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The Beginner's BLUEPRINT to Freeze-Drying Fruits
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May 15, 2025
How do you freeze dry fruit? In this video, you’ll be shown a step-by-step guide on freeze-drying a variety of fruits with your freeze dryer! If you're looking to preserve your favorite fruits while maintaining their nutrients and flavor, this video is the perfect starting point for beginners. In this comprehensive tutorial, we'll cover everything you need to know to get started with freeze-drying fruit. First is learning the purpose of freeze drying fruits and it’s applications in everyday food. We will also cover using the proper tools to make food prep easy, freeze dryer settings to keep your fruit drying consistently, and the best packaging methods for the final product. Be sure to check out the 8 Commonly Asked Questions about Packaging Freeze-Dried food in this video: https://youtu.be/wr4SWv0FkvA Do you want to be more connected and more informed about the freeze-drying industry? The Freeze-Drying Summit is a conference for the freeze-drying community to connect in person about starting and growing a business in freeze-drying. Sign-up at https://freezedriedsummit.com/ Step-by-Step Video on Making Money with Freeze-Drying Fruit: https://youtu.be/JKha3hGu730 Calculate your freeze-dried fruit prices to get a rough idea of your ROI through my FREE spreadsheet plus a friendly tutorial. Download it for FREE -https://freezedriedbusiness.com/spreadsheet ————————————— Freeze Drying Supplies ————————————— Start using Freeze Drying Supplies that can help you become more efficient in your business. Click below to access one of the largest varieties in freeze-drying supplies. https://www.freezedryingsupplies.com/?rfsn=7945463.f583545 - Tray Stackers - Tray Lids - Parchment Paper - Other helpful accessories for freeze-drying Other related videos mentioned in this video:
View Video Transcript
0:00
this is the beginner's guide to how to
0:01
freeze dry fruit for your home or your
0:04
freeze drying business we're going to
0:05
cover a lot of different topics the top
0:07
five freeze-dried fruits that have sold
0:10
the most for me as well as the tools
0:11
that I've purchased that have made the
0:13
preparation side very easy and smooth
0:15
for the freeze drying process we're
0:17
going to cover some of the equipment
0:18
that I've bought as well as the freeze
0:21
dryer settings that you're going to need
0:23
for every single fruit that you freeze
0:25
dry and stay tuned to the end of this
0:26
video cuzz I'm going to share with you
0:27
the packaging methods that you should
0:29
use once the freeze-dried fruit is all
0:31
done hey welcome back to the freeze
0:33
dried business Channel if you're new
0:34
here my name is David and I run a freeze
0:36
dried business in Idaho I've been
0:38
running it for the past four years and
0:39
I've learned a lot of different things
0:41
from the cottage food side running it
0:43
out of my home to also having a
0:45
commercial kitchen where I have
0:46
wholesale and have learned a lot of
0:48
different things in the food processing
0:50
methods so hit the Subscribe Bell if you
0:52
want to follow me and follow more
0:54
content related to freeze drying and
0:55
specifically freeze drying as a business
0:58
this is a huge Fun World of freeze
1:00
drying and I think it's only going to
1:02
grow even more so the more and more
1:04
subscribers and community that we build
1:06
here will benefit you all now today's
1:08
video we're primarily going to cover
1:09
what types of fruits I've seen
1:11
successful in my freeze drying business
1:13
and then some of the tools of best ways
1:15
to kind of cut and prepare them and then
1:17
the freeze dryer setting now the freeze
1:19
Dryer's purpose is to extract the water
1:20
from fruit but it's the purest form of
1:24
keeping nutritional value in a food
1:27
preservation method that's why the
1:29
freeze drying industry is blowing up so
1:31
much is because it's a great way to
1:32
preserve your food and since the water
1:35
is removed and then the fruit is dried
1:37
at a high temperature now you're left
