Preserving, Then and Now

We recently invited a longtime Harvest Right owner to share how food preservation has been part of her family for generations, and how freeze drying has become part of that tradition today.

"Growing up, I had grandparents who had a very large garden that they tended every year. They were incredibly hard workers, and some of my earliest memories are of spending time out there picking raspberries and seeing the effort that went into growing food. Back then, my grandma used as much of the fresh food as she possibly could. That meant yummy summer dinners at their house and buckets of tomatoes, or bags full of corn, delivered to our doors.

Food preservation looked a little different then. She would can tomatoes and peaches and apricots, and freeze what she could for the winter. It was a lot of work, but it was how you made sure nothing went to waste. Today, we have a way to keep that same mindset while making the process easier and more flexible.

That approach to preserving food carried into the next generation, too. My parents continued using what came from the garden, whether that meant turning fruit into jam or canning grape juice from grapes grown there. They’re both in their eighties now, and as recently as this year, they were still canning grape juice using grapes from those same grapevines.

Our family still lives on the property that was theirs, and we continue that tradition with a smaller shared family garden. We also participate in a local produce share, where we receive weekly deliveries of local fresh produce. Like many of you, even with our large family, and what we share with neighbors, sometimes there’s more than we can use right away, and that’s where freeze drying has become such a valuable tool for us. Instead of feeling rushed to use everything, we’re able to preserve it and enjoy it later.

Over the years, several members of my family have added Harvest Right freeze dryers to their homes. My parents have freeze dried everything from cream puffs to enchiladas. They’ve slowed down a little these days and don’t freeze dry nearly as often, but they’ve certainly put their freeze dryer to good use over the years.

That has carried into our homes, too. We’ve freeze dried fruits and vegetables, spaghetti sauce made from garden tomatoes, and ingredients we use to put together our own freeze-dried soups. My dad was actually an early adopter of Harvest Right and freeze drying because he understood the importance of food preservation and emergency preparedness. When he eventually upgraded to a newer model, he gave us his original freeze dryer. We still use it today, and it runs just as well as it ever did. We call it our workhorse, and it’s well over ten years old now. It's being used three or four days a week.

Right now, that workhorse is making its way through 30 dozen eggs, one batch at a time. The eggs came from a neighbor who has chickens and had more than she could use. When we told her we were planning to freeze dry them, she was curious. She had heard of freeze drying but wasn't really familiar with how it worked, especially with eggs.

When we gave her two dozen freeze-dried eggs back, she noticed the bright yellow color right away and asked if we had added anything to them. We hadn't. We simply blended the eggs before freeze drying them, and that beautiful color came straight from the yolks.

The rest we’re sharing among family and friends. We'll label the jars with simple instructions so everyone knows how to use them: 2 tablespoons egg powder + 2 tablespoons water = 1 egg.

For our family, the freeze dryer has more than paid for itself over the years. But I think my grandparents would appreciate it for another reason. It gives us another way to carry on something that mattered to them: work hard for what you have, use what you can, and don’t let good food go to waste. The tools may have changed, but that part hasn’t."

Learn more about freeze drying at HarvestRight.com!