Harvest right - Freeze drying onions and dry canning

[@michaelbennett7561]

You can use the harvest right itself to vacuum seal the jars. You need to make sure the harvest right is dry, take off the rubber seal, take the shelving out (disconnect the wires), put the rubber seal back on, put a single tray in there, put the jars in, close the door and the vent valve, and manually turn on the vacuum. You can seal several jars at once this way.

[@robertmccarthy1256]

One of my favorite channel’s. Everything Pete does is first class.

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thank you, I really appreciate that 👍

[@eozen81]

Very professional (for a home consumer) food processing Pete, amazing...

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thank you, I really appreciate that 👍

[@bc24roxy4]

Thanks so much for this. I just received my freeze dryer and have been watching tons of videos..you are the only one that explained about pre freeze mode on the FD. I havent' run mine yet.

[@daroldw4606]

I enjoy your videos. Real informative!

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thank you 👍

[@pd6569]

Pete, fantastic set up and video. Wonderful that the two of you can garden, prep, prepare and store your home grown food together. Food security no doubt. My wife watched the video with me and really enjoyed it. She now wants those great machines you guys have. On a sidenote, my excitement continues as my Pete B gagootza / cucuzzi plant is now over 2 feet tall and heading to the top of the trellis. Thank you, have a great weekend. Northern Virginia

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thank you, that's awesome that your cucuzzas are doing great👍 we've been getting too much rain here and all our veggies are suffering ☹️

[@rhondagrajewski3653]

Very helpful, thanks.

[@davevieyra]

thank you for your video, your freeze dries has an option where you can vacuum seal all your jars at once

[@carolclarkson4859]

Really enjoyed this content. Would love to see more freeze drying of fruits, vegetables, meats, and meals.

[@Sabrina1998]

You can also seal your jars in the harvest right

[@ritabrunetti381]

Hello again Pete. Great idea to freeze dry your fruits & veggies. Be Well.

[@ceepark114]

Great video, thanks for sharing. I have an older Harvest Right freeze dryer that doesn't have the option of freezing food before inserting in freeze dryer to cut down on processing time unfortunately. But I did a batch of onions in mine and they came out good. I like to grind them up into powder, sweet flavor, not like store bought onion powder.

[@redwhiteandbluebonnets8180]

Pete, that model of vacuum chamber sealer has soft-air function if I remember right. Might even have gas fill function, where you hook up nitrogen or argon and after it completes the vacuum pump run, it allows a little inert gas in before sealing, that way it doesn't crush your produce but the 'puffiness' is not gonna promote oxidation or spoilage.

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

The vacuum seal I have does not have that option but the next size up does have the gas option.

[@redwhiteandbluebonnets8180]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading Ahh, thanks for clearing that up for me.

[@LWYOffGridHomestead]

Love how you cover everything...just when I was thinking how do they reconstitute you do it...I was thinking how sliced apples & bananas would be... dehydrated bananas are to hard for me to eat...love to see them freeze dried

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thanks, we'll do a banana video soon.

[@jmb-cm7mr]

I have a replacement freeze dryer because mine was damaged in shipping after getting it fixed for a bad compressor. I now have the new Software Version V5.1.16 this version eliminates the need to put in frozen or non frozen the machine just detects it automatically now. Overall i just really like the new software version.

[@2012spacetraveler]

Although i do not have the same brand of chamber vac the one I have allows me to set it so when I package brittle items it lessen the crushing of the item. I assume you have done the bananas and strawberries by now, man I love how they come out. I eat more bananas and strawberries now then ever before

[@theflockfather4377]

Great video Pete! Very informative!

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thanks 👍

[@jeffcraig5462]

Most people put their jars in the FD to. Seal. You can fit up to 6 quarts I think at a time.

[@cliffmolz8719]

Pete, I checked the prices out on line for the two machines you used for storing the onions. The Large Harvest Right with oil free pump was $4,890.00 and the Primavac 305 unit was $1,550.00 for a grand total of $6,440.00. Wow, that's some expensive food storage! Although the machines look nice and seem to do the trick, not all of us have that much money lying around that we can afford to spend on food preparation tools/machines. Informative video though. Keep'em coming and looking forward to an update on the chickens. Cheers

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

I know this stuff is not cheap. We had to really think about these purchases before we got them. But we'll definitely be using them through out the year for our garden and other food storage.

[@trishcraig723]

I have dehydrated onions for years. Works fine at much less cost. Just don4do it in your house, lol. We ginslly hot a FD so hoing yo do that this year.

[@dianeivanoff6312]

Every time I see a comment discussing the cost of a freeze dryer, I ask the same question..how much money does a person waste a year on food thrown out, clothing that’s not needed, concerts, trips , etc…I ask you really look at it, and I bet in 2 years you could save the money, because this is so worth the money spent.

[@larrystone5749]

Enjoyed the video thx for the info and sharing

[@nikoreallytlovesme]

I just watched your video on your driveway weed issue one year ago could you please revisit that issue and how is your driveway now and how often do you spray the salt solution

[@lorenbush8876]

I think if you the stuff you put in a clear container needs to be kept in a dark place so the light does not get to it if you are doing that for long term storage.

[@JustMe-nv5xy]

Hey Pete. I have a question for you or anyone else who may be able to answer. I have lots of onions and bell peppers that I freeze dried in Spring of this year. I stored them in mason jars with O2 absorbers, but no moisture absorbers. They were all vacuum sealed, but they still got soft. Are they still good? The onions are not wet or sticky, just not as crisp as when they came out of the freeze drier. The peppers are very pliable. Do you think I could re-freeze dry the onions or peppers and salvage them? I just bought a bunch of 5 gram moisture absorbers and 300cc O2 absorbers for proper storage. I have lost a lot of my stores do to moisture, even things stored in mylar. It's very humid here. Please advise.❤🙏🏻

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

It could be a few different things that happened. The jars may have not sealed properly and leaked, when you take food out of the freeze dryer, you have to immediately put in mylar bags or the food will absorb the moisture out of the air. Or maybe the onions weren't done yet? I personally like vacuum sealing the jars. If the onions still look and taste good, you could refreeze dry them.

