Per Harvest Right, do not take your trays out cold. Cold equals moisture (you never want your trays to be cold when taking them out of the Freeze Dryer at the Cycle End). Also in the Harvest Right Freeze Drying Book (which I have) says that Grapes will still be a bit Chewy due to the Sugar Content. Hope this helps. Your Grapes are fully Freeze Dried, but always make sure your Trays are warm (Not Cold) when you take them out of the Freeze Dryer per my Conversation with harvest Right.
I appreciate that information!! I didn’t know that so that helps so much! So always warm trays first before removing - I’ll remember that 👍🏻🥰 and makes sense about the grapes then! Thanks for sharing !!
@@CG-CJ The Harvest Right Freeze Dryer is Set by Default for Freeze Drying Food at 125 degrees. If you feel your Freeze Drying session is complete & you take your Trays out & they are cold to the touch or your food is cold or has cold spots that means it still has moisture & it is not completely Freeze Dried. You can gauge the Chamber Temp by watching the Temp Gauge on your Freeze Dryer & making sure it is not less than 125ish degrees consistently once you think it is a complete cycle. I usually give my FD cycles 2 to 4 hrs or more after the machine says the cycle is complete to start monitoring the Temp the Machine says it is on the inside. I usually never trust the Machine telling me the FD cycle is complete. Once I feel the food is completely Freeze Dried based on a stable 125 to higher temps back & forth, I pause the Process, Purge the chamber of air pressure then Feel for any cold parts in the trays, any cold parts in the food & even use a moisture meter if I am FD liquids. Cold on the Trays or the Food = Moisture & that means your Food isn't completely Freeze Dried. Some people once they think their Food is Completely Freeze Dried will pause the FD Process, take 1 or 2 of the Trays out & weigh them, then put them back in for a couple hrs, then re-weigh them & if there is no change in weight of the Tray/Trays they previously weighed then they know there is no longer any moisture & the FD process is complete. Hope this is helpful & I have answered your question.
Put your grapes on a large serving plate, add another plate on top, pressing gently to keep them from popping out, take a long knife and slice through them long ways between the plates.
Small fruit like grapes or cherry tomatoes can quickly be cut by placing them on a plate and then inverting a second plate on them and then slicing through the space between the plates. Same sort of idea as the slicing tube you mentioned but uses tools you already have. Just make sure your knife is long enough to span the distance across the plate and is sharp enough to cut the fruit without shredding them.
Greetings from Norway. You live in a beautiful place. :) I just had an idea, that how you freeze fruits could be important. Something you could try, was to freeze either alcohol or water saturated with salt and then put the grapes in. The point is that this will flash freeze the grapes, giving no time for ice crystals to ruin the texture, which may be what's happening if they get chewy rather than crispy. I haven't tried it. It was just an idea. :)
Hello!! I am 1/4 Norwegian, I hope to visit your country someday! I love the tip you shared, thank you I will have to experiment with that sounds like a great idea!
@@DIYfreezedry: Cool! I wanted to ask, because you look very Norwegian. :) You should come! I'm new to freeze drying and I look forward to following your channel.
i DO FROZEN GRAPES I FREEZE THEM FOR 24 HOURS THEN i FREEZE DRY THEM FOR 2 Days. cutting t hem in half helps alot. if my fruit doesn't always freeze well like lemons I just finish them off in my regular dehydrator.
As a person that doesn't have a HR but has done a lot of research on them/watching videos/etc, grapes do have a high water content and just needs more dry time so i dont think you did anything wrong juat different expectations. Also, just remember any moisture in your product will have a higher likelihood of spoilage. Oxygen and moisture are the 2 killers of food from freeze drying.
That’s something I would try next time - it definitely would cut the drying time down. Maybe have a better result too, will have to try and see if it works better that way.
If you want to save some time, get yourself an egg slicer or three- The little palm-sized thing with the wires? You can find them anywhere but don't buy the cheapest ones you find, you want your wires to last a while. Pop as many grapes in at a time as it will hold, and slice away! The grandkids love doing this for me and I love the fact that I don't have to worry about them cutting themselves... Huge Time saver! You can also put them between two lids but the egg slicer is so much faster.