1:39
with a way for you to crush the fruit
1:41
flavor into a powder and that's why with
1:44
the baking side of things now you can
1:46
create a very flavorful type of cookie a
1:49
flavorful cake or things like that that
1:51
doesn't have that moist type of juice in
1:53
it from the different fruits so that's
1:55
why the application is very high with
1:57
freeze-dried fruit now over the past 4
2:00
years of running my freeze drying
2:01
business as of this video I found that
2:03
there's been six different types of
2:05
fruits that have been the best sellers
2:07
for me and I've Tred different fruits
2:09
but it really doesn't have the same take
2:11
as these now the first one is
2:13
blueberries I've got a video on how to
2:15
freeze-dried blueberries but we're going
2:16
to do one tray of that today I've also
2:19
found that strawberries have been a big
2:20
seller I also would suggest you doing
2:23
bananas and I also combine that to do a
2:26
strawberry banana mix I've also had
2:29
success with free drying apples as well
2:31
as pineapple and raspberries now we're
2:34
just going to do Apple strawberries and
2:36
blueberries today just to keep it easy
2:38
and simple now those are the six top
2:40
freeze-dried fruits that I've been
2:41
selling in my freeze drying business and
2:43
I would suggest you try as well and then
2:45
as you start finding what your customers
2:47
like you can then pinpoint what you want
2:50
to go for the most in terms of looking
2:52
at having that as more of a consistent
2:54
product to have now let's go over the
2:55
tools that make these three fruits
2:57
really easy to prepare now the
2:59
blueberries I've got this roller Berry
3:02
now this tool is something that I
3:04
invested in it's it's quite expensive
3:07
relative to other methods that you can
3:09
use but this is the roller Berry it's a
3:11
stainless steel rotating spinning type
3:14
of poking tool and what it does is it's
3:17
going to poke the skin of the
3:18
blueberries and the reason you want to
3:19
do that is because the skin of the
3:22
blueberry keeps that water inside and so
3:25
if you just put blueberries as is on the
3:28
tray it actually will explode and I'm
3:30
showing you a picture right now of what
3:32
those blueberries that are exploded look
3:34
like so if you want them to look
3:36
presentable and not exploding I would
3:38
suggest you find a method to be able to
3:40
poke these blueberries now I've done it
3:42
individually with a with a little uh
3:44
skewer little needle uh which took a
3:46
long time you can also use a meat
3:47
tenderizer but this has just been always
3:50
sturdy for me and you don't have to buy
3:52
a bunch of them they don't break down
3:54
but if you want to go the cheaper route
3:55
I've got a video link in the description
3:57
below of the meat tenderizers as well as
3:59
the link to Frozen W who makes this
4:01
roller Berry and this is a really easy
4:03
tool that I'll show you how to use for
4:05
the strawberries we want to use this egg
4:07
slicer that's right it's an egg slicer
4:10
and you're going to put the strawberries
4:11
in here and then you just snap it shut
4:14
and then it cuts it into four to five
4:16
different slices and the reason you want
4:17
to use a slicer like this is because it
4:20
actually can shorten the amount of time
4:23
for the freeze drying process because
4:25
the thinner the slice the shorter amount
4:27
of time the freeze dryer is going to
4:29
take to actually get to the last
4:31
molecule of moisture in the strawberries
4:34
and that's why I like slicing the
4:35
strawberries as well now with the apples
4:38
what I use is this Big hunken Tool and
4:41
the reason I've used this is because
4:43
it's actually a potato fry slicer and I
4:46
like the Fry type of look because it I
4:49
don't know it just looks more snacky if
4:51
that's even a word and I like using it
4:54
because it's also very fast and
4:56
effective so that's what I like using I
4:58
also have used the KitchenAid Apple
5:01
slicer as well as just cut it up by hand
5:03
but we're going to use this today and
5:06
this you can find in the video
5:07
