Fresh Veggie & Fruit Juices

About a month ago, my daughter let me know that a neighbor of hers was going to make fresh veggie/fruit juices in the morning and we could purchase a mason jar (16 oz.) for $5.00. A great deal. Freshly made. Cute jar. Almost a drive thru pick up. We did this for about 2 weeks until I started thinking, hey, I could do this myself. We have a Champion Juicer, after all. Commercial model. We bought it YEARS ago and we were actually selling them to people who wanted to make their own poi. We called them poi machines.

So off to the market I went to buy a variety of veggies. We started a couple of weeks ago. There is no recipe. In the beginning we were putting in a lot of green apples (bought a big bag at Cost-U-Less) and carrots because I knew this would make the "green" juice sweet and I was, to say the least, not a big fan of any green colored juice, thinking in my mind about shots of wheatgrass I had seen at Jamba Juice. Gross looking. I also added beets in the beginning so that my "green" juice would be a beautiful red and I knew beets were sweet, too.  I've since evolved. Today's juice is DEFINITELY green and I only used one green apple.

This is all the veggies/fruits we added

 Wanna name those goodies before I actually tell you?

We had beet greens (but no beets, kale, cucumber (2), one green apple, and several carrots (small ones, unpeeled).

We washed them in the new strainer I bought in SF (Yup. Thank you, Crate and Barrel. I packed that big beauty in my suitcase and it has been my favorite kitchen accessory as of late) and then commenced with the juicing.

In goes greens

 The Champion Juicer doesn't take all that well to the greens part. It loves harder things like carrots and beets and apples. But I go ahead and add some greens and then alternate with a carrot or some apple slices to push the greens through.

pulp

 I am surprised by how dry the pulp is. That juicer really takes ALL the liquid out of the veggies.

Action shot

I save all the pulp for the compost pile. I know the worms are going to love it because it's already chewed up for them!

Just short of 4 cups

 Okay, there is a lot of scum that floats on the top when you make your juice. I'm not sure why. I think I read somewhere that those are impurities. I don't know, but I still skim it off with a strainer I have and dump it down the sink. This is what I'm left with--pure nutritional goodness.

No longer filled with iced coffee. I am all about healthy living.

Add straw and enjoy

When my husband took his first sip, I asked him what he thought. He said, in this order, "Potent. Green. VERY GOOD."

I think my main point would be to 1) buy a good juicer if you don't already have one. I think it's a good investment. I particularly like the Champion Juicer (and my friend got on on Craigslist for half the price just recently) because it doubles as my poi/kulolo maker. If I were Puerto Rican I know I'd be using it for pasteles (not that only Puerto Ricans make pasteles but you get my point, right?). And an added bonus is the WONDRFUL "ice cream" it makes just using bananas. Or pineapples. I can't wait for mango season. And 2) Don't be afraid to experiment. Tomorrow's juice will have parsley, mint and lemon. Some pepper sounds like it would go well, don't you think?

Enjoy.