The freeze dryer arrives!

Here it is!  So excited!  I put it down stairs on top of the rolling cart that I purchased last month.  I was supposed to wait 24 hours for the refrigerant to settle in case it had been side-ways during shipping - but I think it was upright during shipping so I started a batch of fruit last night around 7:30pm!

I was disappointed to find that when I started it it immediately informed me that a wire was disconnected on the back of the trays.  I found it and it just looks like it was never connected securely.  I got it reconnected and hopefully that is that.  The error went away anyway.

We ordered some mylar bags and O2 absorbers off of amazon yesterday so we will be ready for serious drying when we get more produce in!

My first batch was grapes that i harvest last weekend from what I thought were concord grapes - but evidently I got them mixed up - they weren't Concords!  They were a small pink grape.  Tasted fine.  Grapes are supposed to be cut in half before drying, but these were so small I decided to see what would happen.  Also I picked the only peach I could find left in the orchard (something stripped all of the peaches I had off the trees - only one to survive was one the ground).  I peeled and made little chunks out of the peach.  I did the same to the last of my Pristine apples.  I also washed all of the strawberries and blackberries I have picked on the farm and placed them on the drying trays too.  The first thing the dehydrator does is freeze the food for about 9 hours.  Then it starts up the vacuum pump and drops it down to a bit below 500 mTorr.  Then the heat, pump, freeze cycle starts repeating until the moister sensor says its close to done.  It is a very  small load so I am hopeful that it will be done in 24 hours (7:30pm tonight!)