We have been freeze drying almost nonstop. Some of it for us and snacks for the girls, some for the shop! We had a soft launch of CryoPantry a week and a half ago at a market. It went far better than we expected. We have built the shop page and Facebook page and are officially up and running!
All the Freeze Drying
After we got the part to fix the issue we were having and got the trial run complete we started freeze drying everything. Our first few runs were for snacks for the girls. We did Strawberries, Peaches, Apples, Pineapple, and Mixed Berries. Then we decided to do a trial run of things just to try and see how they came out. We tried green beans, broccoli, lemons, ice cream, pickles, cucumber, gummy bears, Skittles, and Nerd Clusters. We quickly learned that gummy bears make quite the mess. We found that the green beans and broccoli were fantastic and may be our new favorite way to eat them. Alysha loves all things lemon but the freeze dried lemons were not a hit for her. They did end up being a great addition to yogurt dots.
Some Fails Along the Way
We have tried a few things that didn't work out so well and a few that didn't work at all. We learned Hot Tamales and jelly beans don't freeze dry. We learned certain candies have to "get special treatment" before going into the freeze dryer. Starburst, Bit O Honey, Red Hots.. they do much better if they are pre warmed in the oven first. We also learned that certain gummies like watermelon rings don't turn out so well! That was by far the biggest mess to clean up. Jolly Ranchers get HUGE and do much better if they are cut ahead of time and covered with parchment paper.
Favorites
Mitchell's favorites have been broccoli and cookies n cream ice cream. Alysha's favorite has been the lemon vanilla honey yogurt dots, seasoned green beans, wild berry skittles and lemon heads. All 3 girls are fans of the fruits but yogurt dots have definitely been the favorite.
At the market, we were surprised that ice cream sandwiches ended up being the most popular. Jolly Ranchers, Bit O Honey and Skittles were other top favorites.
Shop
While we are still tweaking things here and there and will be adding things, the shop page is up and running! We are excited and a little nervous getting this new venture up and running. We would love for you to check it out! We are also up for suggestions on new things to freeze dry. Feel free to let us know what you would be interested in trying in the comments!
More soon!
--The Spauldings
Comments