Freeze Drying Your First 500 lbs of Food - Batch 6 - Birds Eye Garlic Chicken w/ Pasta

Freeze dryer batch #6 - 10 lbs of Birds Eye Garlic Chicken w/ pasta. Started freeze drying this batch 5-4-2022.

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Link to the spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ieekdk5aH_2OWLUealeOLurU9_zl03BfFEg_qhAgcaA/edit?usp=sharing

This Batch:
Cost of the food: $25.71 for 10lbs
Total batch time: 40 hours 23 minutes (it was finished at 32:30)
Weight before drying: 10 lbs. Weight after drying: about 2 1/2 lbs (1161 grams)
Power use: 24.84 kWh
Bagged into: 4, one quart 7 mil Mylar bags with 300cc oxygen absorbers, and 6, two quart bags with 500cc absorbers.
176g per serving x 25 3/4 servings x 210 calories = 5411 calories for the batch.

Starting your freeze dried food pantry. 100 Days: The first 50 batches - Freeze Drying Your First 500 lbs of Food
Start by asking yourself this question. Why are you freeze drying food? Knowing this should help you decide what you should freeze dry first.
I'm freeze drying because:
Just to freeze dry leftovers? You want to make your own food for camping/backpacking? For if/when the SHTF? For a short term emergency? You have your own garden and want to freeze dry the food? You love Costco but don't have a family of 6? You are good at finding the food sales but only have 1 freezer? When you cook homemade chili just for yourself you make 10 gallons? Because you have 3 full freezers and are worried about power outages?

I'm going to start freeze drying from scratch, pretending that I don't have a rack full of freeze dried food.
If I knew then what I know, I would have freeze dried things in a different order. Maybe not, because I started freeze drying was because we had 3 full freezers, I was thinking of getting another one, and I decided I should buy a walk-in freezer instead. I started looking into walk-ins and realized they were expensive to buy (even used ones) AND expensive to own and operate. Then I found out Harvest Right was making home sized freeze dryers. One of my first thoughts was "I like Mountain House!" I have used their food for backpacking almost 45 years and we even kept some in our travel trailer, for just in case.

This list is about getting started on a 500 lb mixed pantry of freeze dried foods in 100 days.
(This may be a bit optimistic and perhaps it'll only be 400 lbs)
Goal of about 85 lbs per category. (100 lbs per category if we don't do the Meals/Dishes)
1) Meats:
2) Vegetables:
3) Fruits:
5) Grain / Starch
6) Meals / Dishes

A Harvest Right is not inexpensive. If you have wanted one but feel they're out of reach for you, you might consider sharing a freeze dryer.

We do videos showing how we are using our Harvest Right Freeze Dryer to freeze dry food for long term storage. (We have the medium size machine that we got in August of 2017) We talk about how to load and unload the freeze dryer, how to know if the food is dry, is it better to freeze dry raw food or cooked food, and do a few taste tests. Freeze dried food is also great for prepping or just for camping and snacking!

AFFILIATES & REFERRALS
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If you are thinking of buying a freeze dryer, please consider supporting us by purchasing through our link. It helps us and costs you nothing! https://affiliates.harvestright.com/995.html
We have the medium freeze dryer with the original vacuum pump.
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Amazon affiliate links to some of the things we have been using; it helps us and costs you nothing.
• Escali Primo Kitchen Scale https://amzn.to/3r8VqRe
• Etekcity Kitchen Scale11lb/5kg https://amzn.to/3K3ajhY
• Power meter https://amzn.to/3s4RVOr
• The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: https://amzn.to/33NTPtt
• This is the scoop I use for bagging https://amzn.to/3pdTB4J​
• Silicone Square Cake Pan - Set of 2 https://amzn.to/2YvAp6L
• Teflon Tape for Impulse Sealers https://amzn.to/3pt2nMd​
• Dial Thermometer -40 to 160 F 1-Inch https://amzn.to/3pvAfIm
• Parchment paper - We usually get our at Costco, but they also have it on Amazon https://amzn.to/3owy5qC or https://amzn.to/3Cw1WXL​
• Corrugated Plastic Sheets we use in our freezer https://amzn.to/2YqAM2A​
• Drill Bit 5/32" x 10" Extra Length https://amzn.to/3tEOvRx
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We are participants in the Amazon Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for sites to earn fees by linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

For the 7 x 7 pans try the Dollar Store, that's where we got ours. (They were labeled 8 x 8 because they measure the top)