Cleaning Your Juicer

This post probably could've been combined with my most recent one, but I decided to give the topic of cleaning juicers its own section because it's something that has been inquired about. Also, I'm sure that if many people were to say what the most frustrating thing about juicing is for them, then I'm guessing a pretty common response would be "cleaning the juicer." This is understandable. We've already been through the process of acquiring, prepping, and juicing our fruits and vegetables. Now we have a delicious, healthy, big glass of nutrients to drink, and there's nothing we'd rather do than sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of our labor, literally. There's just one thing, that big, dirty, juicer sitting in the kitchen staring back at us.

Much like the title of my last post, cleaning a juicer, takes some effort. The good thing is that a few tips can save a little time and make the cleaning process a little bit easier. All juicers are different, so the specific cleaning steps might vary some, depending on the juicer, but the basics are the same. I decided to do a little searching on the subject before writing the post, just to make sure there weren't any gems that I didn't already know about. I came across a video on cleaning a juicer, and was surprised to see that the juicer in the video appears to be the same juicer that I own. So, I figured instead of telling you my step by step guide to cleaning a juicer, I could just show you the video instead.

One thing I saw in the video that I haven't been doing was using a small pipe-cleaning brush to clean the pour spout on my juicer. I'll definitely start doing this because this is one area that I've noticed a bit of a build-up occurring.

I have just a couple of tips that the video doesn't mention: It's best to clean the juicer shortly after using it. I've made the mistake several times of waiting too long after making my juices to clean my juicer, and it's something I've always regretted, because it doesn't clean up near as easily. Another thing I usually do is put a plastic bag in the area that catches the pulp. That area is easy to clean, but it's even easier to simply take out the bag full of pulp and discard it without washing a thing (other than the rest of the machine.)

Here's the link to the video about cleaning a juicer. Unfortunately there's a 30 second ad that you're subjected to watching beforehand (man, I hate those things.)

Juicing Takes Effort

Like other household appliances, juicers can oftentimes be tucked away in cabinets and other hidden places, rarely seeing the light of day, forgotten, eventually put back in its box and into an attic or other storage place, waiting for the next garage sale or swap meet.

There's some good reason for this. Juicing can be a bit of work. You have to buy fruits and veggies (which are more expensive than many processed convenience foods,) clean them (some people go to great lengths to ensure their veggies are cleaned,) prep the fruits and veggies (cut off bad parts, peel some of them, take cores out of some, dice into manageable pieces depending on your juicer, etc.,) juice them (finally,) and then you have to clean the friggin' thing. That seems like an awful lot of work just to get some healthy fluids in your life. 

These are some of the reasons that I've gone days, weeks, even months on end without juicing. It's funny how much a person's opinion on the ease, or difficulty, of juicing can vary from one individual to another. I either hear some juice enthusiast talk about how easy it is and how it only takes a couple of minutes out of a persons day, or I hear someone who's new to juicing talk about it like it's the most difficult, frustrating part of their day. Really? My thoughts about it tend to be right in the middle. Juicing isn't really easy, and it isn't really hard, it's just, a process. A process that takes a little time, thought, and effort, much like many other activities in our lives. 

Excuse me here for getting a little deep and turning something like juicing into some sort of life lesson, but my best advice is to think positively about the whole situation and experience. If there's one thing I notice about myself it's that a certain mindset or way of thinking can make a big difference as to how I perceive something. The difference between a pleasing juicing experience and a stressful one is often something as small as our current frame of mind. Listen to your favorite music (for some reason I really like Bob Marley when I juice,) do it when nobody else is around, think about the positive effects it will have on your health, just do whatever you have to do to and think however you need to think to make the experience as positive as possible. 

Juicing Remedies

Today I wanted to briefly talk about a book that I own about Juicing. This book is called, "Juice Alive: The Ultimate Guide to Juicing Remedies," and it was written by Steven Bailey, ND, and Larry Trivieri, Jr. I received this book as a bonus when I bought my juicer online.