description it's a potato fry slicer now
5:09
you're also going to want a great sharp
5:11
knife something that doesn't dle too
5:13
fast and I've used these Cutco types of
5:16
knives and it's been a good investment
5:18
because it never goes dull and I don't
5:19
have to sharpen it that much now in my
5:21
sink here to my left I've got a strainer
5:24
so that way I can wash off all the fruit
5:26
prior to preserving this now if you're
5:28
in a commercial kitchen or you're
5:29
preparing fruit for your customers you
5:31
want to make sure that you have some
5:32
gloves or you at least want to wash your
5:34
hands in between handling different
5:36
types of fruits because I'm in my
5:38
kitchen right now in my home I'm just
5:40
going to not wear gloves and it'll be a
5:42
little bit messy but it's perfectly fine
5:44
just because we're going to do this
5:46
video These grates I bought off of
5:48
Frozen r as well who makes the roller
5:50
Berry these allow for some air flow when
5:53
the drying process is kicked on into the
5:55
freeze dryer they make these for the
5:57
stay fresh as well as for the the
5:59
Harvest Right freeze dryer trays from
6:01
different sizes now I have the Harvest
6:03
Right large freeze dryer and so these
6:05
grates are for the large size trays and
6:07
they fit perfectly inside the tray like
6:10
this what I also like is these grates
6:12
can easily be lifted out of the tray and
6:14
then the fruit stays on top and then you
6:16
can just dump it into your food safe
6:18
bucket now if you don't own a freeze
6:19
dryer you can always go to my affiliate
6:21
link Down Below in the video description
6:23
I own Harvest right as well as stay
6:25
fresh freeze dryers both are great I
6:28
would suggest the Harvest straight
6:29
freeze dryer if you're starting a freeze
6:31
drying business they have the largest
6:32
freeze dryers right now for most
6:34
affordable price for the highest
6:36
capacity for example they have the XL
6:39
freeze dryer that can do upwards of 40
6:41
lbs of food in one Cycle One cycle
6:44
meaning you've got them all full full of
6:46
fruit and so that's really nice compared
6:48
to the large size which can do upwards
6:50
of you know 16 lbs so it's over two
6:53
times the amount of food that you can do
6:54
just in one cycle and that really
6:56
increases your bottom line in your
6:57
freeze drying business because you want
6:59
that freeze dryer running non-stop but
7:01
also getting the most production out of
7:03
it once you press start on that machine
7:05
so that's what I would suggest and if
7:07
you want to know more about freeze
7:08
Dryers go ahead and click the link below
7:11
in the video description and it'll tell
7:12
you more about different reviews that
7:14
I've made as well as you can check out
7:16
the website directly let's get started
7:17
with the blueberries first this
7:19
container is 11 oz of blueberries I put
7:22
two in my strainer wash them all and
7:25
that's what we're going to put on the
7:26
tray now you have to keep in mind when
7:28
freeze drying is if you want to put as
7:31
much capacity on a freeze drying tray as
7:33
you want that's perfectly fine but just
7:35
know that it's going to take a lot
7:37
longer for the freeze dryer and it's
7:39
processing its sensors to realize when
7:41
it's all completely done so you could be
7:43
looking at a very long dry time now
7:44
today I've got a cutting board but
7:46
typically what I have is one of the
7:48
Harvest Right silicone mats that you put
7:51
in your tray they make them for all
7:52
different size freeze dryer trays now
7:54
what that silicone mat allows you to do
7:56
is just not have such of a hard surface
7:58
when you're rolling using the roller
8:00
Berry or you're using your meat
8:01
tenderizer I just like having a a more
8:04
soft cushion on there so we're going to
8:07
take the blueberries out of the strainer
8:09
and what I'm going to show you here is
8:12
you just kind of line it up to the kind
8:13
of the width of this roller Berry tool
8:16
and I've just found that this just makes
8:18
things a lot easier so you roll across
8:21
and as you saw there it rolled and poked
8:23
