Freeze dried food

[sparrowhawk1]

Thanks but none are near me. As far as I'm concerned everybody's crazy. Just to different degrees

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Now I know I will get slammed for this but you can order any type of freeze dried foodstuffs from the Mormon church ( I am not a member ) Google provident living food stores they ship world wide the prices are good and the quality is excellent ( what I tried was great) .

No slamming here. As long as I don't have to believe in their myths I'm all good.

Just looked at one of their price sheets for dried food. From what I see they look good, but not amazing. Convenient to have it delivered though.

[sparrowhawk1]

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I clicked on buy food storage items online and there's only 30 items mostly beans which I don't need dehydrated and some pasta, a few other things and a couple accessories. Also these are not freeze dried items they're dehydrated

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I think air flow should be fine. I do wonder about general humidity though. Wondering if the salt air will make it difficult. I guess I'll find out...

When we dry food in the summer it is usually hot and humid outside. I don't want to have the dehydrator running in the house, and thus heating the house , so I run it on the porch. I suppose it takes a bit longer to dehydrate the food in higher humidity but I can't tell it makes much difference.

Later,
Dan

[JPA Cate]

Mike, if you can, set it up to use solar to do your de-hydration.

If you run a genset to do it, you will sully the tranquility of the anchorages.

Ann

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Great info . What kinds of dehydrator do you use? I've thought about getting one like this: http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/d...excalibur-2400. Claims to run on 220 watts (~2 amps), although through an inverter would be double I guess.

We have the larger nine tray Excalibur and it is big but it can dry a bunch of food at one time. One year blue berries were really cheap and we bought 27 pounds or quarts, I cant remember which, and made fruit leather. Just blended the berries, poured them on the tray and dehydrated. Whatever it was pounds or quarts, it took three of them per tray so one load in the dehydrator got it done. That was a couple of years ago and we are still eating the fruit leather. I cut each tray into nine squares, put each leather on wax paper and the filled up a zip lock bag. Tossed the zip lock bags in the freezer.

It is amazing how we took a huge stack of blue berry containers and dried them down to about the size of a large paper back book. Tastes good, lasts a long time, sorta cheap, and does not take up much space.

There are special non stick sheets to dry fruit leather or other wet foods. Pretty sure I bought some on Amazon for cheaper that at Excalibur. Seems like I got lucky and found the Excalibur on sale for decent price too.

The nine tray Exaclibur is pretty large so finding space for it on a boat could be problematic. However, one could easily store stuff in the dehydrator when it is not in use.

Later,
Dan

[newhaul]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I clicked on buy food storage items online and there's only 30 items mostly beans which I don't need dehydrated and some pasta, a few other things and a couple accessories. Also these are not freeze dried items they're dehydrated

Here is one of he companies I mentioned
Augason Farms and you can buy it a wally world to. Another is wise foods

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by newhaul

Here is one of he companies I mentioned
Augason Farms and you can buy it a wally world to. Another is wise foods

Hey I really appreciate the fact that you're trying to help me so don't get me wrong but I just got off their website and all their meat products are meat substitutes, their dehydrated eggs are $ 54.59 for the equivalent of 71 eggs. first ingredient is eggs the second ingredient is sodium silicol uminate- an anti caking agent. Next thing I looked at was cheese, first ingredient is cheese powder. what is cheese power? first ingredient of cheese powder is whey- next ingredient whey protein concentrate and the next ingredient is salt. : ( run forest run

[SVTatia]

I tried to find the nutrition contents of freeze fried foods from some sites, including LDS supply places, but could not find any.
Does anyone know if anything is added to the food? I am particularly interested in the sodium content. Thanks.

[sparrowhawk1]

As far as I can tell LDS does not have freeze-dried only dehydrated. As a side note I've been dehydrating for years and vacuum seal to make the product last and just came across a warning from LDS that if you use oxygen absorbers the food must have 10% or less moisture or you risk botulism.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Ann T. Cate

Mike, if you can, set it up to use solar to do your de-hydration.

If you run a genset to do it, you will sully the tranquility of the anchorages.

Oh don't worry Ann. I do carry a 1000watt gas generator, but it's only for emergency battery charging, or for remote AC to run power tools when on the hard. I'm the last one who wants to hear any engine noises in an anchorage,

Originally Posted by dannc

We have the larger nine tray Excalibur and it is big but it can dry a bunch of food at one time. One year blue berries were really cheap and we bought 27 pounds or quarts, I cant remember which, and made fruit leather. Just blended the berries, poured them on the tray and dehydrated. Whatever it was pounds or quarts, it took three of them per tray so one load in the dehydrator got it done. That was a couple of years ago and we are still eating the fruit leather. I cut each tray into nine squares, put each leather on wax paper and the filled up a zip lock bag. Tossed the zip lock bags in the freezer.

My old home built dryer had 12 2' x 2' trays, so that's what I'm used to using. We would dry huge amounts in very short times. And as you say, if it's stored correctly, will last for many years, and take up tiny space.

How you did the berries is exactly my idea for when we get to full-time cruising. Time our marina stays with when local produce is in-season, plentiful and cheap. Then go in, buy in bulk and dry months worth while tied to shore power.

I expect the solar dehydrator will work well (thanks Dan), but I don't think it will process the volumes of food I'm thinking of in as short a time. But maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by sparrowhawk1

Well it probably works out to 15 amps per hour for jerky and 5 to 10 for lower temperature things.

?

I presume you mean 15 Amp hrs per hour?

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by StuM

?

I presume you mean 15 Amp hrs per hour?

You know I actually did take a few minutes to think about whether I'm writing that correctly, then I said to myself don't worry about it, if I write it wrong Stu will let me know : )

[s/v Holiday]

Try the ready store. http://www.thereadystore.com

They seem to have everything you might need. I have tried the veggies and some soups. Pretty good for long storage.

Cheers,
CJ

[s/v Beth]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

No slamming here. As long as I don't have to believe in their myths I'm all good.

Just looked at one of their price sheets for dried food. From what I see they look good, but not amazing. Convenient to have it delivered though.

If you want some speciality items maybe I can look around and see what they have, then pick it up and ship.
Many stores here in Utah specialize in freeze dried food in bulk. We bought some a while back, they ship to your door. Not associated with the LDS, but they make their living here.