I realize you are growing your channel. And you’re very friendly and want to be helpful. But in this video you do a disservice to folks new to FDing. You’re doing grapes and you only set extra dry time to 6 hours, when you could set that to 24 hours to give you a greater window not to have to so closely watch the process. Then when you check them with about 1.5 hours left in the extra dry time, you don’t press Cancel but you touch the leaf. Maybe the same result but why. Pressing Cancel does not cancel the whole batch. You say you’re going to pause the process and check to see if done. But how do you check? With your fingers and tasting? You continue the batch adding 9 hours. Again you could have added longer so the extra dry time doesn’t run down before you wake. Obviously the next time you checked the batch you saw “Process Complete” on the display which means the extra dry time had run out, the pump was off, and the heating pads stopped coming on so then ice wouldn’t melt and ruin the batch. The worst error was checking the food before warming the trays or at least adding 3-4 more hours and then checking the trays when warm. You realize the grapes are feeling dryer, but if you are someone who checks for cold spots, you can’t because all the trays are cold. You never store cold food! And you admit that if you don’t get the food out before the extra time runs out that the machine does Re-freeze. And that’s one way to say it. But from the time you start the whole process, the machine is freezing and never stops until you end the batch. I state above what happens when the extra dry time runs out. And a new person should know that because the trays are still cold, you cannot store the grapes yet. So you don’t have full success. These are best for snacks but not long term. So I wonder if any batches you’ve done are fully dry because you are guessing. I FD mostly long term so I can’t guess. I have to prove full dryness. I keep the extra dry time at 24 hours. During extra dry time, and not until the mTor is at least at 200 or lower, I pause and do an initial weight check in grams. Then I set extra set time to 24 again, mainly because of my busy schedule. I might check and weigh again at 5 hours or 8 or more. But at some point the weight stops dropping. And if seeds I go 5-6 hours more. But this is PROVING not guessing.
Per Harvest Right, do not take your trays out cold. Cold equals moisture (you never want your trays to be cold when taking them out of the Freeze Dryer at the Cycle End). Also in the Harvest Right Freeze Drying Book (which I have) says that Grapes will still be a bit Chewy due to the Sugar Content. Hope this helps. Your Grapes are fully Freeze Dried, but always make sure your Trays are warm (Not Cold) when you take them out of the Freeze Dryer per my Conversation with harvest Right.
I appreciate that information!! I didn’t know that so that helps so much! So always warm trays first before removing - I’ll remember that 👍🏻🥰 and makes sense about the grapes then! Thanks for sharing !!
Stupid question-new to this but how do you make your trays warm?
@@CG-CJ The Harvest Right Freeze Dryer is Set by Default for Freeze Drying Food at 125 degrees. If you feel your Freeze Drying session is complete & you take your Trays out & they are cold to the touch or your food is cold or has cold spots that means it still has moisture & it is not completely Freeze Dried. You can gauge the Chamber Temp by watching the Temp Gauge on your Freeze Dryer & making sure it is not less than 125ish degrees consistently once you think it is a complete cycle. I usually give my FD cycles 2 to 4 hrs or more after the machine says the cycle is complete to start monitoring the Temp the Machine says it is on the inside. I usually never trust the Machine telling me the FD cycle is complete. Once I feel the food is completely Freeze Dried based on a stable 125 to higher temps back & forth, I pause the Process, Purge the chamber of air pressure then Feel for any cold parts in the trays, any cold parts in the food & even use a moisture meter if I am FD liquids. Cold on the Trays or the Food = Moisture & that means your Food isn't completely Freeze Dried. Some people once they think their Food is Completely Freeze Dried will pause the FD Process, take 1 or 2 of the Trays out & weigh them, then put them back in for a couple hrs, then re-weigh them & if there is no change in weight of the Tray/Trays they previously weighed then they know there is no longer any moisture & the FD process is complete. Hope this is helpful & I have answered your question.
@@CG-CJthat’s what I want to know.
John in Bibs has a fantastic video on freeze drying grapes, he blanches them first with no cutting or piercing - works perfectly!
Oh awesome I’m gonna watch it! Thanks for sharing
OmG I can’t wait to do this 😍
Awesome you will love it!
So yummy!
They were a good one!!
Such a tasty on the go snack.
They are so good!
So glad I found you thank you for giving us inspiration ❤❤❤❤
Thanks for the sweet comment, I'm so glad your enjoying the videos :)!
I want to try those
They tasted awesome!
Put your grapes on a large serving plate, add another plate on top, pressing gently to keep them from popping out, take a long knife and slice through them long ways between the plates.
So smart I’ll have to try that next time! Thanks for sharing ❤️
This! You can also do 2 of those plastic takehome container lids if you have them. They are a bit easier to deal with than plates.
Tasty ❤
How do you decide what settings to use?
Small fruit like grapes or cherry tomatoes can quickly be cut by placing them on a plate and then inverting a second plate on them and then slicing through the space between the plates. Same sort of idea as the slicing tube you mentioned but uses tools you already have. Just make sure your knife is long enough to span the distance across the plate and is sharp enough to cut the fruit without shredding them.