the blueberries now each blueberry has
8:26
kind of like multiple different pokes so
8:28
we put all those blueberries on the tray
8:31
now the video footage I'm showing right
8:33
now is not me right now it's actually of
8:35
my other video on specifically how to
8:38
freeze dry blueberries which you can
8:40
take a look at in the video description
8:42
or after this video I'll show it up in
8:44
the thumbnails because this actually
8:46
shows you a detailed look at how to use
8:49
this roller Berry tool how quickly and
8:51
efficient you can do it and now that
8:52
we're done here 22 oz roughly of
8:56
blueberries is this is a great amount
8:58
because we don't have doubling up of
9:01
volume on the tray so it's going to
9:03
actually reduce our freeze drying time
9:05
now that we're done with this what I'm
9:06
going to show you is these tray stackers
9:08
and if you don't own tray stackers they
9:10
literally fit right on the edges of
9:13
these trays a lot of people make these
9:15
but I like buying from us made only so
9:18
I've got a link to the video description
9:20
below of Freez dryings supplies.com as
9:23
well as links to Amazon with sofo
9:25
survival who makes these in America and
9:29
and they're 3D printed but they fit
9:31
perfectly and I've got a bunch of these
9:33
so that I can quickly prep and speaking
9:35
of preparation when you have a large
9:38
amount of fruit that you're getting
9:39
ready to prepare because maybe you got a
9:41
good deal on it you want to use that
9:44
time effectively and so using these tray
9:46
stackers you're going to do a ton of
9:48
blueberries or a ton of strawberries
9:50
when they're in season and that way you
9:51
can put these in your freezer and the
9:53
reason you're going to prefreeze is
9:55
because it reduces the amount of time
9:56
that you're having to prepare every
9:58
single time you want to put something
9:59
into the freeze dryer so if I've got 10
10:02
trays worth which is two cycles worth of
10:05
freeze drying now I can prepare 10 trays
10:08
worth of fruit I'm putting it into the
10:11
freezer then it's all Frozen I take out
10:14
five put them into the freeze dryer my
10:16
large freeze dryer and then when that's
10:18
done I've already got some already
10:20
prepped and in the freezer that I can
10:21
just put them in again so it makes it
10:24
just more of an easier process and
10:25
that's the thing to know as a beginner
10:28
is you want to make things easy for
10:29
yourself and especially when you get
10:31
into the seasonal side of purchasing
10:34
fruit you want to maximize the amount of
10:36
fruit that you're going to buy and
10:37
therefore prep it all at one time now
10:39
that we're done with the blueberries
10:40
let's move on to strawberries for the
10:41
strawberries the tools you need is
10:43
obviously a knife to cut off the stems
10:45
and then if you're going to slice them
10:47
you're going to use this egg slicer and
10:49
I've got a link in the video description
10:50
below to Amazon it's not more than 10 to
10:53
$2 for one of these now I have in my
10:56
strainer that I wash you want to make
10:58
sure you wash strawberry really well
10:59
because of all those pesticides that can
11:01
really soak in where the seeds are I
11:04
bought 2 lbs this is 2 lb of
11:06
strawberries one pound from the
11:08
container and that's about how much
11:10
strawberries I'm going to put on the
11:11
tray that's sliced again I've got a
11:13
grate now in this tray and as you can
11:16
see here's my blueberries underneath and
11:18
then I've got the tray stackers and it
11:20
sets right on top of here it's very easy
11:23
so we're going to cut the stems off of
11:25
the
11:25
strawberries and what I do is I put the
11:28
strawberries right there that have the
11:30
stems off and I put the stems in here
11:32
what we're going to do with the stems is
11:35
we're going to freeze dry them as well
11:37
on another tray and reason being is
11:40
because there's a lot of value in the
11:43
healthiness of the strawberry stems I
11:46
typically have always thrown away the
11:48
stems but I've been reading a lot more
11:51
about the healthiness of the stems and
