Harvest Right Location

There was a comment on a recent post asking why I was putting the Harvest Right freeze dryer in the sewing room. There are several reasons.

The sewing room is 50 or 60 feet from the house. Remember that it only rains a couple of times a year and we very rarely have ice or snow. Our extra fridges and freezers are there so I’m back and forth multiple times per day. Also, I store my food in closets off the sewing room.

In the early stages of deciding whether or not to get the freeze dryer, I was thinking I would put it on a cart and keep it in the kitchen but the more I researched, the more I realized that wasn’t where I want it. Here are the reasons I’ve decided to put it in the sewing room:

1. For each batch of food processed, it will run on average about 30 hours, sometimes up to 40 or more hours. Once I put the food in, I don’t really have to “babysit” it. I’m sure at first I will be running back and forth to check it.
2. While it isn’t required to pre-freeze food before putting it into the FD, it is recommended for many foods. My freezers are in the sewing room or shop so I’d have to be taking food to the freezers, then bringing it back to the house if the FD was in the kitchen, then packaging it after it was done, and taking it back to the sewing room for storage.
3. The FD is a bit noisy. Our house is small and the kitchen, dining room, and living room are really one big open room. Everyone says it isn’t horribly noisy but it’s about like having a vacuum cleaner running. I really don’t want to hear that all the time. I will put it in an area I can close off to keep Boots away from it and so he doesn’t have to hear it.
4. It puts out heat. People who have them say they definitely raise the temperature of the room. I don’t need that inside the house. The FD needs to operate in an area that’s no more than 80 to 85 degrees. It will be easy to keep it that cool in the sewing room. I generally keep it about 77 in there. The house . . we keep it about 70 in the day time and about 67 at night.

It will take a while before I’m experienced enough to get it all down but I plan to put foods in so that they are ready to come out during the day – not at 3 a.m. Different foods take different amounts of time so if I pre-freeze foods and say the FD is ready to reload the next batch at 3 p.m., I wouldn’t load something that needs 36 hours because that would be done at 3 a.m. but, at 3 p.m., I could load something that requires 24 hours.

Also, it doesn’t matter if you extend the drying time. If I were to dry something for 12 hours, making it finish at 3 a.m., I could add an additional 2 hours drying time, making it finish at 5 a.m. It doesn’t affect the quality of the food, though it might affect my electric bill if I start needlessly adding time.

I’m sure in the beginning, I’ll have it running non-stop but after the new wears off, I anticipate using it two to three times per week.