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rockies
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# Posted: 26 Jun 2016 19:20
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I saw this in a homesteading magazine. Pricey, but they say it eliminates dehydrating, canning, and dry storage of most foods.
https://harvestright.com/store/
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Don_P
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# Posted: 27 Jun 2016 07:35
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Underpriced I think, check longer term reviews...my memory of several years ago when we were looking was about 10x that price... a community buy.
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bldginsp
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# Posted: 27 Jun 2016 08:55 - Edited by: bldginsp
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I wonder what the advantages are to these machines. It doesn't eliminate dehydrating, canning, and dry storage. It's just a different method of doing so which involves an expensive machine. Perhaps it has the advantage of better food quality, but I'd want solid confirmation on that before considering buying. Perhaps it can preserve some foods that are more difficult or problematic such as meats. And there is convenience- it looks very easy to use, perhaps reducing time spent preserving food, which will be welcome at busy harvest time. But when you have trees and vines laden with fruit that needs to be preserved, and this unit has four small trays that take overnight to process, what happens to all the plums? You can easily make two driers each with 5 or 10 times the capacity of this machine to handle the peak harvest production.
You can't freeze dry your way to preserved jams and jellies, and I wonder how much real difference there is between dried fruits and freeze dried fruits.
I'm looking at starting an orchard/garden and I'd consider one of these, but I'd want to see a lot more than advertising spiel before I'd spend that much. You can make a couple driers for a few hundred bucks, if that.
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rockies
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# Posted: 27 Jun 2016 21:00
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I clicked on the link at the top of that page titled "Download Free Guide to Freeze Drying" and they discussed exactly what happens to the food as it's dried. Apparently the food (meat, dairy, vegetables, fruit, etc) is taken down to around -40 degrees and then slowly warmed up to just above freezing. When it gets to that point the water in the food evaporates out leaving practically no water behind. This is what preserves the taste and nutrition. They state that only about 3% of the nutrients are lost during the freeze drying process compared to up to 40% using other methods like canning.
I like that your own food can be kept for up to 20 years with very little or no loss to taste or nutrients. There is a smaller version of the dryer available as well for about $1000 less.
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