General Instructions:
These are just general instructions, and we trust that you will soon develop your own system of juicing and discover what works best for you. We found the best way to make our daily juice is as follows.
First we gather all the produce we are going to use for the day. For one person this would be at minimum 2lbs of leafy greens and 1 head of celery. In addition to this you can bring in cucumbers, apples, lemons, oranges, watermelon, and so on. You can check out our grocery list download at the bottom of our Grocery Shopping page for a better idea of the beautiful produce you will be working with.
Next, we prepare our produce for the method of juicing that we will be using. This includes washing, and chopping and peeling. Note that it is not necessary to peel organic produce, and you DO want to juice the peels as that is where much of the nutritional value of the food is found. Even watermelon peel is highly nutritious, and if it is organic, you can juice the whole melon and enjoy the chlorophyl you will be getting from the green skin. You will want to peel things such as citrus though! It is also ussually un-neccesary to de-seed anything, as these will be removed in the juicing process. If you are using root vegetables (carrots, beets) that still have their leafy green tops, be sure to include them in your juice as they are incredibly nutrient dense foods.
USING A BLENDER WITH A NUT MYLK BAG:
For our Green Vegetable Juice we prefer to use our blender and Nut Mylk bag. For this method you will want to chop celery, cucumber, and other vegetables such as red pepper (one inch bits ussually work). The size you will need to chop things into will depend on the power of your blender. There is no need to chop your leafy greens.
Begin by putting about a 1/2 cup of water at the bottom of your blender and add your chopped celery. Blend. Now you can add the rest of your chopped vegetables and leafy greens, and keep blending down until your blender is full. Don't worry, a high speed blender will do this quickly and efficiently. You shouldn't have to blend so long that the blender creates enough heat to damage any of the precious raw enzymes in your juice! You should now have a thick pre-juice pulp about the consistency of apple sauce. Pour this into a nut mylk bag positioned over a large bowl (we use our big salad bowl and it holds about 4 quarts of juice) and then squeeze your juice out of the bag! It is fun, and you will get nice strong hands! Once you are done squeezing, you can discard the pulp. You have just extracted an amazing coctail of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients, and most of what is left is fibre. Remember, your leftover juice pulp is very precious to the soil, and composting is a very noble endevour. You will probably have to repeat the process a few times to get 2+ quarts of green juice for the day, but it is much faster than using a juicer, and cleaning takes seconds. You now have abundant, glorious Green Vegetable Juice that you can pour into your glass mason jars. We like to add our green superfood powder blend, blue-green algae, kelp granules, and hemp oil at this point, and then cap our juice off, shake it up, and it is ready for us when we need it, no more messing around.
Put all of your juices into the fridge or a portable cooler so they will keep for the day.
USING A JUICER:
When you are using any juicer, make sure you have cut your produce down small enough to fit into your juicer. This will prevent things from getting stuck as you feed them into your juicer. Your juicer will then extract the juice from the solids, and send them both out into separate containers. If you are juicing large quantities of produce, it can be a good idea to stop after a while, remove the screen and moving parts from your juicer and rinse them off, removing the pulp that has built up. This will prevent your juicer from over-heating.
In addition to our blender, we also have a Juiceman juicer. It is not neccessary to have both a blender and a juicer, but we find they both do different juicing jobs with their own set of skills! The Juiceman, for example, makes the best orange juice in the world, bar none! We recomended that you research the different types of juicers amd blenders out there and decide which one best suits your needs and budget. For more information on types of juicers and blenders, see our Kitchen, Bath, and Body page. I (Katrina) made my first home made juices on a $7 juicer that I found at a thrift store, and they were amazing and delicious and made me feel very healthy and happy. It was a little lacking in power and style, but I was so pleased at the price, that this did not matter to me.
If you are at all concerned with the oxidation of your juices, or the rate at which they start to break down, it is important to note the superiority of a good juicer over a blender. Although we believe a fresh, raw, organic juice is still a power house of nutrition and enzymes while using a blender, even after a couple of hours, if you are healing from a very complicated health issue you will want to consider a top notch juicer, and be sure to drink all your juices immediately after they are made. Oxidation occurs as a result of air (oxygen) exposure, and it begins the process of that food breaking down. Of course with a blender, your juice is going to have more exposure to air, as the blender sucks air down into it's container and whizzes it up with your produce. A high quality juicer minimizes oxidation. Taking into consideration time requirements, your health realities, and budget, you should be able to feel wonderful about any decision you make with regards to which method you choose to make your juice. Remember, the most important thing about a Juice Feast is drinking juice, and using a blender is much more efficient and accessible, so please don't be concerned that you will get less out of your Feast by doing it this way! You will still be getting more nutrition in one day than most people get in a whole week!
Drink juice as you are juicing! Get it into your system early in the morning so that you don't find nagging hunger jumping on you in the late morning.
Once you have your 4 quarts you are done! Congratulate your self on making such beautiful juices! Now you just have clean up, which should take about ten minutes at most, and then you can move on to experiencing your day as a super duper juicer.