11:54
I'm going to put up a little bit of
11:56
information about the healthiness of the
11:58
strawberries right now so that you can
12:00
see why you should probably keep the
12:03
stems and freeze dry them the leaves um
12:06
there's a lot of value in that and when
12:09
you're freeze drying the whole point is
12:11
to preserve food and not have anything
12:13
go to waste so that's what we're going
12:15
to do is we're going to put the stems on
12:18
one tray as its own and have the sliced
12:21
strawberries right here now typically on
12:23
a large tray that I have for this
12:25
Harvest Right freeze dryer I really only
12:28
put about 2 lbs of strawberries on the
12:31
tray that are sliced because anything
12:33
else would be kind of an overload okay
12:35
so now that we got those sliced let's go
12:38
ahead and grab our egg slicer we're just
12:40
putting
12:41
it right on the grooves where the slicer
12:45
are and then we're pressing down and
12:47
it's cutting sometimes it sticks like
12:50
this but it's cutting them into perfect
12:52
slices the thinner the slice the more
12:55
it's going to allow those freeze dryer
12:57
sensors to notice that there's less
12:59
water molecules in it for it to get it
13:02
completely dry cuz if you left it full
13:05
which I've seen people do that's
13:06
perfectly fine but think about how long
13:08
it's going to take for the sensors to
13:11
sense that the that there's no moisture
13:14
inside the very core of this in the
13:16
middle just going to take a lot longer
13:18
so I like to keep things simple and also
13:21
just makes a better snack uh when you're
13:23
selling it in your freeze dryer bag as
13:26
you can see here this is 2 lb of St
13:29
strawberries all cut up all right so as
13:31
you can see we're going to put more tray
13:32
stackers for to a tray and now we can
13:35
put another tray on
13:38
top for our apples that we'll do next
13:41
all right moving on to Apples now again
13:43
you can choose to slice up apples any
13:45
way you want to what I've chosen to use
13:47
is a potato slicer this is a really
13:50
sturdy potato slicer it has suction cups
13:53
that can attach to your counter no
13:54
matter where you are and then you're
13:56
simply going to put the Apple into the
14:00
little slider area right here and when
14:02
this slides through you can put the tray
14:05
right below it and when you press
14:07
forward it slices it perfectly into
14:10
these apple slices and now what you're
14:12
seeing me do here is I'm just removing
14:14
the kind of the core Pieces Just because
14:17
at least for me I don't really like the
14:19
core pieces when I eat an apple but I'm
14:21
going to take those out so that the the
14:23
seeds and the core part doesn't get
14:25
freeze-dried because again I'm selling
14:28
this to customers I'm not doing it for
14:30
my own use customers are going to be
14:33
different than what you're going to use
14:34
freeze-dried fruit for right so you want
14:37
something that's going to be presentable
14:38
that looks nice and it's not just
14:41
something that you know came out of your
14:42
own home right you want something to
14:44
look presentable all right so now we're
14:46
done with slicing up the apples that was
14:47
really quick now this is five Gayla
14:50
apples on one tray this is a perfect
14:52
amount now so that these don't Brown up
14:55
too much I immediately put them in the
14:56
freezer if you want you could maybe
14:58
sprinkle spr Le over some lemon juice or
15:01
something like that that's what I've
15:02
seen do it but I just don't like the The
15:04
Taste or kind of the smell of it so what
15:07
I do is I just quickly actually put
15:09
these in the freezer three different
15:10
fruits all stacked together and this is
15:13
why I use the tray stackers and then
15:15
we're going to put two more trays worth
15:17
of fruit on top of here and that is how
15:19
you prepare apples strawberries and
15:21
blueberries now let's get to the
15:23
packaging and the freeze dryer settings
15:25
if you're liking the content you're
15:26
liking freeze drying fruit hit the like
15:28
button right now this is really going to
