Juicing

So I ordered this Wednesday night and I got Friday afternoon.  Let's just say Amazon Prime is amazing.  I highly recommend it.  I bet you can't tell what it is by looking at the box!

Look at that packaging!  There is no wasted space.  I wonder how many trees they could save if they made custom packaging for each box . . . probably a lot.

Hey look it's a juicer!  You throw the fruit or veggies in and it spins all the water out.  Pretty cool I think.  This one got good reviews on Amazon so I decided to try it out.

I should probably take a picture of how it was packaged so I can repackage it later when I move.

All the packaging.

All the parts and pieces.  All I wanted to do was jump right in and start using it!  But noooooo I had to wash the stupid thing.  Ugh I hate washing dishes.

All washed and pretty :)

Now to assemble.  First put the juice catcher thingy on the base.

Then put the mesh bowl strainer thingy in the middle of the juice catcher thingy (I'm so technical aren't I!)

Careful this mesh bowl has really sharp blades on the bottom.

Then put the lid on.

Now lift the metal handle that locks the lid in place.  You do have to use a decent amount of force to lift the handle and push it into place, but don't worry you won't break the thing.  This will keep the top of the contraption from flying off when you're using the juicer.  There is definitely enough air going on in there to push the lid off if you don't lock it.

 

This is the plunger that helps press the food down the tube.  Don't press too hard but do apply pressure.
 

Now here, here is the reason I got the juicer.  See this bag that we got when mom was buying clothes to take on her and Dad's Canada vacation?  This bag is chock full of . . .

Veggies!  Green leafy veggies.  We have a TON.  We get veggies from the CSA (community supported agriculture.  You pay a certain amount at the beginning of the season and every week you get fresh veggies) every week and we can normally find ways to eat the egg plant and the green beans and the tomatoes, but the green leafy collards and kale and chard always stump me.  It's not like you can make a salad out of them. Anyway we have a lot of them just sitting there and instead of letting them go to waste I wanted to use them up.  So I got a juicer to juice them.

Here's what I tried for my first juice concoction.  Swiss chard and apple.  I thought I might need some lime juice but I decided against it.  So disregard the lime in the picture.  Thank you.

It says you can leave the apples whole and just cute them small enough to fit in the chute, but I cut the hard part with the seeds out first.  Mainly I was worried that the hard seeds would harm the blade, but Sarah also told me a story a while ago where a woman put a ton of apple seeds in a pie for her husband and he died of arsenic poisoning.  I doubt this is true (who would want to eat a crunchy apple pie for goodness sake) but if in the off chance there is arsenic in apple seeds I don't want it anywhere near my juice!

  

First turn the juicer on.  While is running feed the tube into the chute.  Once the piece of fruit is finished it will go pop and the pieces will be blown over the side from the juicing part to the pulp part.  This caught me off guard the first time and I thought I had done something wrong but no it just goes "poof" no more apple!  You can put more than one piece in the chute at once.  Also when juicing greens juice them with something else that has a lot of juice like a fruit.  You'll get more juice out of the greens that way.  Also bunch the greens up.

This is the de-juiced pulp that is left over.  Great for the composter.

This is my juice!  It has the apple juice on the bottom, the chard juice in the middle and the foam on the top.  I don't know why juicing makes foam but I just spoon it off as much as I can.

Give it a good mix and there is your juice!  It was ok, definitely earthy.  The apple made it sweet.  I gave some to Becca and she freaked out and hated it but then again it's Rebecca.  So I'm not a hard core juicer eating only greens and ginger and such yet.  Maybe I will be when I move out and am living by myself.  For right now I think I'll stick to the sweet fruits and veggies (like apples and carrots) and only put a few greens in.  I'm also excited to try the common juices like lemonade and orange juice.  I juiced some apples today and made REALLY good fresh apple juice.  It was so sweet and I added no sugar (Rebecca actually liked it).  So this was my first foray into juicing!  Lots more juices to try!

**I also wanted to mention that I used organic swiss chard from the CSA grown locally in Virginia and organic apples that I washed.  If I ever use un-organic apples I would probably peel them and I'm pretty hesitant to use greens that weren't grown locally.  Both those fruits and anything else on the dirty dozen list carries the risk of pesticides and salmonella and listeria.  Since I'm eating this juice raw and it hasn't been pasteurized or cooked the risk it higher.  So wash your veggies no matter what and buy organic!**