Harvest Right Freeze Dryer - my results

[Hosh]

Thanks for taking the time to post all your great results and experiences. If my family was still large, living at home, I might invest in one. Currently my little dehydrator takes care my backpacking needs. In the event of SHTF, I am well armed and a good negotiator,

[One Half]

Just mailed off my first 2 resupplies. First off I am starting with 4 Days of food plus and extra "meal."

Mailed 4 days to Mountain Crossings. That package weighs 4lbs 6.6oz and includes food, coffee, and snacks. This weight also includes the packaging obviously.

Mailed 5 days to TOG. Weighs 5lb 2.8 oz. It has some other resupply stuff as well.

I will let y'all know how well the food holds up. If I need more or less or got it just right.

Some of the snacks include FDed bananas, blueberries and raspberries plus walnuts and raisins. I need to be careful with those snacks as they raise my blood sugars too much if I eat them all at once.

[kestral]

FYI if you are one the edge about buying a freeze dryer, harvest right is offering a discount of 500$ with check out code of "save500" until July 31. Still pricy but...

https://harvestright.com/store/

[BongoTheOneEyed]

good stuff. do you have any issues with meat or eggs going bad while on the trail ?

[One Half]

good stuff. do you have any issues with meat or eggs going bad while on the trail ?

Nope. not so long as I have a good seal. I have found a few at home that somehow got "moist" due to what must have been either a bad seal or perhaps a very small puncture from sealing the food "too tight?"

I may start adding an oxygen absorber as an extra measure but that won't help a bad seal or puncture.

[One Half]

wow! almost 2 years since I posted in this thread. Well, in that time we bought a school bus to convert for full time living. We are still working on it (building a cabinet this week) and living in it! Currently in FL for the winter as it's a bit hard to travel and build at the same time!

The FD is in storage. We are actually looking into buying a spot we can land each winter, build a storage unit on site which will double also as a place to run the FD so that I can get some of those longer distance hikes done. This summer I will likely do pieces and bits of trails (AT, BMT, maybe the Long Trail, etc) as we progress up the east coast to visit family and friends.

It was really cool to reread these posts. And to see the pictures!

[One Half]

I have been hiking short sections of trail in GA and NC this month. My old backpacking meals are doing GREAT! 3 scrambled eggs with assorted veggies and sausage every morning is really fueling those first climbs of the day. I still haven't quite figured out the perfect water to egg ratio, it's either a little "short" or I end up pouring a little of my coffee into the mix since by the time I realize I didn't add enough to the eggs I ma using the rest of the water for coffee. But this isn't a problem for me!
My dinners are really good too. Mostly. Some of them I forgot were rather bland and forgot to pack salt the first time out. But other than that they have been very good. The 2 best are probably my "gumbo" - spicy sausage and chicken - and my beef, okra, tomato mix. I had forgot that I ate/ditched all my veggies except those that are in the actual meals. I usually eat quite a bit of veg so I need to do something about that for this summer's hikes. I have found that, even peeled, carrots will last a couple of days on trail (so far). But I may get a small dehydrator to be able to add more veg this summer as we aren't about to tote around the freeze dryer in the bus.
The Moroccan Chicken I had to force down but that was my first night out and I had zero appetite. I only ate to be able to hike the next day. I think it will taste better next time out. I had to end my last section after just a day and a half due to a knee issue but will hopefully be out either late next week or the week after for sure if my knee cooperates. I promise to eat different meals this next trip.
I have also been carrying almonds and RX bars and an uncured Grass fed "beef stick" that I like. I found that I really don't want to eat the bars or almonds much. I do make my own grain free bread and I carry a "roll" per day and some peanut butter. Very YUM and very wow. I actually carried a couple of those little guacamole cups and carrots last trip. Those lasted to the 2nd day but it was very cold that night and even the first day was pretty chilly in the 40s. My scale died before my final weigh in for that section but my food was about 5 lbs for 5 days. That was with all the heavy foods. I have a new battery though so I will be able to weigh everything before the next trip.
I think the previous trip I was at about 22lbs with food (and water) for 5 days.

[One Half]

Just an update -
I think my last trip with 3 days food and all my gear I was at about 18lbs with my starting water as well. I thought I had pictures but the only 1 I can find looks like a food bag at 3lbs. This included maybe 1/3 of a small jar of PB, my bread, RX bars and nuts. I found the meals all really filling.

[One Half]

Some recent freeze dried foods I have made.
First up is my black bean cassoulet mixed in with cauliflower rice ("stir fried" with carrots, peas, salt and pepper). Each tray holds 2.5lbs and I made 2 meals out of each tray. So a 1.25# meal ended up weighing about 4oz once it was all packaged up. That's 20 ounces of food down to 4oz. That's an 80% reduction in weight.

CassouletwithRice.jpg20230627_194954.jpg

[One Half]

Here's some pictures of eggs I did recently as well as a grain free hamburger helper
Eggs, ham, brocolli.jpghamburgerhelperFDed.jpg

[One Half]

I have been doing a number of batches. I have been cooking and freeze drying butter chicken with cauliflower rice A LOT. I only get 8 meals from a load. On each tray I put 1 pound of "stir fried" cauliflower rice and then add 1.5 pound of the butter chicken. I get 2 meals per tray and they weigh around 4.4 oz each. I also started my first batch of roasted veggies for snacking on because as much as I like cauliflower, I really like more variety. So right now I have 2 trays of roasted broccoli (garlic, olive oi, salt and pepper). 4 pounds cooked down to 2 pounds but took up 2 trays. I also roasted brussels sprouts the same way after cutting them in half. 4 pounds became 2.5 pounds but could only get 1.5 pounds on a tray. The 4th tray (actually the first one I loaded) has mashed, baked sweet potato on it at a full 2.5 pounds (per tray limit).
Here's some pics from today of the veg and some recent pics of the butter chicken.
20230921_124808.jpgButterChickencaauliricegoingin.jpgFDedButterChickenCulirice.jpg

[Mfturner]

I wanted to add my thanks for all of the details, recipes, results, etc. I don’t own one yet, but you have me interested…

[One Half]

I can confirm that the roasted broccoli is a winner even if salty for home tasting but perfect for backpacking. The brussels sprouts needed more salt and must be eaten with plenty of water as it's a bit like eating layers of paper. They probably should have been roasted a bit longer for the flavor. I ate these both straight out of the jar.

I have been doing a number of batches. I have been cooking and freeze drying butter chicken with cauliflower rice A LOT. I only get 8 meals from a load. On each tray I put 1 pound of "stir fried" cauliflower rice and then add 1.5 pound of the butter chicken. I get 2 meals per tray and they weigh around 4.4 oz each. I also started my first batch of roasted veggies for snacking on because as much as I like cauliflower, I really like more variety. So right now I have 2 trays of roasted broccoli (garlic, olive oi, salt and pepper). 4 pounds cooked down to 2 pounds but took up 2 trays. I also roasted brussels sprouts the same way after cutting them in half. 4 pounds became 2.5 pounds but could only get 1.5 pounds on a tray. The 4th tray (actually the first one I loaded) has mashed, baked sweet potato on it at a full 2.5 pounds (per tray limit).
Here's some pics from today of the veg and some recent pics of the butter chicken.
20230921_124808.jpgButterChickencaauliricegoingin.jpgFDedButterChickenCulirice.jpg