Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Crazy About Juicing

My success with making apple juice and grape juice with my new juicer left me wanting to make more. The flavours were really wonderful, and it is comforting to know that it is all organic fruit, and sugar, with no other colours or preservatives.

So last night, I rounded up my remaining apples (this time, from the espalier tree), along with the Pink Lady and other apples I had neglected in the bin at the bottom of the fridge (I usually end up making an apple crumble dessert to use them up), a number of my asian pears (reserving 2 ice cream buckets full in the fridge for fresh eating), and tossed them all into the juicer.

The process is almost magical. Fill the bottom part of the steamer with water, add fruit in the top strainer part (removing only cores or stems or anything which could make the juice bitter), close the lid and walk away:
Apples and Pears in the Nutristeamer Juicer
About an hour and a half later (only 1 hour for the grapes), the apples have visibly sunken down in the strainer:
Steam-juicing apples and pears
In the middle part of the steamer, there is a wonderful juice. You know it's there, since by that time, the whole house has a wonderful fruity aroma:
Juice in the steam juicer
I use my mom's method, which is to remove the juice (I don't bother to use the nice hose, I just pour it out of the container) into a separate pot, where I add sugar to taste, and turn up the heat so that it comes to a boil or near boil. Meanwhile, start sterilizing a jar or two in boiling water:
Preparing the juice and jars
The full juicer makes approximately 3 litres (3 quarts) of apple or pear juice (about 4 litres of grape juice):
Jars of apple/pear juice
After it's done, I push some of the mushy apples through a sieve, and make myself a bowl of warm applesauce before I toss the remainder out. For the grapes, all that is left is the skins - they are dry and can be dumped directly into the garbage.

The jars cool, and are put in the fridge the next day for enjoying.

I am really happy with my steam juicer, and would highly recommend the Back to Basics Nutri-Steamer Juicer/Cooker set. Not only is it a steam juicer, but you can remove the middle part, and use the top & bottom as a steamer set. Or just use the bottom pot with the lid. So it is a really good buy considering it is not only a very easy-to-use juicer but also a nice stainless steel steamer/cooker set, too. I was happy to find it at Cookware.com (CSN Stores), which not only had the best price I could find, but also was the only seller which shipped to Canada.

I only wish I had more fruits now to make into juices. I can't wait until next year.

6 comments:

tina said...

Good morning, I hope you are well. I was reading about your neck. Awful painful injury. Get well soon.

I love your juice and all the fruit you grow. I am just now waking up and can imagine waking to the smell of fresh apple juice. You described it so perfectly. Nothing says fall like fresh apples and the smell of them.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I can almost smell it through the computer. It looks so good!

Ruth Trowbridge said...

hello, a return visit here from my blog, i have never seen a juicer like this - making juice takes hours at my house i only do it with concords - your "hands on" approach will take you far, that is how it all starts - peace for all

Joyful said...

I'm not a juice maker myself but once my mom made tomato juice. It was years ago and I still remember how wonderful it was. I'm sure your children will have great memories of your juice as well.

Tootsie said...

welll there you go~~~ I'm glad I am not the only one who loves that CSN site!
please come often to enter!!!

Anonymous said...

Vegetable juice doesn't raise insulin levels like fruit juice. The only exceptions would be carrot and beet juice (and most vegetables that grow underground), which function similarly to fruit juice. Juicers

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