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May 5, 2010

Juicing 101

hopefully it will be up soon!  stay tuned!

I started 2010 with a resolution to juice more and have been pretty good at keeping my resolution thus far! I finally got my act together and compiled a little juicing tutorial for you. You asked for it and here it is!

This is my juicer. It’s an Omega 1000 Centrifugal Force Juice Extractor

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Which means it’s extra tough at getting fruits and vegetables to surrender every last bit of juice they have left in them. It is said to extract 20-30% more juice than most juice extractors. I totally believe it. It’s a totally solid machine. It’s beyond legit.

It’s got a few parts. Here they all are! They easily fit together. It’s no big deal.

juicing!

There’s a little blade that grinds up the fruits & veggies. The motor makes it go around super fast!

blades of glory

How does it work?  In a nutshell, all of the ground fruit/veg pulp gets pushed to the sides of the basket/strainer. Everything that’s sticking to the sides of the juicer goes through a mesh strainer and then comes out the spout at the bottom. Sounds confusing? Imagine the amusement ride THE GRAVITRON–except there’s a blade on the bottom of the ride and everything that gets ground up goes right to the sides and then out the front of the machine. That’s kind of gory huh? Think of fruit, not people.

Let me show you how I make a juice!

I put the pieces of the juicer together.

putting it together

Then I grab a paper filter to line the strainer inside the juicer. You MUST use a paper filter whenever you juice with this juicer.

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It is essential for an easy cleanup. I used the juicer without a filter once and paid the price. It’s beyond TOUGH because the pulpy bits get stuck in the strainer part. You’ll see!

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I gather the fruits & veggies that I want to juice and put a dish towel under my juicer to help avoid a messy sticky counter top. I “try” to wear an apron because I ruined a shirt with beet juice once. I’ve dyed a few shirts that I ruined with juice! Here’s a little tutorial on how to dye clothes if you make that mistake!

I put a jar/cup under the juicer and get ready to juice my stuff. I assemble the top part of the juicer and I plug the juicer in only when I am absolutely ready. Now it’s time to fire it up!

This juice is a carrot/ginger & orange juice.

I peeled the orange here because my juicer can’t handle the peel. There’s really no juice in the peel and it will throw the juicer off balance; forcing it to do a crazy dance on the kitchen counter. This is equally fun to watch as it is frightening. There’s an attachment you can buy for the juicer that solely juices citrus, but I find that peeling the orange/lemon/lime is pretty simple and I don’t have a place to store that extra part.

getting ready to juice

It’s good to have another cup handy in case your fruits & veggies produce more fruit than anticipated! It’s fun to taste the juices independently and blend your finally juice so that’s why I always have a few cups hanging around.

I usually pick the pulpiest/hardest fruit and vegetable to juice first. I like to get it out of the way so everything else juices easily. It’s also good to alternate between thick and light items. For example- I’ll juice a beet (which is on the thicker side) and then juice something super watery like celery. The celery will help push out more beet juice from the filter. Sometimes the filter gets soo thick with pulp and juice doesn’t extract at the force it should. If I see this happening, I usually stop the juicer and clean out the pulp/filter and put a in a new filter. I also pay close attention to the sound and feel of the vibrations of the machine. At this point in my juicing career, I can anticipate when the juicer is about to get overwhelmed with what I’ve put in. Sometimes the machine gets overwhelmed and just STOPS all of a sudden. There’s a cool RESET button on the bottom of this machine that magically makes it start again. Thank god for that.

You have to be careful of your fingers. The juicer doesn’t discriminate between flesh and fruit. Actually, it’s a pretty safe machine if you follow the directions. I just have a very unhealthy fear of things like garbage disposals so that’s why I am extra careful/paranoid. It’s good to stand back and do the juicing at arms length. You wouldn’t want any hair or necklaces to get caught in there.

carrots, not fingers

The plunger will help push down whatever you have to juice.

taking the plunge

Watching the juice shoot out is quite fun!

out it comes!

In this case, I started juicing the carrots first with a few oranges then the ginger and finished it off with the last few pieces oranges.

After juicing a bunch of items, your filter will look like this. See that thick pulp inside the juicer?! WHOA!

pulped up filter

Here’s a filter that’s been FILLED with pulp.

pulp!

