I’ve been freeze drying but it hasn’t been anything exciting – garlic, onions, dog food, eggs, yogurt.
Yesterday I came across fresh okra at the grocery store that looked halfway fresh so I bought what I thought was enough to fill all four trays of the freeze dryer but it actually only filled three trays.
We had several bags of cherries to I went to the storage area and grabbed the cherry stoner, thinking that would make quick work out of pitting the cherries. I’ve forgotten how small the sour cherries are and those big, juicy sweet cherries wouldn’t start to fit through the pitter so I had to do them all by hand. I know exactly what’s going to happen . . when the cherries are done, Vince is going to say “Let’s get more and freeze dry them” but he isn’t the one cutting them to remove the pits!
Three trays of okra and one tray of cherries in the freeze dryer. These should all be ready tomorrow evening or Thursday morning.
Judy H says
Yum!! Our local HEB sells salted freeze dried okra pods – they aren’t sliced up, just whole and lightly salted. They’re addictive! Better than chips! Now I want some! I bet the cherries are going to be good!!
vivoaks says
As a teen, a cereal manufacturer made a cereal with freeze-dried blueberries. Since then I have constantly been searching for a place to order them from, in bulk!! After all these years I have yet to find a place to buy them. Every time you mention freeze-drying, I think of those freeze-dried blueberries. For some strange reason I haven’t checked on the internet. They’d probably cost a fortune but I’d love to have some freeze-dried blueberries!! Time to check online!!
Judy Laquidara says
Blueberries are actually a pain to freeze dry because you have to poke a hole in every single blueberry or they’ll explode and make a mess. The easiest thing to do is flash freeze them and then poke holes in the skin but that takes a lot of time and effort so we don’t freeze dry a lot of blueberries. I actually get lazy, put them in the food processor, pour them onto the trays and freeze dry it like that, then break it apart so we aren’t eating actual individual blueberries but more like a blueberry “brittle” but it’s just blueberries – in a different form.
Joyce says
Let us know how the okra comes out. If I get to a Trader Joe’s at the right time, I always get their dried okra. It is so yummy, I could eat several bags in one sitting! The ones I buy are whole pods, so I’m interested in how the sliced ones are.
Nelle Coursey says
I have some yellow squash from my brother if you need some.
Susan says
That IS a lot of work! It will be tasty, though.