A few weeks ago I ‘invested’ in a slow juicer. The decision was made when I thought about how little veg I actually eat even though I grow masses of the stuff. The reasons for this are not that I don’t like it just that I am growing it for someone else so they get all the best stuff and because, eating for one, preparing three different veg for a meal for one is a pain! I also don’t eat enough raw veg most of the time although I am also n0t always convinced that you get the best from raw veg since the cellulose walls of most veg is impossible to digest – it is fibre – so you may not get all the nutrients the charts suggest unless you chew chew chew!

So a juicer that could turn old cabbage and kale leaves into nourishing juice seemed a good idea. I hesitated for a while because I have had a juicer before and while it worked on fruit well enough it took longer to clean the ******** thing than to drink the juice. Reading up on the subject also suggested that ‘fast’ juicers that spin at high revs damage the juice and the newer and more expensive ‘macerating’ juicers that grind up the veg and fruit at slow speeds give a better juice. I am not a sucker for kitchen gadgets but I thought this might be a good idea so I spent 249 euro on my Samson. This is not an advert so I won’t go on about the model but it really is quite easy and quick to clean and it deals with all the veg I have put through it. It can even handle pine needles (I haven’t tried that yet) and wheat grass (nor that) but it whizzes (slowly) through carrots, greens, ginger and everything else. I did try spring onions but slimy lumps when through which were not very pleasant. I could add that I have discovered a few things that I don’t like in the juice; onions for a start, celery, and cucumber. Look at the promotional videos and they throw all manner of green things in and drink the juice as though they are guzzling nectar – they are good actors! I have found that if I include some lime or lemon and some ginger along with some apple and/or kiwi I can put all manner of greens in and I can drink it.

I have decided, by trial and error, not to mix coloured fruits with greens – the juice is nastily brown – so carrots go with fruits and all the green things go together and I make two batches at a time, a small green batch and a bigger fruity batch. Ginger goes well with both. If I remember I add a spoonful of ground seeds to it just before drinking and if I don’t feel so good I add a spoonful of yoghurt or one of those drinks full of bacteria.

So tonight’s batch was a mix of greens including lettuce, a little rocket, spinach and parsley. The best thing about the juicer is that I can use up the ‘odd’ veg in the garden. As the kale and brukale is going to flower and is not really usable in the kitchen (though it could be) I am juicing all these flower stems. The older leaves on the plants, which you would not really use, can be pushed through too. All this raw brassica must be good for me and by mixing a wide range of leaves I should soon be super healthy. In this batch I also added a kiwi fruit, some ginger, a lime and an apple to add some sweetness. The result is actually quite good even though it looks like a pint of Guinness brewed by some maniacal leprechaun.

The raw ingredients

Kale going in the juicer

The ‘juiced’ greens being extruded

The juice – appropriately photographed by a lake of pondwater

You sometimes see it recommended that you sieve or filter the juice but I have never done this. It does settle quite quickly and it needs a shake to mix the macerated ‘green’ with the clear liquid below or above.

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