Buying the best produce.
Buying quality produce for juicing is very important. You don’t want to be juicing vegetables containing toxins and pesticides that are used in commercial grown fruits and vegetables.
Farmers markets are the best way to stock up on fresh local veggies! There are lots of markets in Vancouver and a few that run all year round. Check out http://www.eatlocal.org/ to find out which markets are closest to you! By supporting local and organic farms you’re using your purchasing power to not only better your community but also benefit your health.
Storing your produce.
To make your fruits and vegetable last longer, we have a few tips for keeping them fresh!
Note: Make sure you only buy what you need for your juice.
• Do not store your fruits and vegetables together.
• Remove the elastics and ties from your greens before putting them in the fridge.
• Beets, yams, and ginger do not need to be refrigerated.
• Remove rotten produce before you put anything in the fridge. One bad apple rots the whole bunch!
• Try not to overload your crisping drawer, the closer together everything is the quicker it will rot.
Washing your produce.
When washing your vegetables at home stick to the basics. All you need is white vinegar and baking soda. We use half the amount of vinegar as water and add a spoon full of baking soda to fill our sink. (Surprisingly the vinegar does not change the flavour of your juice!)
Let your produce soak for at least two minutes. A great investment that will go along way is a quality vegetable brush; we got ours at West Elm. It should definitely be used on Apples and Beets. Although Apples at your local grocery store look fresh, they can be up to nine months old. You may need to squeeze some lemon juice on your brush to scrub off this wax finish.
For leafy greens such as Kale, we also spray the leaves with the vinegar baking soda mixture and then run our hands over the entire leaf to make sure we don’t miss any dirt. Rinse everything thoroughly, trim any rotten bits off and then you will produce that is ready for juicing!
Peeling and Chopping.
Here is a list of commonly juiced fruits and vegetables that need to be peeled:
• Oranges
• Lemons & Limes
• Melons
• Ginger
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We suggest using ceramic knives as they cause less oxidation to the produce.
The last step is to enjoy your delicious juice!
