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Container of freeze dried raspberries! We kept some whole and some we made in to powder.

Freeze drying is the best way to store food as it keeps all the nutrients and unlike dehydrating where you lose a lot of the nutritional value and the food gets hard and leathery. Freeze drying removes the water from food at extremely cold temperatures. Plus it lasts a lot longer than canned or dehydrated food. 25-30 years depending on what you freeze dry.

At the beginning of March we purchased a Harvest Right freeze dryer.

Since we have a medium size freeze dryer, each tray can hold 2.5 lbs of food.

On the left we put in apple slices, chopped up mushrooms, pineapple and chicken salsa.

Here's what that meal looked like after it got freeze dried.