it's time for pears! Got some super sweet pears, so I'm guessing they'll be awesome! I was actually given these pears all sliced up and pre-frozen by my in-laws! They really liked the first apples we gave them, so they wanted to try some pears 🙂 This batch was two trays [...]

Freeze dried lemon slices just to have around, lol I really had no major reason for doing these, other than to have some around for summer drinks and things. I don't always have fresh lemons around, and sometimes I do want a slice of lemon in a drink or something. Someone else said he's done [...]

Pineapple rocks, so I'm excited to try freeze dried fresh pineapple! I'm pretty sure this is just gonna be amazing 🙂 I wanted to try freeze dried fresh pineapple so that later, I can compare it to freeze dried canned pineapple. I'm guessing there won't be much difference, but I'm still curious, lol. I only [...]

Freeze dried strawberries? Yes, please:) So excited - and I can't wait to turn the tops into freeze dried strawberry powder, too! Strawberries are good just as they are, so I can't wait to try them freeze dried! Aside from just making freeze dried strawberries, I also plan to make freeze dried strawberry powder out [...]

Apples are good & molasses is good.. freeze dried apples with molasses should be awesome! Wanted to do this as a little treat, hope it turns out well Hoping freeze dried apples with molasses are super yummy!!! I already had apples all chopped up and frozen, so I put them on the trays and then [...]

Freeze dryer oil changes are super easy! We have the Premier Oil Pump, so we change the oil every 20-30 batches Every 20 to 30 batches isn't bad for a freeze dryer oil change! Other pumps have different requirements when it comes to oil changes, so make sure you follow the instructions for the pump [...]

I think freeze dried celery is going to be rad! Having shelf stable celery is going to be great! I've seen a few people make freeze dried celery, and I am excited to jump in, too! I often forget to buy celery, or it ends up going bad when I do. I either change my [...]

The family loves chili, so it's going to be awesome to have more! Freeze dried chili - woohoo! I'm really excited about this! I did make some freeze dried chili before (check it out here). But when I did it before, it wasn't much because everyone ate it all before I had a chance to [...]

Love me some mandarins, so why not have freeze dried mandarins? Let's get this party started! I've read various things about freeze dried mandarins and other citrus. Seems to be very hit or miss. So I figured I'd give it a go and see. I peeled 6 pounds of mandarins, keeping the peels to freeze [...]

I was told freeze dried mushrooms are awesome... ... we shall see!! People have said freeze dried mushrooms are great, so I'm giving it a shot! When it comes to mushrooms, I'm the only one in the house who likes them, so I don't get to use them often. But having some in jars that [...]

Hasn't this been done already? Yes, lol. I use bell peppers and onions a ton! I have freeze dried bell peppers and onions before - you can read the writeup right here. There is a difference though. I did pre-freeze everything the first time. This time, I did not. Let's see the time difference, at [...]

And some wine berries:) Freeze dried mixed berries... yum! I like all kinds of berries and I had some wine berries frozen that I picked a few months ago, along with part of a bag of mixed berries. So I decided to freeze dry them. I might turn them into a powder, because the apple [...]

Excited to try freeze dried kiwi! I love kiwi, so I hope this is awesome! For the prep, I peeled the kiwi - I just use a regular hand veggie peeler, lol. Then I sliced them up as evenly as I could. I ended up eating quite a bit, too, couldn't help it. This batch [...]

I've heard freeze dried bananas are awesome, so let's find out! I am not really a fan of banana chips, like in a dehydrator... so I really hope the freeze dried banana isn't like that, hahahaha! I sliced the bananas as evenly as I could before putting them on the trays. I did pre-freeze these, [...]

Freeze dried baked beans - because why waste things, right? We had quite a few cans of baked beans about to go bad... So it's time to put them in the Ice Queen! For this batch, I actually did three trays of these baked beans, one and a half trays of pickles (with some pickled [...]

Green olives (which are a fruit) are in the Ice Queen! Someone on the internet said freeze dried green olives are good.. so I'm trying it lol No better reason than that to give something a try, right? hahaha. We actually had a jar in the pantry that was getting kind of close to the [...]

Excited to try freeze dried pickled shredded carrots! Why freeze dry the pickled shredded carrots? I really like them, straight out of the jar. So I wanted to see if they'd come out of the freeze dryer super crunchy and ready to be an awesome salad topper! For the shredded carrots, I just laid them [...]

Pickles, really? Lol. Yeah. Why freeze dry pickles? I really just wanted to see how they would turn out and give them a try. Pickle chips sounds really good to me, so I wanted to see if freeze dried pickles would be sort of like chips. I used my own homemade dill pickle slices for [...]

Freeze dried apple powder from scraps is going to be awesome! Why turn the apple scraps into powder? For me, this is twofold.. when combined with some sugar and added to water, it can make a great homemade apple juice - think Kool-Aid powder, lol. I also very much like an apple flavor on various [...]