And here’s the blade. It’s got some ginger shrapnel on it. It’s such a bad ass.

the used blade

Here’s the juice that I just whipped up for you and the pulp that goes with it!

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This orange, carrot and ginger combo would be a good pulp to put in a carrot bread! If you made an all veggie juice, use the leftovers to make a nice vegetable stock! Or toss it in your composter!

After I’m done juicing for the day, I immediately fill up a large bowl with soapy water in my kitchen sink. I toss the parts in and let them soak for a bit. The cleanup is pretty easy this way.

washing it up

I should mention that juicing is SUPER fun. Once you get started, you’ll binge on juice for awhile. You might scour your kitchen to find possible juicing items! BTW-you can’t juice a banana. Don’t go there.  I hope you enjoyed the tutorial. Got any questions? Let me know!

Here’s a few of my past recipes to get you started!

  • Tamille

    Thank You. Thank You. Thank You for all these recipes in one place!! I just bought a juicer and needed some inspiration.

  • stacy

    thank you so much for this! I’ve been meaning to bust out my old juicer for a while! This will get me going….

  • joy the baker

    amazing post. the last few sentences were key for me… cause i would TOTALLY try juicing a banana. yea… i would.

  • Eileen

    I bought this same juicer because I saw it on your site. No I’m not that impulsive, but after researching for awhile I got overwhelmed and just clicked back to one of your posts and said…. looks like it works… good enough 🙂

    • Tracy

      You won’t be disappointed Eileen! It took me a long time to make my decision and I’m really glad I picked this one! Let me know how you like it!

  • Linn @ Swedish home cooking

    I just moved out out the house that I shared with a friend who made juice for me every day. I guess I’ll have to learn how to do i myself cause I can’t be without it know! Thanks for good instructions.

  • Nisrine@Dinners & Dreams

    wHAT A GREAT POST-DIFFERENT! I juice fruits and veggies for detox occasionally. Love it!!

  • Tonya @ What's On My Plate

    Great post! I just did a post on juicing too. I had a juicer similar to yours (an Acme) but it went berserk on me so I replaced it with a Breville and am in LOVE!

    http://whatsonmyplate.net/2010/05/06/what-i-bought-breville-juice-fountain-plus-je95xl/

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  • Running Bear75

    Great post thank you Tracy! I can’t wait to get started.

  • Andrea J

    Great Post!!! I have been curious about juicing for some time. How long is the juice good for after you make it? did you ever freeze the juice that you made? Also, does Cooper like it? I would love for my 3 year old to try this. Might be the only way to get some prime nutrients inside her:-) this week i am going to try your Kale chips on her. wish me luck!

  • Trysha

    We just started juicing back in September. I love it! I’m actually drinking a beet, carrot, kale, ginger and apple juice right now.
    I always feel yucky if I skip a day of juicing. I’m very impressionable. lol I haven’t gone on a full juice cleanse but I’ll juice for one of my meals daily.
    Right now I’m under the weather so I’m hoping my power-packed juice will help knock my germs out.

  • daisybabie

    i received a juicer for christmas this year, and in my search for juicer recipes and process, google landed me here. i’m home. you’ve covered all of my questions and with awesomely awesome pics to go along with the description. i have a much cheaper juicer, but as a novice, i am happy to be able to start juicing at this level and possibly build up to an omega. thank you shutterbean goddess!

  • Megan

    I just got a juicer over christmas, and am dreaming up recipes to use the pulp with. Have you got any?

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  • paige

    Hey, I have a juicer (hamilton beach big mouth) and I have really enjoyed it except the juice is so thick. Is there a way to decrease the thickness. I am doing mostly fruit (with occasional veggies) and it is so thick and frothy. What can I do to help that!! Thanks

    • Tracy

      fruits are naturally thicker than vegetables. If you don’t like how thick it is, I suggest straining it or thinning it out with water!

  • Keith Walsh

    Hi, awesome article. Last week I brought my Omega 1000 out of the cupboard after literally 28 years. It worked marvelously a few times. Then today even when spinning clean it rotates radically to the right and it’s unusuable. I thought I smelled some grease or petroleum smell just before that. I was making tomato juice….had to finish that in a blender.
    Pretty disappointed…. do you know if there’s a mechanism besides what’s visible that can get out of whack? Thanks!

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