My Freeze-Drying Future

Last fall, we planned on processing our ginormous (yes, that’s a real word) fence-jumping Black Angus steer. However, when the day came to load him onto the trailer to go meet his Maker, a series of unfortunate events took place, to include the mangling of several cattle panels and garden fencing.

Therefore his ticket to ride went to two other smaller animals, and that beast lived to see another day. 🙁

Knowing this mammal needed to end up in our freezer, sooner than later, yet our freezer space would be limited given the other two animals, we had to come up with either another massive freezer or another plan to preserve our meat.

ENTER the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer.

For the past year we had talked about the idea of using a freeze dryer to turn our frozen produce (particularly our meat) into shelf-stable items, but I was hesitant, given my desire to eventually go off-grid.

(I didn’t know the feasibility of running something like that on solar energy. Although, after a little research, I think it might be possible. More on that later.)

Then, I watched a video review of the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer offered by Carol at Homesteading Family. I was pushed off the fence, and I decided to go for it.

Freeze Dryer – SOLD

So, I placed my order on the Harvest Right website and, given the anticipated long wait-time for shipments going out, I put the idea of how to manage it all once it got here on the back-burner of my mind.

But then, we received word it was going to come in much sooner than expected, and we had to make a home for it, quick.

While I wasn’t able to get to using it right away, let alone use it as often as my husband wanted, I did eventually get around to firing it up (and now it runs six days a week).

Seeing how easy it was to use, I realized this could be my new occupation — at least one of them, anyway.

My New Occupation

I was already working my way out of the family-run business, letting our kids run it almost entirely on their own. (The idea was to free me up to do other, more meaningful things in alignment with my strengths & passions, particularly as it related to making our world a better place here on the homestead.)

So, my wheels started turning as to how I could use this freeze dryer to develop a new business for myself so its purchase could be a legitimate tax write-off. (I knew I didn’t want to sell the finished freeze-dried food because I didn’t want to have to be concerned about any food regulations.)

So I thought, I could write about it, sharing what I learn along the way to help others who might be interested in that sort of thing. But then, I didn’t want to charge money for that information. (I much prefer to freely distribute what I learn — no strings attached.)

Besides, I don’t really like the idea of participating in the whole US monetary system. I mean, we simply chose to invest in a freeze dryer for personal purposes.

Truth be told, I’d rather build gift & barter economies offline than participate in the US Financial System. But, to be able to write-off legitimate business expenses, you have to be in the business of making money.

Money-Making Venture

It’s only the fact that we’re currently making too much income in my husband’s decal business (meaning, we’re above the threshold of having to owe income tax), and therefore could use this offset to reduce our tax liability, that I even bothered considering establishing a new business.

But, I am also concerned about having all our eggs in one basket, being dependent on a third party — and a shady one at that, Amazon [boo, hiss], for our financial income.

(Thankfully, we don’t really need a lot of income, but we do need some in order to pay our dwindling monthly expenses and of course, our property taxes.)

So, the plan is to be an affiliate marketer of the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and other Harvest Right products (which I use myself on a daily basis).

But I have to tell you, I’m not the salesman type, and I don’t like the idea of filling up this website with banners and advertisements on every page. Yuck. I hate that. Truly.

Instead, I plan to share my personal experiences with their products (and any other products I use in relation to the freeze drying process that now occupies my time) – not necessarily reviews of the products, but simply talking about the process of freeze drying. And I will use affiliate links to their website/product to flag any referrals from here, so the selling company will know in case someone purchases something from that referral.

This way, only those who are interested enough to click through will be marketed to by Harvest Right themselves once they get to their website, and I, along with this website, will be out of the whole sales & marketing loop. 🙂

Also, I don’t want this site to be All About Freeze-Drying. Rather it’s meant to share the many facets of the world we’re creating for ourselves, and frankly, freeze drying food is just a small (yet integral) part of it. It just so happens to be the one I’m devoting much of my time & energy to here recently — hence, this post. 🙂

So, if you’re interested in checking out the Freeze Dryers at HarvestRight.com, there’s the link. 😉

Do you have any experience with freeze-drying? Please do tell. I’d love to hear about it.