[@JustMe-nv5xy]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading The onions were very crispy ( I could crush them into powder easily). I jarred them up and vacuum sealed them immediately. I think it may have been the absence of a moisture absorber... They taste and smell fine. I'm going to re-freeze dry them. Thank you for the quick response. ❤🙏🏻

[@LaveeRun316]

Amazing

[@lyndabuchholz1216]

I have freeze dried onions. I slice them and once they are dry I can crumble them into any size I want. I don't like to chop onions. They have come in so handy!!! They are easy to powder if you want onion powder. There are videos on how to vacuum seal jars in the freeze dryer. I tried it and it works well!! Wait till you try tomatoes. They are wonderful snacks!!!

[@trishcraig723]

So how long did your run take?

[@kimr5841]

How did you get the onion smell out of the FD? I've heard some folks have a real problem getting the odor out because it taints the next load or two.

[@MrRbrgrn]

Nice everyone I’ve seen has had the medium size with the compressor I guess with the large you don’t need the compressor?!? And you get 5 trays instead of 4

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

All the harvest right models come with a standard vacuum pump. We decided to get the oil less vacuum pump instead which I didn't show in the video.

[@ashc3765]

Hey Pete thanks for the amazing videos. Quick question can I use the vacuum sealed bags instead of canning or do the jars perform much better?

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Thanks, you can use both vacuum seal bags or jar. But I was concerned about crushing the sliced onions with the bags using the vacuum chamber sealer.. You could put the onions in a vacuum seal bags and just use oxygen absorbers so not to crush the onions.

[@ashc3765]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading I was thinking of putting a piece or cardboard or something similar to help support the bag and food

[@tuc263]

Thank you for showing how to do this. I just ordered my Freeze Dryer and am looking for a cart. Would you mind sharing what type of cart you use and where I can get one? Thank you.

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

I got the cart at Harbor freight. Depending on what freeze dryer you have will determine what size cart you'll need. I have the large freeze dryer and my cart is 24"x36" I also put a sheet of plywood on the cart for the freeze dryer to sit on. Hope this helps.

[@tuc263]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading Thank you very much. This does help.

[@helenbrill2330]

Did your freeze dryer smell of onions after you were done?

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Yes but after it defrosts we just wiped it out and kept the door open to air it out.

[@tammyseegmiller233]

Do you not need to put in an o2 absorber when you use the chamber?

[@lissee212]

No, you use an O2 absorber when you seal the dried food up in mylar bags, or vacuum seal them in glass jars.

[@jamesmyers2087]

Did you find a lingering onion aroma in the machine after you batched them?

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

a little bit but it did not effect the taste or smell of the next batch we did which was fruit.

[@j.d.survivoroutdoors4912]

Can't get my onions to bulb, they look great on top? Any tips? Thanks

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

When the bulbs start to get bigger, remove the soil around them and stop fertilizing when the onions start to bulb.

[@j.d.survivoroutdoors4912]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading what is your choice of fertilizer if I may ask? Miracle grow? Thank you

[@sourabhdeorukhakar8574]

How long it is stable after freeze-drying?

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Vacuum sealed would last 25 years but in open non vacuum sealed could last a few years as long as humidity doesn't get to them.

[@sourabhdeorukhakar8574]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading thank you. Do you really have the data for the same?

[@trigggayle1122]

Where did you get the cart?

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

Harbor Freight

[@tulipsmoran5197]

You can vacuum seal in the Harvest Right rather than investing in a separate machine.

[@Sabrina1998]

How was the smell???

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

There's no smell from the freeze dryer when you're freeze drying.

[@Sabrina1998]

@@petebeasttexashomesteading ok. I was just asking, because I saw a video of somebody doing onions and they said that it smelled up the house. I was wondering how that would happen since it’s all under vacuum but I wanted to ask you since you did it. Thank you very much for your speedy reply.

[@Raul28153]

HEY do onions under the stove exhaust ~!!!!! Or use a little fan.

[@davekintz]

Wishing KZbin had 4x playback speed.

[@williambillingsley3198]

Thanks for the video. You really should buy a meat slicer and use it instead of by hand. Much less of a safety risk and works better.

[@redwhiteandbluebonnets8180]

Any issues with lingering onion odor in your FD? Harvest Right forums are full of tales of woe (whoa!) from people who ran a batch of onions and everything they ran after for 4-5 runs had an onion aroma. Kind of a bummer when you're making astronaut ice cream.

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

From my experience the vacuum chamber does smell after a batch but I haven't really noticed any smell or taste in the food in the next batch.

[@brendahebert6684]

Get a food processor to slice or chop... faster.

[@LauraMartinez-rf3dm]

I don't know why, but my eyes are VERY sensitive to onion. It has gotten worse with age. I'd be doing that with eyes closed haha.

[@jessestanley6381]

Check out retired at 40 KZbin channel

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

👍

[@germanlily8133]

🥰❣❣👍🌷

[@ivories88wi]

Not sure it’s practical but if you cut onions under water they don’t burn your eyes. 😭😭😭

[@logan-nw1qd]

My hr runs like the feds printer. Brrrrrr

[@summermucha5207]

You should be able to "vacuum seal" in the freeze dryer somehow. That extra machine is nice too.

[@summermucha5207]

How long did the onions actually take to dry?

[@petebeasttexashomesteading]

I don't really remember but, I think it took just over 30 hours.