This book has two different parts. Part one has lots of useful information about many juicing related topics, including the benefits of juicing, the history of juicing, how to juice, nutrition, juicing and beauty, different kinds of juicers, it even has a chapter that talks about smoothies and tonics.

Part two is dedicated to juice recipes for health disorders AKA juicing remedies. The different health disorders include everything from AIDS and alcoholism, to varicose veins and yeast infections, and everything in between. For each disorder there is a recipe listed, as well as information about these health disorders. It's actually quite interesting. If there's a health disorder that you or a family member suffer from, then chances are there's a remedy in this book. Please feel free to comment with any health disorder you might be curious about finding a juicing remedy for, even if it's only out of curiosity. Then I'll be able to include the recipe and information given on one of my future blog posts.

Fresh Juice vs. The Store Bought Stuff

Every now and then I talk to people about the juices that I make and consume. Most people have heard about making fresh fruit and vegetable juices themselves, but there are many others who haven't. If I mention that I just consumed a fresh vegetable juice a pretty common response is, "you mean like a V8 juice?"

Even the ones who are familiar with juicers and the practice of juicing oftentimes have misconstrued ideas about these juices. Many wonder why someone would go through all the trouble of preparing a juice themselves, when they could grab a bottled juice out of any cooler in a gas station or supermarket and consume it without having to clean up or prepare a thing. 

Some people might see a movie like "Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead," and then decide that juicing, or a juice fast is something they'd like to do. Many of them don't realize that juicing requires a little effort, and once they find out that cleaning a juicer can be a pain in the ass, they often wonder what other, easier options they have. A common question that often arises is, "what store bought juices can I consume instead of making my own juice with a juicer to achieve the same outcome?" Anytime someone asks a question like that they are surely going to be disappointed with the response, because there is no substitution for juice that is extracted out of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

I'm definitely not an expert on the subject, so I decided to share a blog entry that I read awhile back on the topic that can explain some of the (major) differences between fresh juice made with a juicer and the stuff bottled up on store shelves. Just click on the link below to read the brief article on the subject. 

Fresh Juice vs. The Store Bought Stuff

Storing Your Juice

Hello all. Sorry I haven't been more active with this blog. Life has been hectic on many fronts and I'm just now getting back into a groove. Expect a lot more activity out of this blog in the near future.

Anyways, let's get back to business. In my last post I mentioned that I'd talk about storing fresh made juice to consume later. Typically, it's best to consume the juice right away, most experts agree that within the first twenty minutes is ideal. After that time period the juices begin to lose many of their vital nutrients that make these fresh juices so healthy.

That's fine and all, but juicing can be a little time consuming, and many people can't drop everything to make every batch of juice right before they want to consume it. So, what I and many others do is make our juices in big batches two or three times a week instead of every single day. Doing this allows us to consume our juice whenever we want to, and most people would never make it through something like a juice fast without doing this. Granted, we know that these juices aren't optimal in terms of nutrients, but I'm going to mention a few ways to ensure that these stored juices can be as good for us as possible.

The two main things that deteriorate juices are light and air, so to store our juices we want to eliminate both as much as possible. If you plan on storing your juices then the first thing you need to do is purchase some air-tight containers. Mason jars work great, and I prefer the wide-mouth kind because they're easier to wash. Since air is something we want to eliminate as much as possible it's best to fill these mason jars all the way to the top. I also own various sizes of mason jars so that i can put smaller juice batches in smaller jars, still filling them to the top. If you wanted to take this one step further then you could even vacuum seal your juices. I put the juices in the refrigerator as soon as possible, and they stay there until I'm ready to consume them. This way the juices aren't exposed to much light (only when the fridge is opened.)

Juicers vary in terms of how long the juice made by them can last for. Low RPM juicers usually tend to make juice that can be stored longer than higher RPM juicers. As a general rule, I don't let juices sit longer than 48 hours before consuming them, and as always, the sooner the better. Another helpful tip is to add an extra lemon to your juices. The citric acid from the lemon juice helps preserve everything else. One other option that I don't necessarily recommend is freezing your juices. It can be done, but that doesn't mean it really should be. However, if you made a lot of fruit juice, then it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to pour some of it in some ice-cube trays. This can be a sweet treat that many kids will love, and still much better for them than the processed, store-bought popsicles. Anyways, I hope this helps those with hectic schedules. Juice on.

