09/04/2026
Meet Hermie!
He's one of our star employees around the homestead and is responsible for the hardest part of the job to bring you the freeze dried goodies you'll find in our products...
Each food that we freeze dry is prepped and loaded onto parchment lined trays, then goes into the freeze dryer once the chamber is cooled. It then goes through a sequence of cycles - freezing, vacuum freezing, and then drying. After the drying cycle it gives the option to add extra dry time which it often needs to achieve that snappy texture where all the moisture is gone. Depending on the moisture content and how full the trays are, foods typically take from 20 - 30 hours of dry time. The food is then weighed and packaged into window bags, sealed and labeled to be ready to sell. Hermie puts off a lot of heat as he does his job and it's noticeable the temperature difference in the "office". After each round of freeze drying, a lot of ice builds up in the chamber from the moisture of the food, so in most cases it needs to be defrosted before another load can be processed.