Some wonderful juice combinations:
Each day of a Juice Feast includes 4 quarts of juices or more, mostly Green Vegetable Juice with fruit juice if your blood sugar and health realities can tolerate it. Green juices contain up to 50% protein, and have a low glycemic effect. Greens are building foods, and are the most mineral dense foods available. The Chlorophyll in plants and the Hemoglobin of our blood are nearly identical. The center of the chlorophyll molecule is Magnesium, whereas the center of the Hemoglobin is Iron. Chlorophyll-rich foods build your blood! [Green juice with Young Coconut Water (which is identical to blood plasma) is equivalent to a blood transfusion.] For each quart of green juice, mix the juice of 1-2 apples to taste. The center of your green juices is celery juice – organic sodium!
GREEN JUICE
Celery/Kale/Parsley/Arugula/Spinach/Cucumber/Apple
Green juices are best made in the Vita-Mix or other powerful blender. Add ½ cup water to the blender, and place 1 stalk celery in. Blend on high for 10 seconds (to a pulp), then add everything else. Pour into a straining bag, squeeze, and drink.
Spinach/Parsley/Celery/Cucumber.
Spinach makes for a very smooth green juice! It is also very high in iron, and makes your red blood cells very happy, as well as being one of your best sources of coenzyme Q10.
Spinach/Celery/Cabbage/Cucumber/Green Pepper/Alfalfa Sprouts.
This juice calms the entire digestive tract in addition to replenishing vital electrolytes. An excelent post-exercise juice, or after any digestive upset.
GREEN/VEGETABLE JUICE
Carrot/Alfalfa Sprouts/Leafy Greens with/ Spirulina, Chlorella or Algae/Garlic/Cayenne Pepper. Give your heart a bost with these heart muscle building ingredients! Garlic is known to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Cayenne supports the vascular system by preventing abnormal blood clotting and stimulating the breakdown of fibrin. Blood building chlorophyll is abundant in both algae and alfalfa. Magnesium, the most important mineral for the heart muscle, is found in spirulina, chlorella, and alfalfa sprouts. And carrots and cayenne protect the heart from disease and free radicals by being top sources of vitamin A! What a way to love your heart!
GREEN/FRUIT JUICE
Apple/Celery/Cucumber/Greens
Cucumbers mix well with celery in a juice. The organic sodium of the celery helps to transport the water-rich cucumber juice into the tissues, creating more hydration. One of the most beautifying and cleansing of all juices combines celery, apple, and cucumber together.
Spinach/Apple/Celery
Known as a pipe cleaner to many, this juice has a good sodium/potassium balance, making it a very balancing drink. The spinach, as with all greens, is best juiced in the blender and squeezed through a nut mylk bag.
FRUIT JUICE
Pineapple
Consumed straight, pineapple juice acts as a liver flush/cleanser. Pineapple contains copious amounts of the enzyme Bromelain, which is a potent anti-inflammatory. Shave the outside of the pineapple, and juice the entire fruit, including the mineral-enzyme rich center.
Grapefruit/Orange/Lemon
This is a great drink for cellulite and fat reduction. It tastes fantastic on a hot day, is very alkalinizing despite its tart flavor, and is ideal for mixing in MSM Powder, given the high vitamin C content of this drink.
Orange/Raspberry. This is an extra special treat, not to be made a staple juice on your Feast. First make your orange juice, then pour it into your blender with fresh or frozen raspberries and blend up. Then squeeze through a Nut Mylk bag for an amazing, liquid sorbet!
Watermelon Juice: For this we also use the blender/nut mylk bag method. Simply chop up your watermelon, peeling it as minimaly as possible as there is loads of chlorophyl in the green skin. Place it in the blender, and blend. You do not need water to get this juice started, you are using WATERmelon! It is a good idea to not mix your melon juice with any other as melon digests very quickly, but you will be fine if you add some lemon into your watermelon juice. This is one of our favorite combinations, very refreashing. Watermelon is the champion fruit on a Juice Feast, as it provides such abundant amounts of juice for very little effort, while still being chock full of goodness. Watermelon juice flushes acid from the system and renews the blood, making the skin look and feel better.
Master Cleanser
The easy, “I’m tired or too busy to make another juice” juice. 28 oz distilled water, 5T Lemon Juice, 5T Honey (local, raw), 1/10th tsp 90,000 heat unit cayenne. Begin with less cayenne and build up. See The Master Cleanser by Stanley Burroughs.
Be creative! You will most likely discover your favorite juice combinations and stay fairly close to them over the course of your Juice Feast, so enjoy your wild mixes at the beggining of your feast!
For a fun way to keep up with your culinary juice creativity, go to Keeping Track and download the Daily Quick Journal at the bottom of the page!
Also see Heinerman's Encyclopedia of Healing Juices by John Heinerman.
Before you begin to make your first juice in the morning, you can make yourself a lovely quart of lemon water with MSM in it: making juice once you are re-hydrated is much more fun.