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 mind about what I’m going to cook or take too long to do it, and that is a huge bummer!
For this batch, I had three trays of celery and two of bell peppers (can’t ever have enough peppers, lol). Everything was pre-frozen. I started the Ice Queen (Harvest Right Home Pro Medium), and after the 15 minute cool down it does, I put everything in.
So I actually ordered a veggie chopper and tried it out. I liked how it worked, but it was kind of a cheapo one, so it didn’t do as awesome as I had hoped. Then I did some more research and got another one, a bit more expensive, but not insane or anything. For this batch of veggies, I got to use my new Full Star Vegetable Chopper, and it worked awesome! New kitchen gadgets are always fun, but they’re super duper fun when they also actually work well:)
Yay to freeze dried celery!
And… I’m thrilled! The celery came out really well. I’m very excited to have shelf stable celery around whenever I need it. So glad to add it to our pantry:)
As usual, I put the freeze dried celery and peppers into jars with oxygen absorbers and then vacuum sealed them. I get my oxygen absorbers on Amazon from Wallaby, great value for the price! And this is the Electric Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer I have. The vacuum sealers easily fit in a drawer (I have two lol), which is important for me.
How long did the freeze dried celery take?
The Ice Queen stopped around 18 hours, but I kept it going because the celery didn’t seem quite done to me. Ended up finishing at a total of 23 hours and 15 minutes. Not really surprised, celery does have a lot of water in it, lol.
Did the two hour defrost after this batch, and will probably change the oil soon too:)
Happy freeze drying!!
Freeze dried celery is done!! I’m so excited to have shelf stable celery in our pantry for whenever I need it. For some reason, it’s one of those things I always forget when I’m at the store😂 pic.twitter.com/ij3KD00Kdt
— Buck Hills Farm (@buck_hills_farm) February 9, 2024
