Staples
You can certainly pick up carrots and celery most times of the year because both of these crops are grown year round in green houses all over the place. Carrots are a root crop which means they are generally plentiful all fall and winter, and if they get slim, look for yams as an additional sweet and orange replacement in the short term.
Beets are also more and more commonly found throughout a large part of the year, and the natural organic bunch beets are often selling at 2 bunches for $5 in our part of the world. You can juice the whole thing, greens and all. Or you can chop off the greens’ tops and make a salad or put them in soups and stews.
Produce even when organic, is not that expensive if you know where and when to shop. In comparison, processed and packaged foods continue to rise dramatically in price.
The increased demand for fresh organic produce has also expanded its availability. For instance, Costco sells a good selection of organic produce at very reasonable prices these days. One of their large boxes of organic baby spinach goes for around $4. That is often half of what specialty grocers will be charging for the same product.
Storing Produce
Sweet potatoes, apples, oranges, lemons, limes and pears all have a relatively flexible at-home storage time of five to ten days. This makes them all good juicing material that can be used several times over a week without having to worry about spoiling. Apples and pears can be stored in the refrigerator in between layers of freezer paper for up to three months depending on their type. Sweet potatoes can be kept on a counter or in a cool dark cupboard just as you would store a potato or an onion. Citrus will need refrigeration after about five days depending on your indoor climate, as they can develop mold.
When it comes to fresh greens, your timing must be a bit more precise and these must be kept refrigerated. Herbs, greens, lettuces, and other tender-leaved vegetables are all more susceptible to spoiling, and so should be used within a few days of purchase.
Happily, these tender greens are also some of the easiest things to grow, and having a nice crop of fresh greens in a sunny spot in the window, on a patio or deck in warm weather is really a snap. You don’t need a whole kitchen garden but if you are so inclined it will save you even more on your juicing budget.
Here is a typical week’s supply of juicing materials around our house. We are two people, but we generally drink a 12 to 16 ounce juice per person per day, so that should give you a good idea of what to expect to need once you become a regular juicer:
Carrots: 2 to 4 pounds, we usually buy two 2lb bags once a week, with some weeks only needing one as there are some left from the week before.
Beets: 2 bunches of beets with 3 to 4 beets each including greens.
Celery: 2 nice large bunches.
Oranges, Apples, Pears: We tend to rotate these around depending on the season. In winter we buy more oranges as they are in season and also contain the extra vitamin C to help us stay healthy and ward off colds and flu. 4 to 6 oranges, apples or pears or a mix of all three.
Ginger: A good sized piece of ginger root will last a month, just keep it in the fridge wrapped in a bit of cellophane. In fact, it will last longer if all you use it for is juicing. All you need is a 1 inch piece for a juice session making 2 to 4 large juices. Ginger is potent and should always be added into the juice earlier rather than later. It will sit on the top of the finished juice if added too late. If juiced last, it will mostly end up staying in the juicer and never get into your juice. Some people are sensitive to ginger, so please test for taste and increase in small increments.
We also juice cabbages, kale, chard, and green lettuces and spinach. These we also rotate over the seasons depending on price, availability, and seasonality. Lettuce can get to $3 a head in deep winter, while kale and cabbages tend to be cheaper this time of year.
One cabbage, one Swiss chard or one kale or any two of any of the greens should be plenty for a week’s worth of juicing.
Parsley, cilantro, basil, fennel, arugula and mint all make excellent additions to fresh juices and the best way to determine which to use is to try them all a little bit at a time mixed in to your juices. We are huge fans of curly parsley in juices, both for the iron and for the taste. Parsley adds a really pleasant zing to a veggie juice and is particularly tasty with a little citrus in the mix.
Example of a Weekly Juicing Budget
So here is our weekly budget for juicing, to help you get an idea of what can be done at what price. Do remember that the best juice is one you actually make and drink, and all the beautiful fresh produce in the world will only go bad if you don’t stick to your plans and break out the juicer and make the juice. Because this is a new routine, it helps to set a plan and budget and stick to it for a couple of weeks or even months so that you develop the habit of juicing on a regular basis. Otherwise you may find your good intentions lead to lots of produce purchasing and not enough juicing; which will lead to a lot of wasted produce and bad feelings about not keeping up with your plan or your produce. And of course, the prices shown here represent a snapshot in time for our region.
Total weekly budget: $45.00
CSA’s and Farmers Markets – Another Big Budget Saver
A great way to save on fresh produce in season and to have a steady supply of excellent locally grown organic juicing materials is to shop through a local CSA or Farmers Market.
CSA’s are “Community Supported Agriculture” programs where local farms allow you to purchase an annual subscription based on a weekly cost and receive fresh produce each week during the growing season. Some CSA farms deliver; others have pick-up days for customers at the farm or at a convenient in-town location. Each farm handles their program slightly differently, so you’ll want to check around and choose the farm and program that works best for you.
Until very recently, CSA’s were not a very common option for most people throughout the U.S. and around the world. But that has changed dramatically in the last decade and in the last few years. CSA’s have exploded as farmers and consumers discover that direct relationships work well for everyone involved.
TIP: To find a local CSA in your area, the best resource is a web site called Local Harvest. You can find them at localharvest.org and they have a complete directory of local farms, CSA’s, Farmers Markets and even allow you to search by specific products you are looking for. They have a nationwide database search engine and it is very good.
Another way to find local CSAs is to look up local community food and farmers markets and speak with the people who run them and to the farmers who sell at the markets. Often local farms have a CSA and a farmers market program, so you can find a farm selling the produce you like at the farmers market and inquire if they run a CSA as well.
So don’t let anyone tell you that it is ‘too expensive to eat organic’. It is only too expensive if you insist on buying everything cello-wrapped at the local national chain store. And even then, if you shop wisely and in season, it is cheaper sometimes by half or more than it will be the rest of the year.
Learning how to move your purchasing power around with the seasons and varying your juicing and produce consumption over the course of the year can drastically reduce
