Juicing
A while back, Pops got a juicer. We all just kind of rolled our eyes, but I was still pretty excited about it! And today I finally got to play with it.
We bought a 25 pound bag of carrots. I did NOT juice the whole thing, for one reason: the fridge and freezer are FULL. Full to bursting, I've rearranged it three times this week, I'm not doing it AGAIN for a bunch of extra juice. So, the carrots stay in whole form, where they don't need to be refrigerated yet.
I got 2 quarts of juice out of about 8 pounds of carrots. That was only 9 carrots! I mean, one of these carrots was as big around as my FOREARM. It was slow going; I kept having to turn it off to empty the cup. And then the pulp jar. And then I couldn't get the light back on for it to say it was ready to work again because some obscure piece wasn't seated like a pretty pretty princess. And with enough jiggling it finally decided it was ready, so I finished up the last two damn carrots-that-were-really-like-three-each.
If you've never tried raw carrot juice before, it has a satisfying sweetness to it, all on its own. Moreso than the pasteurized stuff you can buy at the store, even. I'm really looking forward to grabbing a bag of fresh-picked apples this fall and seeing what we get out of them. For that matter, maybe making some V-8-type stuff, throwing in some onions and peppers and carrots and tomatoes. And beets! Fresh orange juice? Yes please!
Let's look at cost:
25 lbs carrots = $7, or 28 cents per pound
1 quart juice = 4 lbs = $1.12
1 quart pasteurized juice from Safeway: $4.48
1 quart p. from Cash & Carry (wholesale price) = $3.28
Minimum savings: $2.16/quart, plus the usable pulp. Of course, this doesn't account for labor; these days we all have more time than money, but 2 quarts of juice only took me about 15 minutes after I got everything all set up, including struggling with the equipment.
Not too shabby!
Guess I have to figure out how to use this carrot pulp now. I put some in the rice and beans for dinner, and froze the rest into small baggies for smoothies and carrot muffins. Making V-8 stuff I could throw the pulp into spaghetti sauce, at least. Not sure what else to make!
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Do you have a juicer? What do you like to do with it? What do you do with the pulp that's left over?
We bought a 25 pound bag of carrots. I did NOT juice the whole thing, for one reason: the fridge and freezer are FULL. Full to bursting, I've rearranged it three times this week, I'm not doing it AGAIN for a bunch of extra juice. So, the carrots stay in whole form, where they don't need to be refrigerated yet.
I got 2 quarts of juice out of about 8 pounds of carrots. That was only 9 carrots! I mean, one of these carrots was as big around as my FOREARM. It was slow going; I kept having to turn it off to empty the cup. And then the pulp jar. And then I couldn't get the light back on for it to say it was ready to work again because some obscure piece wasn't seated like a pretty pretty princess. And with enough jiggling it finally decided it was ready, so I finished up the last two damn carrots-that-were-really-like-three-each.
If you've never tried raw carrot juice before, it has a satisfying sweetness to it, all on its own. Moreso than the pasteurized stuff you can buy at the store, even. I'm really looking forward to grabbing a bag of fresh-picked apples this fall and seeing what we get out of them. For that matter, maybe making some V-8-type stuff, throwing in some onions and peppers and carrots and tomatoes. And beets! Fresh orange juice? Yes please!
Let's look at cost:
25 lbs carrots = $7, or 28 cents per pound
1 quart juice = 4 lbs = $1.12
1 quart pasteurized juice from Safeway: $4.48
1 quart p. from Cash & Carry (wholesale price) = $3.28
Minimum savings: $2.16/quart, plus the usable pulp. Of course, this doesn't account for labor; these days we all have more time than money, but 2 quarts of juice only took me about 15 minutes after I got everything all set up, including struggling with the equipment.
Not too shabby!
Guess I have to figure out how to use this carrot pulp now. I put some in the rice and beans for dinner, and froze the rest into small baggies for smoothies and carrot muffins. Making V-8 stuff I could throw the pulp into spaghetti sauce, at least. Not sure what else to make!
-----------------
Do you have a juicer? What do you like to do with it? What do you do with the pulp that's left over?
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