Freeze drying - Raw dog treats
In my last post I talked about our journey in finding the best treats to use for our raw fed dogs, one being a service dog in training at the beginning of it all and needed a lot of treats- and training!
Did someone say treats?!
Enter my Freeze Drying adventure! If you know me at all you know I’m all about not reinventing the wheel, with that said, Harvest Right keeps it simple right on their website but you can research more shall you feel like diving into the wormhole of it all. Don’t forget your scuba gear. Jokes aside it’s not rocket science basically the difference between FDing and dehydrating is the method, the nutrients contained, and the shelf life. This is THE company oh wait the only residential company in the USA to get a freeze dryer.
You can look up all the boring stuff on your own, let’s get to the point. This is how I FD raw dog treats.
First, we bought Harvey (the Harvest Right FDer). You have the link to their website bookmarked now right? FYI they do have sales from time to time.
Then I joined the very resourceful Facebook group) cringe I hate FB but what would I do without my crunchie hippie groups!? Anyway, more on the importance of that support leg later.
I got the supplies I was going to need. Here are my favorite sites - get bookmarking!
Mason jars you can get at whatever store that has them in stock near you.
Mylar bags I got them off amazon but the sites above sell them too.
If you plan to use mason jars and you don’t already have a way to vacuum seal them you may want to get a machine but it is NOT necessary. Again I’m not reinventing the wheel so I will send you over to good old YouTube just type in how to store freeze-dried food in mason jars and grab some popcorn.
The sites above also have oxygen absorbers at different capacities to choose from It depends on the size of your container but most of the sites explain which ones you would need for the job.
Now comes the actual FDing! I (mostly) thaw out (enough that I can spread it) 2 tubes from the raw balanced premade I get from our raw co-op. I spread them out over 4 trays.
The next step I do is scour them with one of the modular mold pieces -it seems to work perfectly. Then use a pizza slicer to make the horizontal cuts.
I then use the stackers and pop them in the Freezer overnight - which I don’t have to do it just saves FDing machine time.
The next morning I put them into the FDer and that goes for roughly 24 hours (this may vary). Afterward, I take it out, break them apart, and put them into the mason jars with an O2 absorber, or mylar bags and they can last for years and years and years - but not in this house here we go through them in a month with all the dog training we do.
No more buying FD treats! Of course, we use the FDer for human foods and prepping for the apocalypse as well but that’s another post. Hope you get something out of my method, happy freeze drying! Human food post will be coming soon :)
Recently I have been using these silicone molds, it’s definitely more labor intensive and adds a couple more steps to the process but I do like the tight small pieces.
It doesn’t have to be pretty!
Oxygen absorbers added here as an extra precaution.
I also vacuum seal them, it may be overkill but better safe than sorry.
