Any Experience with HarvestRight Freeze Dryer?

[Scott Anderson]

My wife and I are thinking about investing in a home freeze dryer, in part to support some homemade meals for backpacking. I’m wondering if anyone in the forum has experience with one of these. If so, what do you think? Have you had success making your own freeze-dried meals? Any recommendations for me?

Thanks! Scott

[Ryan Jordan]

I have a Harvest Right, the medium-sized model.

It has completely changed how I look at backpacking food.

I get to pick my own ingredients, spices, additives.

I can cook a meal the way I want it cooked, then batch dry the whole mess. I don’t have to fiddle around with mixing individual dry ingredients.

Dehydrating meals requires more art and care – you have to pay really careful attention to chopping size (uniformity), and because there’s still water in the food after drying, it doesn’t last very long.

I love mine – honestly, it’s one of my favorite pieces of gear and is really, really easy to use.

It took a half dozen batches of priming to get the new smell/taste out of the foods (it uses an oil pump, and that’s the culprit), but now everything is humming along fine. I primed it by freeze-drying batches of old cheap bread.

The caloric density is outrageous. My last batch of guac came to 192 Cal/oz, and my last batch of taco soup (beans, corn, tomatoes, spices) came to 125 Cal/oz – with no added fats.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

I’ve pondered it. And pondered some more. The price is what gets me in the end. It’s not that I have an issue spending on things that work – for example I possess a near pro setup for making espresso. But it paid itself back quickly (in under 6 months time, and it’s still going 10+ years later). For the freeze dryer….it’s a lot of money – to pay back the cost. It’s also an energy and space hog.  To run it I’d have to do it in our shop for the noise levels.

Thing is, I would use it – we preserve a lot of food off our homestead every year.

But I just cannot justify the cost. I would still have to use my mason jars for storage (I have the mason jar sealers for the FoodVac, which you can use to “dry” can dried foods).

But I guess….even as a full prepper, which I am, it’s still too much money. I could justify buying a used excavator for our land…but not this. But also understand that as things break that I own, I am replacing with low tech versions that don’t require electricity (because our goal is to go fully off grid).

[JCH]

That is one pricey son of a gun.  Seems like you REALLY have to use it A LOT to get the value.

“It took a half dozen batches of priming to get the new smell/taste out of the foods (it uses an oil pump, and that’s the culprit)”

And at ~$1500 to upgrade the Med size to the oil-less pump puts it north of $4k.  That’s a lot of FD veggies!  Now, if I were rich…

[Ryan Jordan]

This is not a tool for the casual backcountry foodie, due to the cost. We make it worthwhile by prepping food for group trips, guided trips, and I go through a lot of FD food myself every year, camping, backpacking, and travel (not a huge fan of eating out and would rather eat my own food in my hotel room) and appreciate the grab-and-go ease of my own FD food packs. Even for a high-volume user, this has a 2-year payoff window for me.

I didn’t spend money on the oil-less pump. The oil pump has been fine, and is really easy to maintain.

[BlackHatGuy]

There was a member on here a few years ago who bought one with a friend or neighbor (or perhaps both, I don’t remember exactly). He liked it quite a bit, and made it much more affordable by splitting the purchase with someone else. Something to consider.

[Bonzo]

That is some serious coin outlay.

Ryan, do you notice any texture/flavor/taste difference between your home-dried stuff and the commercially-available foods?

[Ryan Jordan]

Sharing a freeze drier among multiple people – that’s a FANTASTIC idea.

My food is better-tasting, for sure. Probably because I cook with fresh ingredients and I’m particularly picky about produce and fruit quality, and how I spice and salt my own food.

[Bonzo]

My food is better-tasting, for sure.

Good to know; lack of taste and texture is one of the main reasons that I avoid freeze-dried stuff.  Also, commercial options are often jam-packed with ingredients that we try to avoid in our household (MSG = migraine fuel).  I make my own dehydrated meals now, for that reason.

I also usually have a large garden during the easier growing seasons; if freeze-drying could help preserve some of that produce, I might consider a small unit on that point as well.

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Bonzo, if you grow your own food, then yes, you can work it out financially. I can and dehydrate a ton, we are small scale farmers on our land.

[Scott Anderson]

Ryan, All,

Thank you for your comments! This is making me more excited about the possibilities. Using it for backpacking/camping is only a secondary use to my wife’s primary plan of food storage and preparedness.

FYI I did talk to the owner and found out that the oil-less pump is noticeably louder and doesn’t really provide much benefit so I will likely go the cheaper route. Size medium.

I am a big fan of the “stew-ish” meals for camping — things that rehydrate into a goopy goulash, and I’m planning to start my experiments with meals like that. Think shepherds pie, one-pot spaghetti, casseroles, gumbo.

Regards, Scott

[Ryan Jordan]

Yes, the one-pot meals is where the Harvest Right really shines…!

[Sarah Kirkconnell]

Scott….if you have prepper tendencies, then yes, go for it. You can always go big and buy #10 cans to seal. Getting the machine to seal, sometimes they come up used.

I’m an open prepper.

