So I bought a juicer

It's something I've been meaning to do for a long time. Finally bit the bullet and ordered one from Amazon the other day, after doing a lot of reading and comparing reviews. I got a Breville, which I didn't know until after I opened it up, is the juicer the guy used who made the film Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. All I knew was, it had great reviews and was good value for the money. (What I really want is a Vitamix, but those suckers are huuugely expensive.)

So here's how it looks out of the box, rinsed, and set up:

I started with some cut up fresh pineapple, a sliced and peeled Gala apple (couldn't find any organic ones at our store, bleh), some frozen blubberies (no, I didn't have fresh, more's the pity), and half an organic cucumber:

Then, a generous handful each of baby spinach leaves, romaine, and baby kale leaves (although I swear that's a piece of arugula in there too): 

Then I juiced that all up, and when I saw how much (or how little) it made, I tossed in a handful of red grapes and little carrots. Yes, those stupid commercially bagged ones, which we actually buy at this point to feed to the dogs instead of biscuits because Jethro is a fattie. But that's a post for another day. Maybe.

And here's what I wound up with:

Gave it a stir, poured it into a glass, et voilà. My first "juiced" drink. 

I drank it. It was good, but too sweet for my taste. And I forgot the damned ginger. So next time I'll tinker with the ratio and add in more greens and less fruit (I think I'll leave out the apple.)

Then I went back to clean the machine. Here's what I saw:

Uffda! That's a lot of pulp. I gingerly tried a bite. Not bad! I ate a couple more bites. Hmm. This makes me wonder, is this a silly thing to do, taking all the (hugely nutritionally valuable) fiber out of those fruits and vegetables and just drinking the juice? Isn't that a total waste? (#firstworldproblems, I know.)

So I thought, well, I could compost the pulp. But then, because I am a farmwife with livestock, I thought, I'll give it to the goats. So I did. They loved it. A lot. So ok. I'm not wasting the pulp. But hmm. It still seems like pretty high-end goat food, regardless of how much Stanley and Zoltan liked it.

And here's the other thing. I made the juice for breakfast at 9:30. I started being hungry again by about 11:30. Two hours? Grump.

So I am wondering, perhaps I'll use the juice to make some sort of protein powder smoothie, with some organic milk? Not sure. It was delish, yep. But I am not a total convert yet. And I still wonder if I shouldn't have saved my pennies and gotten the Vitamix after all (which apparently do a much better job incorporating the pulp.) But it's not bad for a start. I'm sure I'll do a follow-up post down the road, when I've used it more. I'm not sorry I bought it, but I'm not a raving convert at this stage either.