Become a Mad Scientist

Halloween just passed and that gave me an idea for this post. I didn't partake in any Halloween costume contests, or anything fun at all, I had the pleasure of working instead, but I did become a mad scientist tonight after work. I decided I needed to make a lot of juice, because produce has been sitting in the fridge and I needed to use it all before it went bad. So tonight I made a several batches of juice and used all of my produce. Then I stored it so that I can consume it all in the next day or two (storing juices will be the focus of my next post.)

Recently a lot of my posts have focused on juicing recipes, which are great, but tonight I wanted to use what I had and not worry about following a recipe. I was the mad scientist and the guinea pig, all at the same time. I just juiced what I had, and then I crossed my fingers and hoped it didn't taste awful. Well, it was actually pretty good. So now I have a couple extra batches of juice to drink whenever I want in the next day or two and I don't have to worry about all that produce I bought going to waste. It's a win win. 

So, don't be afraid to change up a recipe a bit or completely wing-it. Did you think the Mean Green was ok, but had a strong celery taste? If so, then try making it next time with less celery, or ginger, or whatever you think it is that you aren't a fan of. There isn't really a right or wrong way to go about making your own juice concoction, just use knowledge of what has worked in the past and don't be afraid to add your own little twist. I will advise you to not get too crazy with the fruit, there was one time I was being a mad scientist and was throwing in just about every kind of fruit I could think of. That backfired, the juice was waaaaay too sweet and it upset my stomach pretty badly. 

The whole point of this post is to encourage others to have fun with juicing, don't be afraid to try something new, you never know, you might end up with your favorite juice yet by doing a little experimenting. 

Lou Corona's Lemon Ginger Blast

In my most recent post I talked about a few of the YouTube channels that I often turn to whether I have questions about juicing, or just want a new recipe. I have one of these channels to thank for my latest (and most courageous) juice recipe that I recently made. This recipe comes courtesy of Dan The Man McDonald's Liferegenerator YouTube account. Actually, this recipe is something Lou Corona introduced to DTM. I don't know a whole lot about this Lou Corona fellow, but I do know that he's someone that DTM highly regards, and he's served as somewhat of a mentor to DTM. I also know that he's been eating a clean, living, raw food diet for almost forty years, and, although he is 60 years old, he looks like he's in his thirties, and from other videos I've seen, he looks to be in better shape than most 21 year olds. Anyways, I'll go ahead and introduce the recipe for Lou Corona's Lemon Ginger Blast, as well as the video of it that I came across (this is one of DTM's most popular videos and it has over 100,000 views on YouTube.)

Lemon Ginger Blast

• 2 apples
• 1-3 inch piece of ginger
• 1 lemon (peel it if it isn't organic)
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 bunch parsley
• 1 bunch arugula
• 3 habaneros
• 1 cucumber

Although this is the recipe stated underneath the video, I decided to make a few minor changes of my own. First, thanks to previous juicing experience I know that parsley and cilantro can be very strong so I decided to cut it back to about half a bunch of each. Arugula is something I've never juiced but I know that it has a strong, peppery taste, and the only arugula I could find was the packaged stuff so I used one large handful of baby arugula. I kept everything else the same, except for the habaneros. The recipe states that three should be used, but luckily I read some of the comments first and decided it would be best to start with just one. I'm sure glad I did because that juice was spicy! And I like spicy foods. I think I had the same reaction that Lou had after his first gulp around the 8:15 mark.

My guess is that it would probably be spicy even without the habanero. If you don't tolerate the heat very well then I'd start off with a milder pepper (jalapeno for example,) or maybe only a piece of one and build your way up. If it isn't hot enough then you can always add more, but you can't take any out. I also think that there's normally celery in the juice as well, because I heard Lou mention that in the video, but the recipe doesn't say anything about it (I think DTM forgot and left it out,) so next time I make this I'll throw some celery in as well.