Awesome tip thank you I haven’t tried that before!
Greetings from Norway. You live in a beautiful place. :) I just had an idea, that how you freeze fruits could be important. Something you could try, was to freeze either alcohol or water saturated with salt and then put the grapes in. The point is that this will flash freeze the grapes, giving no time for ice crystals to ruin the texture, which may be what's happening if they get chewy rather than crispy. I haven't tried it. It was just an idea. :)
Hello!! I am 1/4 Norwegian, I hope to visit your country someday! I love the tip you shared, thank you I will have to experiment with that sounds like a great idea!
@@DIYfreezedry: Cool! I wanted to ask, because you look very Norwegian. :) You should come! I'm new to freeze drying and I look forward to following your channel.
i DO FROZEN GRAPES I FREEZE THEM FOR 24 HOURS THEN i FREEZE DRY THEM FOR 2 Days. cutting t hem in half helps alot. if my fruit doesn't always freeze well like lemons I just finish them off in my regular dehydrator.
Oh awesome that’s a great tip I will try that next time 😁😁
As a person that doesn't have a HR but has done a lot of research on them/watching videos/etc, grapes do have a high water content and just needs more dry time so i dont think you did anything wrong juat different expectations. Also, just remember any moisture in your product will have a higher likelihood of spoilage. Oxygen and moisture are the 2 killers of food from freeze drying.
Thank you! That’s probably what the issue is! I appreciate the tips 😁😁
Would it have helped to prefreeze the grapes?
That’s something I would try next time - it definitely would cut the drying time down. Maybe have a better result too, will have to try and see if it works better that way.
John in Bibs channel show on one of his videos that he blanches his grapes because of the skin. He says its makes the hold their flavor.
Oh nice - thanks for sharing that I'm gonna check out what he did!
If you want to save some time, get yourself an egg slicer or three- The little palm-sized thing with the wires? You can find them anywhere but don't buy the cheapest ones you find, you want your wires to last a while.
Pop as many grapes in at a time as it will hold, and slice away! The grandkids love doing this for me and I love the fact that I don't have to worry about them cutting themselves... Huge Time saver! You can also put them between two lids but the egg slicer is so much faster.
Can you post the food saver link you have? Thanks
Yes I’ll grab that for you!
amzn.to/46cPrjm
This is an updated version of the one I have - closest I could find to mine; has the same features just newer!
Thank you!!!
❤
When you take them off the vine they will have holes
butter powder
I want to figure out if I can do this in my freeze dryer
I realize you are growing your channel. And you’re very friendly and want to be helpful.
But in this video you do a disservice to folks new to FDing. You’re doing grapes and you only set extra dry time to 6 hours, when you could set that to 24 hours to give you a greater window not to have to so closely watch the process. Then when you check them with about 1.5 hours left in the extra dry time, you don’t press Cancel but you touch the leaf. Maybe the same result but why. Pressing Cancel does not cancel the whole batch.
You say you’re going to pause the process and check to see if done. But how do you check? With your fingers and tasting?
You continue the batch adding 9 hours. Again you could have added longer so the extra dry time doesn’t run down before you wake.
Obviously the next time you checked the batch you saw “Process Complete” on the display which means the extra dry time had run out, the pump was off, and the heating pads stopped coming on so then ice wouldn’t melt and ruin the batch.
The worst error was checking the food before warming the trays or at least adding 3-4 more hours and then checking the trays when warm.
You realize the grapes are feeling dryer, but if you are someone who checks for cold spots, you can’t because all the trays are cold. You never store cold food!
And you admit that if you don’t get the food out before the extra time runs out that the machine does Re-freeze. And that’s one way to say it. But from the time you start the whole process, the machine is freezing and never stops until you end the batch. I state above what happens when the extra dry time runs out.
And a new person should know that because the trays are still cold, you cannot store the grapes yet. So you don’t have full success.
These are best for snacks but not long term. So I wonder if any batches you’ve done are fully dry because you are guessing.
I FD mostly long term so I can’t guess. I have to prove full dryness. I keep the extra dry time at 24 hours. During extra dry time, and not until the mTor is at least at 200 or lower, I pause and do an initial weight check in grams. Then I set extra set time to 24 again, mainly because of my busy schedule. I might check and weigh again at 5 hours or 8 or more. But at some point the weight stops dropping. And if seeds I go 5-6 hours more. But this is PROVING not guessing.
try placing your grapes face down.
Ok I’ll have to try that next time
No, that would be the same as not cutting them, it leaves the skin exposed to freeze drying and that keeps the moisture from escaping