Life on the farm really has gotten away from us the last few months so this post is to catch you all up on ‘the happenings,’ the ‘not happenings’ and the ‘should be happenings.’
Let me first catch you up on the use of our new Harvest Right Freeze Dryer. Again, this is not an advertisement, no sponsored review, just me chit chatting with all of you. We got the medium size computerized machine with an oil free pump.
This model fits four trays at a time when processing food and depending on what you are freeze drying, you can do ‘like’ products at one time. For instance, different kinds of berries can go into the freeze dryer at the same time. We’ve processed blueberries, strawberries and Marionberries all the same time when we had ‘leftover’ loads. It worked beautifully. Since the freeze dryer is computerized, all steps to process appear on the screen and is truly a no brainer. Reminder: Freeze Drying preserves the nutrition value of your food like no other process. Food retains 97-99% of it’s value.
Like I said we purchased the medium sized freeze dryer from Harvest Right but because of the abundance of food we process each year, we should have purchased the larger machine, however it only holds two more trays than what we have so . . . there’s that. It really wouldn’t have made much difference.
We paid $3.195.00 for the machine and $1,495.00 for the oil free pump. We also purchased extra trays ($69.00,) silicone mats x 2 ($32.95 each,) Mylar bags ($23.95,) silicone food molds ($69.00,) 50-pak oxygen absorbers x 6 (19.95 each) - which are amazing!!! I also got the freeze drying recipe book (24.95) but I haven’t used it once. I do use a freeze drying log book that I got on Amazon and highly recommend and paid only $10.00 for it.
Here’s the link if you want to check it out. Again this is NOT an affiliate and I don’t get anything from letting you know about this product! Our total investment for our Freeze Dryer was about $5,100.00. Grateful that the mylar bag sealer (Impulse sealer, $129.00 value,) comes with the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer.
https://www.amazon.com/Freeze-Drying-Log-Book-Maintenance/dp/B0B72ZSBRL/ref=sr_1_2?crid=3LZDXQVSSHNO6&keywords=freeze+drying+log+book&qid=1690550507&sprefix=freeze+drying+log+book%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-2
Freeze drying is a huge commitment and expensive. You do need a designated power source, we use the outlet we put in for our Rpod a couple years ago. She is in storage most of the time and so it works perfectly for us. Honestly, Mike is asleep or I would ask him if we have a 30 or 50 amp outlet. You will also need a place to put your freeze dryer. Ours is in the garage on a small table we used for camping - heavy duty - as it needs to support the heaviness of our dryer. You will also need a 5 gallon bucket for the drainage tube to empty the water into.
While the investment, at first was huge, the benefit out weights the cost. We literally do not waste food or drink anymore. Leftovers are DELICIOUS, full of flavor and reconstitute quickly as does any food we choose to freeze dry. I highly recommend Harvest Right company as everything you need or every question you have is answered on their website with a click of a button. Again, no affiliate but here is the website if interested:
https://harvestright.com
The Bees
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about the bees and how they are doing. The colony is doing GREAT! They are happy bees. We watch the new babies practice their flying, getting familiar with their surroundings each afternoon around 3:30 or 4:00. They do a lot of figure 8’s, take off and landings. They are super sweet and gentle.
The colony, if you remember, started out 10,000 strong. Now the colony has grown to be over 60,000 bees. They are stocking their pollen, nectar and honey for the winter months in the original hive. Mike added a honey super in the last couple of months as they needed more space. We will see if we get any ‘extra’ honey this year. Next year? Oh yeah, there will be honey for us, about 4-5 gallons, but this year? We won’t know for awhile.
All our original bees except for the queen have passed by now with new babies being born almost daily. Did you know that a honey bee emerging from their cell is fully grown? I had no idea! I kept looking for tiny honey bees. NOPE! Fully grown ladies and drones. No wonder they get to work immediately. Such a fascinating gift found in Nature.
Our chicken Flock
In early July we lost one of our ladies. Sissy Spacechick passed without warning. We are pretty sure that she passed during the hot days with the weather reaching the high 90’s. We were out of town at my ex-husbands celebration of life and our chicken sitter found her. She is buried deep underground in our front yard, returning to the earth and fertilizing the ground.
Chickens have a hard time with the heat. If there water gets warm they won’t drink it. We think the heat got to her. She was our tiniest pullet and she struggled a bit to get her footing to thrive. We now have 7 ladies who give us 7 eggs a day.
The girls are spoiled like no other flock that we know of. Not that people don’t spoil their flocks but ours have us wrapped around their little dirt scratching feet. Their food is organic and clean. We add a variety of herbs and dried flowers to their feed so that they get all the health protection possible.
They have 5 waterers that are available to them with each containing probiotics, apple cider vinegar and during summer days, ice cubes. I also cut up into tiny pieces, the ends to our zucchinis as treats mixed with calcium to prevent worms, mites, as well as any other yucky thing that might happen to them. I also grind our dehydrated lemon peel, orange peel and lime peels to spread in their dust baths to keep all the bad bugs away as well.
The Garden:
3 words: ‘OUT OF CONTROL’ as per usual! So far we have had an abundance of zucchini (40 off one plant,) green beans, garlic, scallions, bell peppers, jalapeños, blueberries, currents, eggplant, celery, rosemary, oregano, chamomile, basil, cilantro, thyme, sage, mushrooms, raspberries, parsley and as of yesterday, 30# 4.6 oz of potatoes. Red, Purple, Russets and Yukon Golds. . . yummy! We will be using this harvest for processing hashbrowns, cubed potatoes for soups and stews and rounds for scallop potatoes dishes. Some will become potato chips but I need to be another air fryer for that. The first air dryer went out the door with my third child when they moved back out after the pandemic.
Life on the modern day homestead is a lot of work but it is so worth it! We’ve managed to get in a couple camping trips with friends or family with the help of some very kind animal and house sitters who reep the benefits of eggs, produce and/or herbs. We are grateful for all our ‘happenings,’ never taking any of it for granted.
Those are our happenings. We should be doing much more such as paying attention to our yard or working harder on getting the pool balanced but we have a sick pup and that is taking up a bit of time. No complaints. The above falls into the should be happening and is not happening quickly.
I’m not sure I covered all the questions you had for me, but I gave it my best shot! Let me know if you have any other questions or shares by either putting them in the comments below or PM-ing me on my Facebook page. I’m happy to help!
Love, Light and Peace to you all!