[HikerJohn]

Ok gang, My wife and I have been looking at a home freeze dryer that a store in Maple Valley has for sale for $2200-- look like a pretty good price. Anyone out there have one? Any thoughts? Is it worth the price? Figured we would share it with family and friends... Thoughts??? John

[Frango]

I have a friend who has one. It’s cool. We’ve made a few backpacking meals - roast chicken and mashed potatoes, hummus for wraps, stuff like that. Also freeze dried eggs for breakfast and cheese and fruit for snacks. We also freeze dry a buttt ton of chanterelles in the fall for use throughout the winter. Oh - and beef and lamb and veggies for the dogs who eat better than we do most days on the trail. Is it worth the money? Probably not. But as a really cool toy and pretty fun hobby? Totally worth it. And finally, if it works properly, I’d say that was a darn good price.

[RumiDude]

If you are only using it for backpacking meals, it probably is not worth it. If you are going to be using it for long term food storage for "prepping" then maybe so. Let me explain. Of the methods of long term food storage, freeze drying is likely the most durable. It also retains the nutritian value of foods extremely well. Our family cans a LOT of food. But keeping canned food requires special storage means. The jars shouldn't be stacked on one another which means they take up a lot of space. Also the glass jars are expensive and in the event of an earthquake that would disrupt services, they are likely to be destroyed. Freeze dried can be stored in vacuum sealed bags w/oxygen absorber. Foods put in a freezer are vulnerable to electrical disruptions. A couple caveats: freeze dryers require maintenance to the vacuum pump and as with all long term food storage, the food must be rotated so you don't end up with stuff you don't know when it was processed for storage. Additionally to make any long term food storage system work to your advantage, you need to have time, money, and space on hand to purchase when on sale/bargain, then process, and then store the food. Rumi EDIT: Here is a video I found that goes through a lot of the pros and cons.

[Snuffy]

Thanks for the information, Rumi. I've entertained the idea of having one but I definitely do not work on that grand of a scale.

[BigBrunyon]

For half the price you can just invest in a internet app that shows the location of the private homes where these type machines reside. Then when the apocalypse descends you can just go loot from these private homes. Several of the foremost authorities on prepping agree that this plan is the way to go.

[RumiDude]

[Snuffy]

[Randito]

[RumiDude]

[Randito]

Wheat kernals, rice, dried beans of various sorts, etc will keep for years when stored properly -- 30 gallon galvanized steel garbage cans are effective storage. Steel is prefered over plastic as rodents can't gnaw into it. Sprouting dried beans before consumption provides vitimin C -- but it would also be easy to store several years worth of multivitamin tablets. I think the concept of storing several years worth of ready to eat freeze dried meals preparing for societal collapse is a triumph of fearmongering marketing by companies selling bulk freeze dried foods and/or freeze drying equipment. Colleagues of mine that are LDS and follow the religious precept of having a year's worth of food do so by incorportating their "armagedon staples" into their regular diets and simply having a large backlog of supplies. Given LDS history and some of the close calls with starvation faced by LDS pioneers in Utah territory, being prepared to endure a crop failure with a year's supply of food is not an unreasonable practice.

[RumiDude]

[Randito]

[Pyrites]

I do start to see why freeze dry is expensive.