The Only Beginner Freeze Drying Book You'll Ever Need: Learn the Simple Process to Create Food Storage for Your Survival Pantry and Discover Easy Recipes Your Family Will Love

I have been interested in freeze drying ingredients for specialty desserts but was daunted by the labyrinthine searches I made all over the Internet looking for advice. After a lot of research I wasn’t even sure I wanted to move forward, especially since I already have years of experience in basic dehydration, but a friend recommended this book and it is a godsend! Everything I could want to know is here, written in a fun, easy-to-understand way, plus I learned so much! At first, it seems to be written more for homesteaders and people who want to live off the grid (I live downtown in a big city in a restored historic home, so that’s not my goal at all), but it turns out that the book is written for EVERYONE who is interested in freeze drying. And even though I started out thinking I’d use it to take my desserts (for gourmet chocolates and sweets for the Japanese tea ceremony), I’m inspired now to use it for many other things. The book is full of fascinating information, from the history of freeze drying to how to use it to lower food waste and your carbon footprint. Also, my mind is completely blown by the fact that I can freeze-dry certain foods and expect them to remain fresh and nutritious for decades. DECADES!! Again…mind blown. So, I got this book to see if it was a fit for me for very specific needs and ended up being totally inspired to expand my whole way of thinking about it. I’m still excited to start using it for amazing chocolates and tea sweets, but now I’m also excited to experiment with preserving stuff I get from the local CSA, my garden, and bulk sales. And the idea of freeze-drying cultures for things like sourdough starters has me sooooo excited! Who knew? And travel will never be the same again! This book is so much more than a how-to guide. It will inspire you to really broaden your horizons in so many ways.

This is a great step by step book for beginner and experienced freeze dryers. Very clear instructions. I am so happy with this book! I would highly recommend it! I would have been lost without it!

I bout this for my adult son for his birthday. He purchased a commercial size Freeze Dryer and has been experimenting with it for a few months, so not a beginner. He's discovered some really great recipe, but also has had a few Big flops, that cost him a lot of cleaning time and money he invested into the ingredients. This book is Great because, it takes a lot of the guessing out of the game. It tells what products freeze well, which don't, how to guides and some really Awesome looking recipes. All included in this beautifully color printed book! I've never spent this much on a book before, but now I see it was worth every penny! My 36 year old son was Delighted when he opened this gift for his birthday! I highly recommend this to anyone who would like to learn how to freeze dry goods and avoid some Hugh Headaches along the way!

I've enjoyed using this book; it is replete with good information for the beginner. I'm using a Blue Alpine freeze dryer, not a Harvest Right, which is what the authors are using as their reference point, but it's easy enough to apply their instructions and get similar results. They talk about the weight of the trays, which I guess must be a setting for the Harvest Right, but that's not something I've taken into consideration and it hasn't seemed to matter. Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't see anywhere what size freeze dryer the recipe quantities are for. But I found that if I halved the ingredient amounts, that seemed to work pretty well for the size of my trays in the medium freeze dryer. The recipes are great; I've only used a few but want to try more. The only quibble so far is the recipe for the Pumpkin Pie Drops. It calls for maple syrup, which I found caused the mixture to separate before I could pipe all the drops onto the tray. I'm thinking next time I'll use maple sugar instead. That might also help to reduce the drying time slightly. But overall, I appreciate how detailed the book is, and would recommend it to anyone who's a newbie to freeze drying.

I've read other freeze drying books on the market, BUT they all lacked thoroughness. I always finished the pages wanting more information. This book, however, will take you from the very beginning: educating you about the different sized machines and tray capacities, which ultimately informs your decision about what size machine you should get; walking you through the set-up; getting that first load going; and encouraging you to think about prepping the next foods for the freezer. It really holds your hand and offers so much wisdom that once could only be found after hours and hours spent reading posts in some of the freeze dry groups on Facebook. Now you can save time and everything you need is right here in the pages of the book. There are how-to's for individual foods as well as 40 recipes. I wish there were many more recipes but it's a good start. Almost any receipt can be adapted to freeze dry as long as it doesn't have much fat or chocolate. The book offers much more -- just look at the table of contents and you'll be sold. I've been freeze drying for 8 months and truly wish I had this book before I even bought one. It's THAT valuable.

Received this as a Christmas gift. Lots of good information that I reference back to frequently.

Overall I’m Happy with this book but all of the recipes/ instructions are for Harvest Right FD and we have a Blue Alpine. It’s easy enough to adapt to the Blue Alpine machine but if you’re just starting out there is a bit of a learning curve.

I recently bought a 2023 Harvest Right Medium Pro freeze dryer. I ordered this book to jump start my process and get right into freeze drying and preserving foods. I LOVE how well thought-out and simply written it is! There is a lot of useful information that you can quickly absorb and still get right into processing foods. The quick reference guide for all the different types of food is fantastic! It's saving me from potentially wasting a lot of time and money experimenting and learning all of this by trial and error. I have found that my machine finishes batches in less time than some of the ones listed in hte book (probably because it's newer?), but I still love the ability to reference the cataloged knowledge because it helps me plan which foods to run through together based on similar processing times. This is a must have for anyone new to the freeze drying world!

This freeze drying book is well laid out, thorough and easy to comprehend. The writing style is and clear and concise. There is an abundance of information for those new to freeze-drying, and some helpful tidbits for those who are intermediate to pro in the freeze drying process. To find the most essential information all in one place, this is the book you need! It's a quick, easy read, and I found it enjoyable. When the entire book is completed, one can have the sense of knowing that you are ready to begin the freeze-drying purchase and begin the process with confidence. This is a fairly unique book, as there aren't many freeze-drying resources to date. I am an intermediate freeze-drying user, and I learned some tidbits here and there, and appreciated the organization of information, as well as the recipes! So, go ahead and purchase this book with confidence! This is a truly practical guide to all things freeze-drying.

I live in a place with abundant supplies of fruits and veggies. So freeze drying them was always on my to do list. This book gave me the info I needed to get started as a newbie.

10 out of 10. Highly recommend this book, alot of information and a good reference to have. Could not put it down only I started reading. Read it twice already.

10/10

This is a simple-to-use book for all your freeze-drying/prepping needs. So many tips and need to know items that I wish I had this book before I purchased my freeze dryer. I'm so grateful to the author for writing this book. I will want a hard copy also to refer to it. If you have a freeze dryer or are thinking of getting one this is a must-get book.