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, but when I checked them, I felt like they could use a bit longer so I ended up adding some extra dry time.
Again, like the corn, these were obviously pre-frozen, lol. I laid them out on the trays and made sure there weren’t any big clumps of them stuck together and whatnot. Then into the Ice Queen freeze dryer they went! I actually really wish the Harvest Right Home Pro Medium freeze dryer WAS named the Ice Queen. I think that would be so much cooler!
Get these peas out of my freezer, hahaha!
Seriously, I just love opening up more freezer space! It’s just so much more convenient for us to have things on shelves. I do still absolutely LOVE canning things, but having this other way to preserve is also amazing!
The peas turned out fantastic! Very happy with them. After they were finished, I ate a few (of course, had to try them!) and then put the rest in jars. I then added the oxygen absorbers (I use Wallaby ones because I like the way they’re packaged and they’ve always worked well for me), then I sealed them up. As I mentioned in a previous post or two, I now have two of these handheld rechargeable jar vacuum sealers lol. I know you can get bigger ones that I’ve seen people do 4 or 5 jars at a time in, but they’re pretty big. We just don’t have the counter space for one, and these small handhelds fit easily in a drawer.
So how long did them sweet peas take?
Initially, Ice Queen stopped at 14 hours – just 45 minutes longer than it took to do the corn. However, I decided some weren’t quite done and set it for another 90 minutes of extra dry time. So my total time for the freeze dried peas came out to 15 hours and 30 minutes
Defrosted the Ice Queen freeze dryer into a 5 gallon bucket, as usual:) I empty this every two or three batches. And I have the drain hose taped towards the top of the bucket, to ensure it’s never in the water when I start her up or anything.
Happy freeze drying!!
