Stems and All:
Part I
Part II
Part III

The man-cub moved in. And we merged assets, and did a lot of purging. A lot. More on that later.

One of the items that made it to the “use it or lose it” area of the kitchen was the Breville Die-Cast Juice Fountain Elite. From the outset, I was very opposed to the juicer.

“It’s huge, looks dangerous to clean, and seems wasteful since you only use the juice.” That was my argument. But, since it had made it to the “use it or lose it” pile, I was determined to see how often I would use it over the course of a month.

The next Saturday we went to the Farmers Market, and I bought some simple juice fixings: several bunches of bright colored carrots, celery stalks, beets – all with the stems still attached. Once home, I prepped and washed everything, setting aside the beet stalks and the carrot stalks.

Then I fired up the Breville. The juicer sounded like a small jet engine. Man-cub emerged from the bedroom, curious, and cat ran into basement, petrified.

THE JUICE:
Here’s the recipe and outcome of our first juicing experience.

Ingredients:
The quantities will vary a bit, depending on the size of the fruits and vegetables being used, as well as their liquid and juice content. Play around with different volumes, until you find a mix you like. Juice according to your juicers instructions.

– 5 – 10 carrots, green tops removed and reserved for later use (see Pesto recipe)
– 5 – 10 celery stalks including the leaves
– 1 small beet, stalks removed and reserved

1.) Add the carrots and celery, including all stalks, to the juicer
2.) Out one side comes juice, out other side comes carrot and celery pulp
3.) At this point, stop juicing, and set aside the carrot and celery pulp; Reserve or freeze for later use (see Soup Stock recipe)
4.) Continue with juicing the small beet

The end result was super tasty juice, and a great first experience with this heavy appliance. Would I run out and buy a juicer, based on this experience? Probably not. But given that we had it, I decided to make continued use of it.

TIPS:
– Be creative! We’ve come up with all sorts of juices since starting to juice, ranging from earthy to sweet, and gingery to spicy.
– Rinse or wash your juicer parts right away – this will avoid having to spend much longer on cleaning the juicer and the machine parts when the pulp begins to dry.