When the timer goes off, the products then defrost before they are ready to be packaged and eaten. They spend anywhere from 6 to 12 hours in the machine depending on the product, gradually warming to about 150 degrees to sublimate all the liquid out as a gas.

When placed in the freeze-drying machines, the products inside get freezed down to about negative 20 degrees. We started making the meals, and then we just started throwing candy in there, and everybody loved it.” “It was mid-2020 and we decided we were going to buy one freeze-drying machine to make gluten-free backpacking meals because whenever my husband’s family go hiking, there's no food for them to take. “It all happened so fast and one thing led to another,” McMenimen explained. Tara McMenimen pulls out a fresh batch of freeze-dried caramel out of one of the 11 freeze-dryers at the new family business in Hughson, The Parched Goat (CHRISTOPHER CORREA/The Journal). It is the result of plenty of experimentation after freeze-drying fruits and other foods for her husband, Daniel’s, family, who has celiac disease, an immune reaction to eating gluten.

The Parched Goat has over 150 types of candies and flavors in store, including chocolate bars, donuts, cakes and other popular sweets. “I would say probably 20% of people still have never heard of freeze-dried candies, but even the people who have will constantly tell us that they haven’t seen anything like this before,” she explained. It’s an experience McMenimen wants to share with the community. Freeze-dried goods like fruits aren’t very uncommon, but candy is another thing.

Ze dried candy shop