The first batch of Honey Crisp apples came out of the freeze dryer last night.
Apples
There’s 7 quarts, one 1-1/2 pint jar and 4 half pint jars. That’s probably equivalent to nine quarts, especially if I hadn’t eaten so many of them myself. After unloading the freeze dryer, I went ahead and changed the oil so it’s ready to go again. I’ll get another load of apples going this morning.
I think I have enough apples to do another full load and at least half another load. That means I should get the equivalent of 22 quarts of apples. There’s some frozen corn that I cut off the cob and flash froze when it was on sale and I can use that to fill up the freeze dryer if I have only two or three trays of apples.
My freeze dryer sat for three weeks without being used but it’s back to almost non-stop use. I’m still so happy with it.
pandrpeele says
If you mix fresh apples and the flash frozen corn, do you have to take the corn out before the apples?
Judy Laquidara says
No. The flash freezing in the freezer really just holds everything til I can get it in the freeze dryer. The FD freezes to a temp way lower than does the regular freezer. Also, you cannot “over process” with the freeze dryer. I could leave everything in there twice as long as needed and it would not affect the quality. The only thing that bothers me is that the apples need about 55 hours of processing where the corn should be good at about 40 hours. It would be more “cost effective” to have the freeze dryer full of the same type item so I’m not taking up space for the additional 15 hours and not really accomplishing anything but I’d rather run it with corn on the extra shelves than run it with nothing on the extra shelves.
dezertsuz says
Yes, it’s more efficient with the corn than with empty shelves! =) The apples look so beautiful, and if you ate a bunch as you packaged, I’m guessing they are really good!
Rebecca in SoCal says
Did you have to treat the apples to prevent browning? If yes, what did you use?
Cheryl says
I just put apples in my freeze dryer too. I used a French fry cutter to make apple fries! You don’t even have to core them Just pop out the 4 middle fries that are in the core section. I did four trays in about 8 minutes!!