A friend of mine bought the larger one of these:

https://bluealpinefreezedryers.com/

It so far works really well. He's using it to dehydrate pet food mostly, but did dehydrate a bunch of candy, including Skittles and ice cream sandwiches. I think the dehydrated Skittles are better than regular Skittles. The Skittles puff up showing the white insides. They taste better. The freeze dried ice cream sandwiches were at least as good as the regular ones, except they aren't cold. They look exactly the same. I gave one to Diane when I got home and she kept asking if was candy, when I responded no a few times. She did finally guess correctly that it was freeze dried. The consistency was good. It was softly crunchy. I didn't expect that at all.

He's freeze dried over 1700 pounds of ground crayfish and loads of meat. I took him 397.6 pounds of quail today and 47.9 pounds of rabbit, some of which will end up freeze dried. It's cool how light it is after free drying. Vacuum sealed with a dessicant pack, the pet food will maintain it's same quality for at least 15 years.

I'm thinking about getting one for fruit, herbs, mushrooms and nuts. I know very little about freeze dryers.

Do any of you have any experience using one?

Keith

No,,,, and how did get 1000 plus quail?

Keith raises tens of thousands a year.

Wife has a friend that has a harvest right? She gives her excess garden produce and some come back freezedried. I have no idea how many tomato's fit in a quarter jar but it's a lot. Just a spoon full or two is enough added to what your cooking. Light takes up little space and shelf stable. Add an oxy absorber in the jar.
They have increased in size over the years. I have been wanting to pick one up for a few years but the large on needs it's on 20 Amp circuit and I have not been willing to part with the cash.
saw some people running a booth selling dehydrated candy and like you said it's interesting and they were doing well. Made me think it may be able to pay for it's self

Keith, I met a farmer from South Carolina at last year's Elderberry conference in MO that has a small unit. He freeze dries elderberries and puts them in mylar bags. He claims they're good for at least 30 years. I can't remember how much he charges for a 4 oz bag but it was jaw dropping.

They ain't cheap, but it doesn't take long to pay it off with freeze dried meals. Those bloody things ain't cheap at the stores.

The model Keith highlighted is cheaper to run than the one that the South Carolina farmer had. He said it took 2-3 days to freeze dry down 10 lbs of fruit.

Good estimate. It was 100, 1 gallon bags of 10 coturnix quail and 2 partial bags of mostly male, or underperforming female quail.around 4 to.5 weeks old. It was probably 1007 or 1008 quail total. In a good week we hatch considerably more coturnix chicks than that. My hatches have been poor lately, with the biggest weekly hatches of the year only around 760 coturnix chicks and some considerably less. Ive been selling out on.most of the hatches since January. I cull bought and resold this load.

Keith

I only know third hand that they are expensive, use a lot of energy, and require diligent maintenance. But if you use it enough it’ll pay off imo. Considered going in a partnership on one