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Julie Owens
Hello,
I am a new student and looking forward to gleaning from the forum plus being able to share along the way.
Over the course of my herbal journey I have harvested and dried herbs for our family use. The past few months, I have wondered if freeze drying herbs has greater benefits than simply air drying. Is there any data or information that shows the nutritional benefits to freeze dried the plant nutrients? From my own study I have read claims that freeze dried foods have higher nutrition when compared to dehydrated foods, yet herbs seem so vulnerable to freeze. I’ve tested freeze drying green onions and they held up well, yet I would like to know more about the nutrients retained in herbs for use in tinctures, teas, salves etc.
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Dolores Knight
Julie, I too am waiting for a reply. Thank you
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Susan Bryg
Dolores – I know a Dolores Knight in Georgia. Might that be you?
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Karen
I have a freeze dryer and use it on garden produce. When you rehydrate the stuff it is very good, like fresh, and I think for most herbs it would work, but for some things, you need to heat them. Like Elderberry, has cynide, so you dont eat them raw, but juice them or bale them or dehydrate them. The heat deactivates the cynide I believe. Freeze drying, you dont have that. I grow elderberry on my land and make syrup for my elderly mom. I freeze dry them during harvest season because I am usually slammed with so much stuff, then when things slow down a bit, I rehydrate them and make stuff for mom that is cooked.Not sure what other herbs you may need to heat to utilize?
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Shelly Jones
Hi Iam, a new student. I really enjoyed this post I didn’t know this information about elderberry. I have been considering getting a Harvest Right machine. I have always purchased elderberry, so I didn’t know it had to be heated. Thanks for this post. Shelly Jones
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Hi Julie – I have dried herbs via a dehydrator, by hanging them to dry from the rafters in my attic and with my Harvest Right Freeze Dryer. Hands down, the FD is my preferred method. The process takes the herbs that have been placed on shelves into a vacuum chamber that freezes down to -40 degrees. That is the freezing part. Once, the temp gets that low, a vacuum pump kicks in and literally sucks all of the moisture out of the product. It may take a few days for things like soup that literally dries to be as hard as a brick, but herbs come out ‘crunchy.’ You can powder them and put them into capsules, store the uncrushed leaves in a mason jar and use as tea, etc. Only 1-2% of the medicinal/nutritional value is lost and, if properly stored, herbs/food, etc. preserved in that way have a 20 year or so shelf life.
I love my Freeze Dryer! If you want to know more about it, Kayleigh is an herbalist on the Honeystead YouTube channel that has a number of videos on herb preservation and her FD.
I
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Marla Loveless
Hello Julie,
I do know the claim by the company is that FD retains more nutrients that drying but I can’t confirm that. I can tell you my experience with drying herbs has been fantastic. One example is FD my lemon balm. It tastes exactly like fresh. I recently had a cup of lemon balm tea made with dried lemon balm rather than FD and it was a shock to the taste buds. It tasted nothing like lemon balm to me.
Also, FD basil is AMAZING!1 user thanked author for this post.
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Lisa Acker
Hello Julie,
I do know the claim by the company is that FD retains more nutrients that drying but I can’t confirm that. I can tell you my experience with drying herbs has been fantastic. One example is FD my lemon balm. It tastes exactly like fresh. I recently had a cup of lemon balm tea made with dried lemon balm rather than FD and it was a shock to the taste buds. It tasted nothing like lemon balm to me.
Also, FD basil is AMAZING!Julie,
I find it very interesting that you compared dried lemon balm to FD lemon Balm and found such a difference. I think that is a great idea. I think I will give that a try, comparing each herb, fresh, frozen, dried and FD. That would make it possible to make decisions on individual herbs rather that a blanked decision.
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Tammy Kidney
This year I freeze dried mint, raspberry leaves, and calendula. I was very happy with the results. The only problem I had was when the calendula came out, it was so pretty I didn’t want to crush it up. LOL! But I did and it makes a lovely addition to my husband’s favorite tea!
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Andrea
Hello, which brand of freeze dryer is best?
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Carolyn Wood
I’m a new student exploring the forum. I am going to get a freeze dryer this year and herbs and flowers for teas was something I was curious about. Thanks for sharing!
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Marsha
Has anyone freeze dried stinging nettle? I think I would I need to remove the leaves from the stems, they are fairly thick.
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LaVonne Murphy
Nettle leaves dry fairly fast by hanging them in a darkened area verses how much time it would take to freeze dry both the stem and the leaves. I would like to know the medicinal value of the stems verses the leaves.
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