Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here!
Chamomile Tea
One of Mrs. Latimer’s favorite hot teas is chamomile. We started trying to grow it about 7 years ago and for some reason, never could get it to take off. Then four years ago we had a successful crop of it and it has been self replicating ever since. It is so prolific now that that it very nearly is considered a weed in some parts of the garden. Of course, it gets free reign since Mrs. Latimer likes it so much.
This week we ran a batch of Chamomile flowers through the Freeze Dryer. Like any other herb, the flavor is much stronger and more vivid when freeze dried rather than dehydrated. We don’t crush the flowers after they are dried so four trays of flowers generates four quarts of finished product.
Vegetables
The snow peas are starting to produce again as the weather cools down so we managed to get four quarts of them put up this week. There are another four quarts frozen and bagged in the freezer waiting for a chance to run through the machine too. Perhaps we’ll get to that next week.
Many of the red onions are ready to be harvested so every week we are trying to run a batch through the machine. Whole red onions don’t last as long as Yellow onions so we get them fresh when they are growing and then try to freeze dry the rest. It’s a lot of onions when you are putting up a whole years worth! We also managed to get two quarts of jalapeno strips in the freeze dryer too. I’m not as fond of these though. For some reason the freeze drier seems to pull the heat right out of them. You get flavor, but no heat. For now, we run a few batches just so we have something to add to backpacking foods, but most of that crop will just get frozen.
Good avocados are hard to come by around here. They don’t grow at all in this area so all of them must be trucked in. As a result, the grocery stores always seem to have second quality product. They still freeze dry well and they taste great, but they don’t look as pretty as they should. Of course, once you mash them up into guacamole, you can’t tell that they weren’t fresh! They also make great snacks too.
HJL are you leaving the seeds in your hot peppers when freeze drying them. Most of the heat is in the seeds.
The “heat” in peppers is in the membrane that attaches the seeds and is a volatile oil,the heat or vacuum may cause them to denature. Canned jalapeños seem to work well but the texture suffers.
If you’re losing the heat in your jalapenos, try growing and freeze drying hotter chiles; serranos, and (I don’t remember the name, but they’re slightly larger than a jalapeno, light yellow and waxy appearing, and VERY hot. wash hands after touching).