Congrats! We finally decided to bite the bullet and put down a deposit on a freeze dryer about a month ago, just to get into the shipping queue. Ours is supposed to be ready to be shipped by late July, with the balance due then. We should get it in plenty of time to take advantage of harvesting a lot of food this year. We’re very excited!
This was a HUGE decision that we went around the block with for a while (probably longer than we should have or wanted to), but it’s also - as you know - a huge investment, financially. We did our homework on them, then just decided to take the leap.
In the end, we decided that it would actually end up saving us some money if we don’t need to rely on the freezer as much (which is how we currently preserve a lot of our fruits and veggies), plus we really felt it was important in order to be able to eat how we want to eat (as cleanly as possible, nutritionally speaking, etc.) to help support our health. We also have two dehydrators. I don’t do any canning, though.
We are considering making back some of the funds we put into it by creating added-value products here that we can sell. We may also consider offering use of our freeze dryer to others for a nominal fee, or maybe just offering a freeze-drying service now that more and more folks may be wanting something like this. Just thoughts at the moment…
How many folk are you trying to support, and what model. Thanks
Hi Barbara:
I grow huge amounts of kale in my garden. What isn’t eaten fresh I dehydrate and then blenderize into a nutritious green powder. I lke to use it with cooking rice (or wheat, quinoa etc. or some other grain) +: some stock or boullion and some herbs and green powder. It makes a lovely, tasty green rice. And it is highly concentrated, and light. I don’t know for sue you can do that with lettuce but I see no logical reason you couldn’t. May be worth a try.
I’ve made jelly from the black mulberry. Tasted almost identical to black berry jelly/jam.
Goiter? Not likely, but beware. If cooked little issue.
Kale is awesome! Grows extremely well and fast on the west coast, all year round. I have found awesome recipes to use this super food in various ways. Currently in the fridge: kale pesto, kale hummous, and kale scones, which go great with the kale stew!
I have learned the hard way, as most gardeners to, to grow what does well in my environment. That meant learning more about what to do with over-abundant kale! A good problem to have!!! ??
Make pestos & freeze them in ice cube trays for small servings.
Hey there. Do you mean how many people would we be supporting if we offered some kind of a service to freeze dry foods for other people? If so, no idea…yet. So far, just thoughts running wild through my head.
I’m not interested in creating an empire from my freeze dryer or something ? Just help defray my expenses with the main focus on helping others at the same time.
Another thought I keep toying with is that I also make certain items (like granola) that some people I have given it to really like. They have have asked me if I’d consider selling it. So I might get a residential kitchen license so I can do that. I could easily put freeze dried fruit in select recipes. This is where the freeze dryer would come in very handy, as otherwise buying freeze dried blueberries retail (for example) would be way more costly, plus wouldn’t taste as good as ones I’ve just picked. Just more thoughts…
I’ll also add that I have usually worked out of a gift economy model in a lot of the business endeavors that I’ve started. For example, offering workshops for homeschooling parents and selling herb starts. So I might do that again with the freeze dryer. I’ve found that working out of a gift economy works well/best when you build a solid reputation for your goods and/or services first (which I have over the years) so that people come to know what you do and how well you do it, and also when you have developed relationships with others. I find that people are usually quite generous, and if someone doesn’t have something to give in that moment, then they do something later to help lend support.
I make mulberry jelly every year and fruit leather as well. It is one of my favorites. I have wild mulberry trees as well as an amazingly sweet berry producer called Illinois Everbearing. It produces for over a month. Remember-it’s a very low pectin fruit so use a good percentage of less ripe berries and some additional pectin in some form (commercial pectin or apple juice). Pure Mulberry jelly has become the gift everyone in my extended (and indulged) family asked for as Christmas gifts.
Do you like kale? I harvest kale in the winter time. In the midst of snow. Kale tolerates winter quite well!
Deer And Gardens
We have lived in the country for many years. Always had a big garden. Never had a fence. Sure…there would some nibbling by critters. But not too excessive. Probably around 5 years ago, that changed. Deer will eat almost anything and everything in the garden now if given a chance. So up went a tall fence. Cannot believe how many deer I see now.
It’s Harder To Work From Home Once Rugrat Goes Mobile
I completely agree that if more 2 earner households with young kids did the math, they may be surprised to find how little ahead they’re coming out. It’s a great idea to put all options on the table. As a feminist, I find it sad that our society has still not done the difficult part of making it easier for women to have a career and a family.
One parent working from home is a great option. But it can be especially challenging with a toddler and more so with more than one little. It’s amazing what those smart little buggers can get into when your head is turned. For example, my kids are only 9 months apart (adopted - no I didn’t do that!) When they were around 3 they were very early risers and mornings were usually for mayhem. One morning they were playing nicely in my son’s room so I relaxed in bed. Then it got quiet and I was suspicious. Those two had worked together to pull over a night table to under the window, somehow figured out how to open the screen, and climbed out from his second story window onto the roof of a one story addition directly outside. When I looked they were having a ball running around the pitched roof! Fortunately, I’m one of those people who laughs during disasters. So they didn’t realize I was completely freaked-out and they came back in when I asked them to.
Now you know why I have grey hair.
The game will be gone less than a year after the long emergency is realized.
And the farms with cattle, sheep, goats will become the new hunting ground for the starving folks with rifles.
How can a farmer deal with this?
Just a thought. Let all neighbors know that you will be slaughtering and butcher an animal once every ___ weeks and will sell to neighbors at a discount. Some kind of barter arrangement. And that you will gift meat to those who truly cannot pay.
The goal here is to 1) help your neighbors in distress, 2) recruit your neighbors as a part of your farm’s defenses, 3) and to help everyone be comfortable with YOU continuing to be the farm’s owner.
We will have to change our sense of what the rules are and should be in the light of the new situations.
farmers and warriors need each other.
Ben- suggest we all need to read up on what happens in a famine so we are prepared for what’s coming. Michael Yon provided some advice on his website a couple of months back. Seriously it’s only months away now, end of 2022 will be a disaster.
Aus, always good to hear from you. Suggest moving away from the road and population. Find water and stay quiet. No time to be learning, what you now know is all that matters. IMO
great advice re staying quiet, blending in will be important
Completely agree that the difficult part remains undone. Instead of respecting our unique innate attributes that naturally lend themselves to prosperity, we “feminists” of the seventies tried to be like men. I jumped off that bandwagon when my first came along, and have never regretted that decision, although I did need to work longer afterward.