Actually, the texture is the same after reconstitution. I do not know why but it is. Even something like beef stew comes out the same as it went in.

If you were to chew on the cooked beef while freeze dried it crumbles in your mouth, but reconstituted it has the same texture.

We freeze dried this in particular because of storage. They don't have a lot of freezer space and a lot of other people are freezing them meals. It also lasts super long and they can store it anywhere.

Other advantages...

As far as survival situation, freeze drying is good because it just takes boiling water and waiting 20 minutes, not cooking.

Nutrient retention is superior vs. canning or dying, not that you'd can pasta but for things like salsa or veggies.

Freeze dried herbs especially are heads and shoulders above regular dried herbs when freeze dried. They retain really superior flavor and aroma.

If I were to freeze dry commercially I would do herbs and pastured eggs. Herbs freeze dry overnight.

But again for this application it was so it would store conveniently for them. 🙂

Baby's on the way man! 🤣

Spent part of the evening getting some trays of spaghetti and meatballs ready for freeze drying.

One of our friends is due with their 6th child so we are putting some meals together for them.

I'll weigh the tests before and after in grams. To reconstitute, add the difference in weight back in, in milliliters of water. If you want to get fancy with some things you can reconstitute in broth to add more flavor. Just heat up the water, drop in the food, cover and simmer and stir for 15-20 minutes.

The trays start of at around 2400 grams (about 5.25 lbs)

It's made from store bought meatballs and sauce. All we have to cook is the pasta. Then I mixed the sauce and pasta and spooned around the meatballs.

Into the freezer dryer, it will probably take 36-40 hours to freeze dry. Then it's good for 25 years in a mylar bag with oxygen absorber.

#foodstr #pregnancy #freezedrying

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To start this back up on a cold start, I light a fire in the oven chamber, to get a good draft going.

The masonry heater has about 20 feet of masonry channel to absorb heat before the smoke hits the chimney. Part of those channels cause the smoke to travel down.

A good draft pulls the smoke down so it can eventually leave via the chimney.

After the heater is warmed up I'll light the main wood charge in the firebox.

A normal fire is about 40 lbs of wood at a time.

#firestr #masonryheater #fire

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Just got home from our Christmas tour visits with my parents and inlaws.

Time to get the masonry heater warmed up again!

Starting off the stonework is at 58°F... tomorrow at this time we should be back at 150 - 160°F.

#firestr #masonryheater #fire

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I agree on all counts. We are visiting family 8 hours from home.

I'm working my way through Choose your Enemies Wisely by Patrick Bet David but am yearning to go home and get back to work!

Hello there! Welcome!

We (my 9 year old daughter and I) are starting our ham classes this January! We are going to bring some of her friends along.

She is excited about talking to her friends. The more I show her the more excited she gets.

I'm excited about experimenting with data transmission.

I'm also excited she can use that instead of a cell phone to talk to her friends.

It would also be the first "test" she takes since she is homeschooled, so it's good experience for her in a lower stakes environment. I actually don't think she has ever taken a multiple choice test come to think about it and this will be good for her mandatory state testing. All their testing/games we do are "figure out the right answer" so she is not used to people trying to trick her with some of the answer options.

Not quite sure what we are doing yet but we talked about getting both Technician and General licenses.

Here's a Christmas painting for me from my 9 year old daughter.

She knows I'm into #bitcoin

#artstr #grownostr

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I've decided to distribute this image processing.

Sats for any pairs found!

#laundry #kidssocks

Looking forward to hearing the interview!

We have 2 kids who we (mostly my wife) are homeschooling, a 9 year old and 5 year old.

Is the power supply 240 volts for those?

I could look it up but it's easier to ask 🙂 and more fun to send notes.

They love them! Ate up most of the plate.

Kids meal tonight to get them off carbs:

Pork rind nachos. Instead of corn chips its pork rinds, pepperoni, and cheese.

#keto #carnivore #foodstr

I wholeheartedly agree.

We are working on having whole foods like yogurt and berries for breakfast, and transitioning to eggs and ham/bacon as well.

Not difficult for my 9 year old... the 5 year old however is a different story. So he gets tons of milk while we cut down on the cereal.

Any suggestions you have for meals?

Thank you so much for sharing your experience.

I'm so sorry you went through that but I will share that with my kids so they understand even better what is at stake.

Thank you again... and as a side note don't forget to set up your lightning address!

Homeschooling lesson for the day.

The kids were learning about communism, socialism, and in particular what equity means.

Two hyacinth bulbs we are forcing are shown in the pictures.

The one on the right is full of roots, the other has one root.. not sure why but it's convenient to explain that in the name of "equity" we'd cut all the roots off the one plant top try to force the same outcome.

#plantstr #homeschool #homeschooling #grownostr

Egg comparison. One in the back are ours, front two are from a store.

Amazing the difference... my phone camera doesn't do it justice.

#foodstr #eggstr #carnivore

Looks good!

Before Covid I got some logs and did chips from a tree service.

I hadn't touched this ash log over winter, and the next fall I has a huge flush of Turkey Tail mushrooms.

I dried them and cut up a few grams and took them whenever I was feeling a bit sick. It's anti viral. All the colds went away.

Paul Stamets was trying to put a study together to test their affects on Covid. Never saw what came of that.

I also started studying fungi and came to realize how much of a gift that log was. It was all the medicine we would ever need.

I'm also a fan of fungi!