Pear Apple Ginger Juice

I had gotten these wonderful pears from the Farmer's Market, and in typical Becky fashion, I let then get a wee bit too ripe on the counter.  So before they completely disintegrated, I figured I would juice them.

Pear Apple Ginger Juice
3 pears
1 apple*
2 celery stalks
1" piece of fresh ginger
Juice of 1 lime
*Sweet Tango, if you have not tried these yet,  you owe it too yourself, they are AMAZING!

I must say, for being an "on the fly" juice combination, this was really good.  Clean and refreshing, and it made a TON.  I'd say almost 3 cups.

Some notes about juicing pears:

Soft pears will often clog your juicer as they can block the holes in the sieve of the juicing screen in masticating juicers, like the Omega 8006.  

Juicing screen is on the left

For this reason, I tried to alternate the pear segments with the hard fleshed ingredients such as the apple and celery to help the juice flow through the juicer. 

Pure, fresh pear juice can be a very thick for some peoples tastes, (especially my better-half), so you may to prefer to dilute it with other fruits and vegetables, or add some filtered water.  

I did both. Even though I alternated the pears with the harder fruits and veggies, I still poured some water into the juicer, which cleared out a bit of the pear pulp that was stuck in the screen.  But, even after all that, L still found it to be too thick, so I poured the remaining juice in a glass bottle and froze for a later day.

This actually worked out well, because it became the base of a smoothie which I had for breakfast this morning:

BONUS Breakfast Smoothie:
1 cup flax milk, vanilla flavored
1 tbsp flax seeds
1 frozen banana
1 cup of pear apple ginger smoothie, half frozen
1 tbsp hemp protein powder

Blend and drink to start you day off great ^_^

Summertime~ Strawberry & Kiwi Juice

Here we have:
20 strawberries, washed and stemmed
1 kiwi, peeled (I should have used 2)!
2 carrots
2 apples

Pure, unadulterated Summertime goodness!

It was also a test.  Although our new Omega 8006 juicer has stellar reviews for juicing greens and overall juice extraction, its one shortcoming might be the way it handles "soft" fruits.  Now, when I say soft fruits, I mean fleshier, juicier fruit such as pineapples, mangoes, kiwis and berries.  The Omega 8006 juices them fairly well, but the fact that reviews state that it *may* not perform as well on these foods did not deter me from trying.

Part of it is mechanics:

You see in the foreground of the picture, the driving force behind our juicer: the augur (directly to the left of the toothbrush).  This device spins at 80 RPMs, (much slower as compared with the centrifuge of the Jack Lalanne variety) and meticulously grinds and chews vegetables and dark leafy greens into a smooth trickle of vitamin packed goodness.  The pulp that comes out the front is dry as a bone, which is proof that this style of juicer really gives great results, and maximum juice extraction of your produce.

Now when a fruit is soft like a pineapple, mango or strawberry, the augur slowly spins it down towards the front end of the juice, and pulverizes it.  Because these fruits do not have as much fibrous matter like say celery or carrot, the juice of the fruit mixes with the pulp, gets a wee bit foamy, covers up the juicing screen, and doesn't always push its way out the front.  I've found that if I want to do a luscious summer fruit medley like the one above, the best way is to alternate the soft fruits with a bit of hard veggies or fruits (like carrots and apples) to help push some of that fruit foam out.

This technique worked pretty well, with minimal foaminess. There was still some, but not nearly as much as when I tried to do 10 pieces of pineapple in a row. Plus, you can never go wrong with fresh strawberry or kiwi.  I probably could have done the fruit in my blender, then added the apple and carrot juice, but I am enjoying my new toy too much not to use if for everything ^_^