[Bonzo]

#10 cans…now that’s not a bad idea… 🤔

[Ben H.]

If you are looking for a way to make the cost work out for you and you are so inclined I think there is an untapped backpacking Cottage Industry for freeze dried products. I loved buying stuff from Redwicks Preserves (on facebook and an ebay store), but it appears to be totally gone now. They sold freeze dried jumbo shrimp and a lot of other things you couldn’t get anywhere else. I don’t know what sort of licenses/certifications are needed to sell freeze dried food. Perhaps that would kill the part time aspect of doing that. I’m pretty sure Redwicks just bought stuff at Costco and freeze dried it.

[Ken White]

Love mine. Got a half price bump to medium as the small had a long order lag time. Got the oil less option. It is loud. Read the fine print in that it is not recommended on a GFCI circuit. The large suggests a 20 amp circuit. A heavy duty extension cord solved all my issues. Be sure to get their silicon liners or a baking silicon mat from an online merchant that you can cut to size. Look into oxygen absorbers to keep your goodies dry.

Concur with the comments on single pot meals. Will now consider this as a hotel meal option. If you like scrambled eggs the freeze dryer can’t be beat. Nothing like doing your own spices and avoiding the salt of commercial products. Unclear if it will pay for itself in the next decade, but the results are sure tasty. My home grown plums re-hydrated with my favorite beverage makes for a nice desert.

[Jerry Adams]

do you just cook your food normally, then put in freeze drier?

how long does it take to freeze dry a batch of food?

growing food and selling it is a tough business,  it’s so cheap in stores, tough to compete

if you can create a niche and charge more it would make more sense, like freeze drying it and selling it online to people that are willing to pay more

[Michael B]

I am too lazy to build my own dehydrator, but this thread made me google this.

[Ken White]

I cook my food and then freeze dry. With flesh I’ve seen people do either. For me it’s easier to re-hydrate and not worry about cooking the flesh later.

It depends what you are drying. Most items, for me, like stews, one pot dishes, are less than 12 hours. Sweet fruits (pineapples) take a lot longer. I would think the larger dryer would take longer as there is more mass to process.

While you can tweak the settings, it pretty much runs itself. Although, if it finished without your presence, it moves to a deep freeze space. You then will need mitts to remove the trays or slowly warm up the contents. Nothing but fun with your morning coffee.

[James L]

Honestly our freeze dryer has made my family look forward to our food in the backcountry… Here is a pic of this summer’s food. These are mostly 2 serving, 1200 total cal packs at 130+ cal/oz.

If it’s in your budget, and you do enough trail days, do it! My wife and I ordered one late December. We got it about a month ago and its had its first break since we got it last month. I’m really loving the assemble at home then rehydrate in the field meals we’ve been putting together. Most are 130+ cal/oz, pack small, and require only 8-12 oz of water per 600 cal. Some are meals we made at home then freeze dried complete. Others are assembled from a mix of DH and FD ingredients. For example DH cooked pasta mixed with FD cheese powders, FD veggies, and FD meats. All are dump into our Litesmith cold soak jars, add water, let sit, then drain water or just add packet 2, then 🤤.

Our family (w/2 teenage boys) is doing the JMT this summer and we were worried about putting home DH foods in a resupply bucket and shipping it out. Some would sit in the bucket for 6 weeks. FD fixes that.

Plus, two seasons ago, we spent $$$ on commercial FD food. Last season we started home dehydrating using http://backcountryfoodie.com ‘s recipes and $$ FD powders. The recipes are 💯 worth the subscription. This season, we are FD our own stuff to use in her recipes and are so excited to be out on the trail. The investment is big but I’m happy with the return.

For the pump, definitely get the mid level premier pump. It’s quiet and reduces maintenance. The basic one gets a lot of water in it so it fails frequently and the oilless needs annual service that is $400 and needs to be shipped out.

It did sound like you decided to order. Ask for an extra set of trays for free. When it arrives, pre-freeze everything. Don’t be afraid of it. Let it do its thing but add dry time. I forget to check the food all the time and often, only a tray or two are done. If something isn’t drying in 24 hrs, put it in your freezer then add the tray to the next batch. Here are some ingredients ready for assembly into more meals.

 

[Scott Anderson]

James, thanks for the extensive notes — it sounds like you are dialed in with this combination of FD and DH food! We did go ahead and ordered the size medium with the premier pump. May be up to 10 weeks for shipment but we are getting excited! Regards, Scott

[Ben W]

Hi!

New here,

We own a large FD with an oil-less pump.  Love it!

Not sure what some of the comments about the expense- and taking forever to pay for itself are coming from really, that one of the main benefits about purchasing one- the savings in food costs.  I mean, people pay $3,000 for refrigerators after all.

We honestly have only thrown out a couple leftovers in the past 9 months or so of owning our FD.  A few things I made were not good, so there was little point in trying to save those for later use, and a couple of things I was just too lazy to process in time before they went south.

Buying items on dirt cheap sales to use in meals later saves a good deal of money.  I buy milk when its marked down/ almost expired, I have a growing meat collection that I’ve bought at less than $1/lb.

And then there is processing our garden goodies!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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