Fruit juice, that is-- from berries to citrus, to harder fruits (apples, pears), etc.

You might want to check out LEM (lemproducts.com) as they offer several different models of mechanical juicers. Lehman's is another good source for all sorts of non-electrical food processing tools.

Personally we make all of our juices to preserve them and use our Victorio to make most of them except the citrus. It would be difficult to keep the many gallons you mention in your other post without some sort of canning or freezing. They just won't store that long with fresh refrigeration - unless you are going to drink gallons per day. ;)

Dave

A steam juicer ! I love this thing.

I have a couple of steam juicers also! They are so easy to make juices and preserve them it is not funny.

I have had a blast making bushels of cherries turn into gallons of juice.

I have a Breville. I don't make juice often but when I do it's large batches of apple or pear- apple cider to can. I also will sometimes make an apple carrot juice just to have something fresh and healthy, although I really just forget too and now that I'm canning, it's easier to open a quart.
For citrus, I have an electric juicer, can't remember the brand but it was in the $50 range, does great.

These days we only juice citrus. We had a Jack Lalane juicer for apples and carrots, but we gave it away because we do not produce enough apples or carrots to juice. After tasting garden carrots we no longer want to buy commercial carrots. I found the Lalane really wasteful, lots of good roughage gone to the compost rather than our bodies. Also, a real pain in the $%^& to clean. It does make very good carrot, apple, carrot apple, melon, kale, celery juices. We switched to a vitamix, still experimenting with it, but we are interested in getting the whole food in a juice/smoothie, rather than just the juice and throw a lot away.

I juice gallons and gallons of citrus. It was 10 gallons last year. That was the excess, not what we drank as we went along! We probably drank another 10 gallons.

I have an citrus juicer attachment to our kitchenaid mixer. It is crap, don't buy it. The manual ones are OK, I have several different types. The Mexican clam-shell types that close on the halved citrus are not bad for small quantities.

Since most of what we juice are minneolas, I now use a food mill. Same exact tool i use to mill my tomatoes. This is because minneolas have a very delicate, easy to remove peel when they are ripe, so it is best to peel first, then juice. In the rare occasion I juice grapefruit I'll use the crappy Kitchen aide attachment, or a regular manual juicer.

In any case, the food mill is easier on the body than the electric Kitchen aide attachment, more comfortable to use and less effort, believe it or not. Also, the quality of the juice is exceptional, it does not separate when it sits, and it freezes nicely. I should also say I only juice quarts at a time, not gallons at a time. I get approximately 1-2 quarts per large basket of citrus, I only pick at most 3 baskets (so about 3-6 quarts at a time)

sounds great, gang!

I'm liking all that I'm hearing!

How well do you think those steam juicer will work for apples, and pears though?

Do the berries need any mashing to them before putting them in the pot?

I'm contemplating a food mill to help with jellies, jams and purees-- but was wondering what other pieces of equipment I could buy to help with producing juice faster than would be with a food mill.

also, to answer the first poster's question-- I am planning on canning the juice, and storing up on them.

thanks all!

The steam juicer is the best I have tried all others, including food mills. It is so easy & simple. I put up 5 bushels of apples this year. I mostly made apple butter, but the peeling I put in the steam juicer & got my juice from them for my apple jelly. Grapes,plums & muscadimes you just put them in & you get your juice. I won't do it anyother way now. Berries are the same way. I had never tried any citrus. The easy way for me to make my apple butter is to peel & core the apples, heat them up with a little water till they are soft when you poke them with a fork then run them thru a blender, put them back in a pan & cook my apple butter. Like I said I have tried the food mills, yuk. Messie, & hard to clean. I love the steam juicer. I learned to can from my grandma who done hers on a woodcook stove. I know that if they had had steam juicers then she would have loved it. Good luck.

The wife and I hate the mess and aggravation of cranking out juice, and we always seem to waste a lot. We are very interested in the steam juicers. Is there a significant difference in the brands? There is quite a difference in prices. Thanks.

Brook

I didn't get the absolute cheapest, but the $80 one - great tool to have around.

Here is a link that might be useful: steam juicer link

Thanks, David, Looks like we'll be making the investment. There doesn't seem to be much bad press on them.

Brook

I made apple juice today with a Juiceman Jr. that I have had quite a while. My question is what to do with the froth on top? I skimmed off as much as I could with a spatula.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures on flickr

Cute picture of the apple thieves, Henry. Why not just spoon the froth off and use for compost, or maybe to put in a fruit fly trap, if you have them.

They make regular skimmers just for the purpose of removing the foam but even then you can't get it all. You can add just a 1/4 to 1/2 tsp butter/margarine or vegetable oil just as you do when making jam to eliminate most of the foam.

Dave

I got to this thread when searching for carbonating apple juice.
I do allot of apple juicing with my home made juicer, not something most want to tackle,...unless you're a machinist, maybe.

I fill juice into 50L high pressure kegs, when fermenting naturally, the pressure will go very high, around 100PSI it will stop fermenting and juice finishes as about half sweet. When letting the juice out at the tap on bottom it comes out as foam and juice is flat, without much CO2.

Today I was experimenting with a direct hook up into plastic 2L pop bottle using hose and valve, filled bottle about 1/2 full, under pressure I shook it vigorously, ...the idea behind this is so CO2 can absorb into the juice. It worked pretty good, the juice actually sparkled a little and taste was allot better.
Still, think I can improve on this, I need to cool the juice to near freezing...not a problem in our cold north, next, I would want to try mixing in about 1/3 water,...been reading that water can absorb CO2 the best.

And, or...getting real CO2 from a bottle and try, I'm not sure if CO2 in the keg from fermenting is the same as what you buy in bottles.

Does anybody has the know how in getting CO2 into fruit drinks?

I think, most drinks you buy are mixed down with water which can hold CO2 much better?

Here is a link that might be useful: My Juicer