This is a family favorite, so having freeze dried bbq pulled pork and slaw is going to be awesome! For this, I did 3 trays of the pork to 2 trays of the slaw.. When I made bbq pulled pork for dinner, I tripled the amount of the pork and the slaw I made to [...]

Freeze dried mixed vegetables had to be done, I just use them so much! Two quart jars of freeze dried mixed vegetables, coming right up! Once again, I used bags of frozen mixed vegetables for this (like I did with the corn and the peas). I laid them out on the trays and made sure [...]

I freeze dried grapes because I was curious, lol I love grapes, and so do our chickens, so I decided to try freeze drying some:) This time, I just wanted to keep emptying out my freezer. I had sliced apples, some random bags of blueberries, and some grapes I had vacuum sealed and frozen. I'm [...]

Totally amazed how well the freeze dried raw eggs came out! Freeze drying raw eggs is awesome for so so many reasons... So here we are, at our 16th freeze dryer batch, and we're doing raw eggs! This is so cool.. super space saver - a few small jars takes up way less space than [...]

Freeze dried peas.. I use peas in lots of different things, so this rocks! So much easier to store freeze dried peas and of course, frees up space in my freezer!! Just like with the freeze dried corn, I used bags of frozen peas for this. They took just as long according to the machine, [...]

Freeze dried corn is a great snack as-is or can be added to soups and things! I'm really stoked with how the freeze dried corn turned out! For this batch, I got four bags of frozen corn at the store. I don't have any corn of my own at the moment. Not to mention it's [...]

Freeze dried ground beef, chili, dog treats and onions - this is a mishmash of stuff! Yep, this one is a mix of things, haha 🙂 So excited to do freeze dried ground beef, chili, and dog treats!!! I had about a pound of ground beef, about the same of chili, some turkey giblets (cooked) [...]

Fruit time!!! Freeze dried apples and blueberries are fantastic! This one is exciting, because I LOVE fruits of all kinds! For this one, I already had some blueberries in the freezer, and then I got a bunch of apples on sale. And after making some apple butter (recipe here) and apple syrup, I still had [...]

Homemade freeze dried vegetable bullion is so much better than I imagined! The making of veggie mush for freeze dried vegetable bullion Our 11th batch, how exciting!!! This one took a while to get situated, as I first had to make vegetable mash. I don't like to waste food and I don't always want to [...]

Oh yeah, this is the good stuff, freeze dried candy! I'm going to be honest here, it did not all work properly, lol I used the Ice Queen freeze dryer (which you know is really the Harvest Right Home Pro Medium one) to make several different types of freeze dried candy. First, I freeze dried [...]

I honestly didn't know freeze dried candy was a big thing until maybe 2 weeks ago, lol. And since it is so cool, here's how to set up Candy Mode on the Harvest Right Home Pro Freeze Dryer - WOOHOO! Before even bothering to try this, you have to make sure you have the right [...]

Freeze dried onions eliminate the need to take up my freezer space! I use onions all the time, so I really wanted to freeze dry a bunch of them. There were some shallots thrown in there too.. don't want to forget about those little guys:) In this freeze dryer batch, my 6th batch to be [...]

This is the good stuff - freeze dried ice cream sandwiches! So not quite like space ice cream because of the sandwich part.. but these are SO GOOD! Not everybody likes space ice cream, but I sure do! And these freeze dried ice cream sandwiches came out great! They look exactly the same coming out [...]

Freeze dried turkey - can't believe the meat is so good! I was a bit skeptical, but now I am a believer! I really wasn't sure how I felt about freeze dried turkey - or any meat for that matter. But it is fantastic! It reconstitutes well, texture isn't funky afterwards, and the best part? [...]

It's our 3rd batch! Jalapeños and tomatoes - freeze dried (of course, lol) This is one I really wanted to do, because I love tomatoes and use them in tons of things, and I also enjoy adding jalapeños to some recipes. Of course, I also like to have jalapeños around for whenever we have loaded [...]

Freeze drying onions & bell peppers - finally something fun! I love onions & bell peppers! And what better way to store them than freeze dried in vacuum sealed jars?! This one was so very exciting! I use onions and bell peppers all the time, so I already had a bunch of them chopped up [...]

Bread? That's boring! Yeah, but I like to follow instructions and they say to do bread first. So bread it is, lol. I bought a loaf of wonder bread to use for my first freeze dryer batch. It is recommended your first batch be bread to get rid of the "new car" type of smell [...]

This was the most exciting part... when our freeze dryer officially became the Ice Queen! Naming the freezer dryer is the very first thing I did. To do this, plug it in, and press "System Name" at the top of the screen. Then type in the name you want for your Harvest Right freeze dryer [...]

That's right, our freeze dryer has arrived! Welcome home, Ice Queen! The Ice Queen has arrived! I could not be more excited about it!!! I have been researching freeze dryers, how to freeze dry, what I can freeze dry, and all sorts of other things... literally, for months, lol. I got the Harvest Right Home [...]