First Fleming Family Farm Freeze Dried Meals Made

I was right in my thinking that the cycle would take about 40 hours. It took nearly 41 hours to finish the millet, rice, beans, and apples. About 6:30am the cycle finished and I had the trays out right away to start the defrost cycle.

I was pleasantly surprised to see the rice came out in perfect form such that it still retains its shape and is not just mush. The millet is a bit more solid but the beans came out perfect and still hold their shape.

This is the second largest ice load on the inside of the machine after a run. I set the defrost cycle for about 5 hours to give it time to fully melt the ice.

The apples came out good except I had cut the pieces a bit too large which were still a bit soft, so they got set aside to eat first, which the boys diligently did.

Millet on the left, then rice, then 2 trays of pinto beans.

The rice has a nice solid shape to it still and crumbles easily.

The millet is a bit to solid and I'll have to figure how to make it so it will crumble nicely, though it may not matter once it is re-hydrated since it should break the glue bonds of the dried.

The beans are perfect. I used onion flakes, salt, pepper, beef broth, and garlic powder when I cooked them and that all got left in when they were freeze dried. This should give some good flavor in the meals.

I got the boys fed quickly then we headed to town to pick up 3 barrels of grain from the brewery. I backed into the sheep pen and spread out one of the barrels for them. The birds are able to get into the pen so they help to eat it and scratch it around.

Then I backed into the garden and spread out the other 2 barrels. I am spreading it around to make the birds scratch it around and to hopefully leave some to till in in spring time.

Back in the kitchen I took one tray of the pinto beans and filled a mylar bag with it. I sealed it up and put it on the shelf with the bag of beef. They ended up weighing 19 ounces.

We have boxes of the Mountainhouse freeze dried camping meals so I grabbed one and checked the weights of the various meals. Between 4 and 5 ounces of dried food makes 2 to 3 servings, or just a meal fro m=one person. That was my benchmark for making my own meals. So I spent time making a couple of meals from all of the ingredients we now have. It is nice and easy but should give a good amount of nutrition. Each meal got:
1 ounce each- Millet, Rice, Beans, and either chicken or beef, then 5 grams of broccoli each. I added 1/4 teaspoon of Red Robin seasoning and 1 teaspoon of either chicken or beef veggie broth.
Hence why they are called MR-BBB and MR-BCB.

We are going to try them this weekend to see how the seasoning works and wee will augment it as needed. I want to get a good recipe going so that I can easily add it to the other meals. We will also see how much water it takes per and if the pair of meals would be right for feeding the family. If so I can make 2 ounces of each ingredient meals for the family and 1 ounce for individuals.

The freeze drier is able to produce enough for about 20 meals per run. At one ounce of each item I can make 16 meals just from the 3 trays of rice, millet, and beans. If I do one tray of each item I can have 5 ingredients and make plenty of meals from each.

Hive account@stryeyz's boss gave her a nice salmon fillet which we cooked up for dinner, and it was DELICIOUS!

Today I want to get another load into the freeze drier. I have a hankering to try and make some fine dining type of freeze dried meals. High end freeze dried meals. Think steaks, seafoods, specialty produce, and all in an eye pleasing form. It is something for me to develop over time but I would love to be able to vacuum seal a plate of freeze dried food and be able to re-hydrate it in the same form, so it looks good and not just a goulash like all the other freeze dried meals. The concept in my head is a plate of food that could be steamed back to "life" rather than soaked in the water. I have NO CLUE if this is possible but that is where my ideas are at right now.