Paging Mike ORiley - need crash course in freeze dried food

[Chotu]

Eating this stuff right now in Hong Kong. Incredible!

Enough food to last a very long time. Weighs ounces, so I have it as part of my carry on.

Starbucks hot water to rehydrate.

[Mike OReilly]

That’s great. We’ve been chowing down on mushrooms, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes and ground beef that I dried back in 2018/19. Still tastes great.

[SV_FlyingTigress]

Originally Posted by LargeMarge

Eugene, Oregon.
At church, we have five (5) freeze-driers going 24/7/360°.
Our operators are dedicated while constantly mentoring new folks... but the learner's attrition is massive.
FD sounds simple, and it is not.

Hi Marge, just some counter thoughts based on my experience. I have a HR Medium freeze drier (retrospectively would recommend the large) is that with use for one family (a.k.a to supply a boat for a cruising year) would require running the unit *substantially* less than you describe. Your church sounds like you guys are churning out a huge amount of product. In a typical cruiser profile use, I have incurred nowhere near the investment and hassle you describe. It sounds like your situation is describing the challenges with running a basically commercial level operation while at the same time trying to integrate a constant influx of newbies using the systems. I don't doubt that would have someone managing the process pulling their hair out. My experience is with freeze drying is that while there is a learning curve, the particularities are *extremely* well documented with these particular units. I would say that individuals who have conquered the various technicalities associated with cruising would, frankly, find the learning curve comparatively lightweight. It sounds like you have the very high maintenance pumps versus the oil-less. You might want to invest in one of those and the hassle factor goes waaaaaaay down. I haven't made that investment because I made a filter system for the oil and am using the smaller hose between the FD and the vacuum pump with heavily cuts down on vacuum pump oil contamination. I would also bet that, running the units for 10 years 24x7 you have created a huge mountain of properly freeze dried and packaged foods that have given a many times ROI on your investment vs purchasing FD foods. My use profile is to create foods for cruising, particularly things that are expensive or difficult/impossible to obtain abroad. Also it is about as light as balsa wood and packaged in a water proof, no-refrigeration needed mylar packages.

FD foods that are properly dried (the contamination danger being under-drying, improper packaging or package seal compromise) coming out of the freeze drier feel light like balsa and when snapped in half are dry and do not feel cold to the touch in cross section. When mylar/O2 absorber packaged, at any point in the future, packages can be gently squeezed and if the contents feels completely dry and "crispy", the food was both dried correctly and also doesn't have an air leak in the packaging which means the food can be periodically inspected without opening and this happens automatically when transferring the food to stowage in the boat or when selecting a package for use etc.

Our issue is the the FD food is typically only used to supplement means because we like to engage local cuisine and restraints, but no matter the stuff probably has at least a 10-15 year shelf life in cruising conditions vs the 20-25 on land.