Earth and Body Friendly

There’s no denying that drinking fresh juice is good for you. And it’s big business. Just look at the many fresh juice shops opening up in shopping centres all over the place. But it’s not cheap to buy fresh juice. That said, it’s not even all that much cheaper to make your own if you’re using quality fruit and vegetables, but at least when you make your own, you know exactly what’s in it, and you have a better idea of the origin of your fresh juice.

Bottled juice doesn’t have much health left in it

Just look at the list of ingredients on almost any bottled juice to see that there’s far more than just juice in there. When making your own juice, you don’t need to add anything to extend the life of it to allow it to be shipped across the country or the world. And there’s no need to fortify it with added vitamins; they’re all still in there since it’s hasn’t been pasteurised to death. It’s fairly common knowlege that bottled juice has a high (even if it’s naturally high) sugar content, but with your own fresh juice, the still-present nutrients and enzymes balance out the natural sugars and add quite a measure of health.

Make your own juice

I recently bought myself the Compact multi purpose juicer and mincer. It’s a a good quality, low speed juicer (75-80 rpm) that uses a crushing action rather than a high speed spinning action (7,000-10,000 rpm). The makers of this juicer claim that the lower speed causes less heat, thus more of the natural enzymes in the juice are retained and the juice is healthier. The juice can be kept for longer, too. Fresh juice made with the high speed process needs to be consumed right away, whereas juice made at a lower speed will keep for up to 48 hours.

Ten machines in one

This juicer has more than one function. As well as extracting juice, it can make a great variety of foods including pasta, mince meat (especially good for making sausages if you so choose), and frozen desserts. As I’m not much of a cook, I haven’t ventured to make pasta or minced meat—although I would like to try mincing meat soon—but I have made some frozen desserts. This is done very easily by freezing cut up pieces of a solid type fruit such as banana, rockmelon, watermelon, etc, and then feeding it through the machine using the homogenising cone. This mashes the fruit into a smooth consistency leaving you with a dessert that is like sorbet or ice cream, but which contains nothing but real fruit.

When in action, the pulp, or the processed food, is extruded out the end of the machine in a manner that can be either quite disconcerting or amusing, depending on your level of maturity or your sense of humour.

The juicing or homogenising nozzles are set to number 1, 2, or 3 depending on what is being fed through the machine. The instruction book tells you which setting is best for what type of food you’re processing. It seems to control how tightly the contents are squeezed through the various cones. They fit quite snugly and it I’ve found it a little difficult to remove these nozzles when disassembling the parts for cleaning, since my hands are already either slimy from cutting up the fruit or vegetables, or wet from washing the stickiness off them! My solution has been to use one of those rubbery mesh things designed to give you a better grip when removing tight lids from jars.

Easy to use, easy to clean

The machine is supplied with a scrubbing brush that looks kind of like a very large toothbrush, sized to fit into the small pieces of the machine to clean it once you’ve finished your food processing. Mine has become scraggly quite quickly (just like an over used toothbrush) and I wondered to myself if I’ll be able to get a replacement brush one day if its bristles become too wild. I’ve found the machine easy enough (aside from the tight nozzles) to disassemble for cleaning. I’ve been using just water to clean the components, but then I’ve only put fruit and vegetables through it so far. The scrubbing brush, along with some soap, will definitely be useful for cleaning in the little nooks and crannies when processing oily foods such as coffee beans or meat.

In my box, there was an extra hopper (the thing attached to the top to help guide the food into the chute) and ‘pusher’. I assumed this is for dedicated use with different foods to avoid cross contamination, but the instruction book lists only one of each of these, so I wonder if I was just lucky. Aside from the drum and auger, there are four nozzles, two cones, two mincing templates and a completely separate drum assembly for meat. Various combinations of these allow you to prepare a great variety of foods and drinks.

Lots of recipes to try

The instruction book, while a little bit sparse on self-promotion, contains more than 50 recipes for juice, desserts, dressings, sauces, and even pasta, soups, and sausages. I’m quite keen to try some of these. My son loves hommous, so I’d like to buy some chick peas to try making it in this machine and see how it compares to the way I’ve made it in the past.

Preparing the food for processing is not such a speedy task. The pieces have to be relatively small, especially when compared to juicers that are advertised to take whole apples, so chopping up the fruit or vegetables can take quite a while, especially if you’re not fast with a knife. When you take into account the time for preparing the food, then cleaning the machine afterwards, it makes more sense to process quite a bit of juice in one session and then store it in the fridge. Since my little household contains only myself and my five year old, I don’t do this. But despite the preparation and clean up time, the end result of even one glass of juice each is still worth it.

What I love about it

• It’s easy to use, assemble and disassemble. Cleaning is also quite easy.
• The operation is fairly quiet.
• It’s versatile: it makes such a great variety of juices and foods.
• It’s healthier and cheaper than shop bought juice.
• No waste is created by buying something in a bottle.
• You can use up your fruit and vegetables quickly before they get too old.
• It’s safe enough to allow children to help.
• It’s actually quite fun to use. I’ve had friends ask to be the one to feed the fruit into the juicer.

Things I find not so great

• The nozzles are a little difficult to remove.
• The process of prepping the food to go into the machine can be laborious.
• My ‘pusher’ (or plunger, if you prefer) is not sealed completely air tight, so when I left it to soak in the sink one time, it filled up with water and I had to make two holes in the top end to let it drain. It wasn’t such a big deal, but it’s something to note if you don’t have time to clean up straight away and decide to let the components soak instead. Soak everything but the plunger.

The price of the juicer is absolutely worth it. Even the time it takes to prepare and process the food, then clean up again, is worth just one glass of wonderfully fresh and delicious juice. You’ll find yourself buying and consuming more fruit and vegetables and therefore less of the unhealthy options such as cordial and soft drinks.

I’m really pleased with my juicer, as is everyone who comes to visit me when I decide I have lots of fruit that I need to juice.

Visit: HEALTHSTART Life Products (Google for resellers)
RRP: AUD $269

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