A New Kitchen Gadget

The other day while waiting for my surgery to begin, I was chatting with my daughter about this and that.  I mentioned that I had been looking for a juicer to use for making fruit juices and maybe vegetable juices.  I love my coffee, but like a glass of juice now and then.  Sometimes the store bought juices are overly sweet and I thought maybe making my own would be a good way to control the sugar content.

I had forgotten that my kids are constantly in touch with one another.  Tuesday morning I got a phone call from Youngest Son.  "I hear you are looking for a juicer," he said.  I replied that he was right.  He told me he had a friend who had one to sell.  Like many specialty appliances, the machine had been purchased and the novelty had worn off after about a half a dozen uses.  I can understand that if you are making only a couple of glasses of juice at a time it might be more bother than it was worth to drag out the machine, make the juice and then do the cleanup, but for me who likes to can up all sorts of food products, it would be a great time saver plus making the whole process easier.  He told me the brand name and said that his friend had paid $200 a year or so ago and that he would sell it for $75.

I looked the juicer up online and found that the price paid for it new was about right.  Then I watched several videos on how to use the machine.  Looked to me like it would work well for what I had in mind.  I found there was the possibility for a bonus.  The machine discards the fruit or vegetable pulp into a container after extracting the juice.  I think the pulp can be spread on dehydrator trays lined with fruit roll-up sheets and dried.  Carrot or celery or tomato pulp could be used as flavoring for soups.  Fruit pulp could be used in muffins or fruit breads or other baked goods.

Anyway, Youngest Son delivered my new-to-me juicer this morning.

Over the weekend I will get a variety of fruit and vegetables at the grocery and give it a test run.

I love kitchen gadgets!