Do you want an easy way to add eggs to your long-term food storage?
With water glassing, you can preserve eggs up to two years in your pantry, but with freeze-drying, you can preserve eggs up to 30 years!
If you don’t have a freeze dryer, you can buy freeze dried eggs from amazon. Because I have a Harvest Right Freeze Dryer and the temperatures are finally dropping outside, I’m back to preserving food with it! During the summer, my house was too hot to operate the freeze dryer. Freeze drying when it is hot makes the machine’s drying time go longer and it makes your house hotter—no thanks!
My chickens are still in full egg-laying swing. I’m getting 10-14 eggs a day, so I need to be smart with what I do with them. Even after giving eggs away to friends, I still have an abundance. I water glassed eggs to put into my pantry to use during winter when my chickens aren’t laying eggs.
What is water glassing eggs?
Water glassing eggs is a method of preservation using water and pickling lime . The pickling lime seals up all the pores in the eggs and prevents the eggs from going bad. You can keep water glassed eggs up to two years in your pantry!
This week, though, I put 40ish eggs into my freeze dryer to then enter my long term food storage! After the eggs were in the freeze dryer for about 26 hours, they were finally ready to be put into mylar bags with an oxygen absorber. By being put into a mylar bag with an oxygen absorber, they will last up to 30 years! Check out my water glassing eggs vlog.
What is freeze drying?
Freeze drying is a method of extracting all moisture from the food by transforming ice into vapor. Freeze drying is a wonderful method of food preservation because it extends the shelf life of perishable items.
Freeze drying foods is so easy! You literally put your frozen or non-frozen (don’t mix frozen and non-frozen items, though) on the freeze dryer trays, load them into the machines, press start, and then wait until it is done! Once the foods are done freeze-drying, you can either put them into your pantry and use a vacuum sealer to preserve them or put them into your long-term storage via mylar bags and oxygen absorbers.
When I saw the overflowing waterfall of eggs filling up my counters, I knew I had to stick these into the freeze dryer. With the problem of rising food costs (even eggs!) I knew that I cannot be wasteful and let any of these eggs go bad. Afterall, my chickens are working hard for me!
For my medium-sized freeze dryer, I found that 40-48 eggs is the perfect amount to fill the trays in my freeze dryer. This averages to be about a dozen eggs per tray. This will depend on the size of your eggs. You can freeze dry both farm fresh and store bought eggs as well. I recently did a vlog on freeze drying eggs and trying freeze dried eggs for the first time.
How do you freeze dry eggs?
First, start the process of the freeze dryer. It will need 15 minutes to cool the chamber, so during this time you can get the eggs prepped.
Crack all of the eggs into a lipped bowl for easy pouring. Whisk them together like you are making scrambled eggs then pour them into the four trays in the freeze dryer.
Press the continue button and let the freeze dryer do the rest!
How do you store food in mylar bags?
You will need mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. For me, one tray of freeze dried goods equates to one 8x12 mylar bag. Pour the contents of the tray into the bag, add the oxygen absorber, and seal it with a mylar bag sealer. It is that easy!
What foods can you store in mylar bags?
You can store a variety of foods in mylar bags to add to your pantry or long term food storage:
Beans, rice, granola, cocoa powder, crackers, yeast, and much more!
A Harvest Right Freeze Dryer is a great investment and addition to your food storage. I love the tasty results of freeze dried fruits and being able to transfer my frozen foods into long term storage!