15:30
help the video come up more in YouTube
15:32
and on Google for future people who are
15:34
looking to freeze dry fruit I'd really
15:36
appreciate it and once again hit the
15:37
Subscribe Bell if you're not a
15:38
subscriber already I'd love for you to
15:40
join the freeze drying business
15:41
Community now once you're done with
15:43
prefreezing your fruit or if you just
15:45
want to pop it in right away you're
15:47
going to make sure that the freeze dryer
15:48
is at
15:50
125° fah for freeze drying the fruit now
15:54
what you do want to customize is the
15:55
final dry time and I would set that at a
15:57
minimum of 6 hour that just gives you
15:59
more peace of mind that it's drying at a
16:01
high temperature and getting all that
16:03
water out now typically people ask
16:05
what's the typical time frame for how
16:06
long it's going to take for freeze-dried
16:08
fruit that's all going to vary on how
16:11
much fruit and product you're putting on
16:13
the tray but generally if I'm going to
16:15
do all five trays of my large Harvest
16:18
Right freeze dryer with 2 lbs of
16:20
strawberries to start with that's 10 lb
16:23
total of freeze-dried strawberries and
16:26
that 10 lb is typically going to take
16:28
about 36 6 to 40 hours to freeze dry
16:30
completely now let's talk about the
16:32
packaging size so once you have the
16:33
freeze-dried fruit done you're going to
16:35
take it out and put it in some food
16:37
grade type buckets and I've got some
16:39
information below about those buckets
16:41
and I also did a short about what type
16:43
of buckets I use now again go to the
16:45
video description below and you'll check
16:46
out the eight commonly almost asked
16:48
questions about packaging and that's
16:50
where I share what type of buckets I use
16:52
now the three things that are going to
16:53
impact your freeze-dried fruit from
16:54
going bad or soft is sunlight moisture
16:57
and oxygen and so it should be dry so
17:00
you don't have to worry about the
17:01
moisture unless you're in a high
17:03
humidity area and that's when you'd want
17:05
to be careful about where you're storing
17:06
the free- dried fruit but let's just
17:08
talk about the other two factors
17:10
sunlight and oxygen so with sunlight if
17:13
you're using bags like I have with my
17:15
freeze drying business this has a window
17:18
on it so if it's going to be exposed to
17:20
any type of sunlight that is going to
17:22
impact the color of the freeze-dried
17:25
fruit over time as well as it's going to
17:26
impact the freshness of it as well
17:28
typically try to get these sold within
17:31
about 3 to 4 months using these craft
17:34
bags and I've got a link in the video
17:36
description where I get these bags off
17:38
of Amazon but if you're going to use
17:39
something else that has Windows just
17:41
remember the sunlight is going to impact
17:43
that now the third factor is the oxygen
17:45
side that's when you're going to want to
17:46
use oxygen absorbers to put into the bag
17:50
now there's a lot of different debate
17:52
and information about what type of size
17:55
oxygen absorbers you should have but
17:57
generally you want to go with probably a
17:59
300cc oxygen absorber and one video I
18:02
love that talks about this is on the
18:04
live life simple YouTube he's got a
18:07
great video that I'm going to link in
18:08
the video description that talks
18:10
specifically about oxygen absorbers and
18:11
he goes through all the science as well
18:13
as what type of sizes to use and all
18:15
that type of thing so I'm not going to
18:16
go through that but you would want to
18:18
use an auction absorber for your
18:20
freeze-dried fruit no matter whether you
18:22
have a myar bag that doesn't have a
18:23
window or one that does okay now if you
18:26
want to know more about packaging and
18:28
get these questions answered that you
18:29
have lingering go to the next video that
18:31
I'm going to share about the eight
18:32
commonly most asked questions about
18:34
packaging or freeze-dried product I'll
18:36
see you
18:36
[Music]
18:45
there
#Food
#Fruits & Vegetables
#Jams
# Jellies & Preserves