I guess I need to be honest with myself, my friends, and my family. I am a juicer. Everything I accomplish from here on out needs to have a tiny asterisk beside it.  You see it all started with a little apple juice and occasional orange juice and then cranberry, mostly from concentrates or store bought.  I would get ciders and lemonades when I could.  Then I tried Odwalla carrot juice, simply organic carrots, pressed and flash pasteurized. Woa how tasty and healthy..  Then it was the Odwalla super-food and mixture of greens and fruits… mmm so good. These organic drinks though were pasteurized which likely lessened the health benefits and they are expensive. In many cases there was also preservatives or additives and I just wanted real, fresh, pure juice, without the bull.

I had read and researched a lot lately and have learned how fresh juice from vegetables and fruits are so much more nutritious and how juicing provides an exceptional supply of nutrients to the body.  The Gerson Therapy and many others use juicing as part of treatment to help empower the body to heal itself from illnesses and even cancer by flooding it with rich easily digestible nutrients.

So I purchased a Norwalk Juicer / Food Factory.  I weighed all the options and felt the Norwalk was the only way to go,  if I could only find one used, and I did. The Norwalk has a two step process that is very simple. It breaks up the vegetables or fruits like a grinder but without heat. You grind into a bag that is placed over the chute that captures all the pulp. Then you take the ground pulp in the bag, fold it and place it on the press. The hydraulic press squeezes the bag releasing the juice keeping all the pulp and fiber in the bag. The result is a HUGE amount of clean pulp free juice and a pulp in the bag is dry and literally tasteless. The process doesn’t induce air like a blender does so there is no oxidation or froth. There is also no heat to break down the juice. The Norwalk is a rugged little machine and certainly built to last. It’s heft and quality remind me of equipment from my early restaurant days.

So far I have only done carrots and apples (just got it last night) but this thing can juice anything including greens and wheatgrass. It also makes nut butters like peanut butter, almond butter and it will ground coffee and or grains for flour.  The Norwalk can also process foods for salads like coleslaw, jams or relish. You can take food and simply grind them to a dish for baby foods and or frozen fruits for  smoothies. It is very versatile. Items like pineapple or lemons you simply slice and place in the bags and press, super simple.

Clean-up is easy… the machine is all stainless and chrome so it washes out easy in a couple minutes. The bags are simply reversed and rinsed, and turned right side out and rinsed again. Then folded and stored in a Ziplock bag in the freezer until next use. Storing in this way prevents bacteria from forming.

I would say that this machine will lives up to it’s reputation as far as high quality build and high quality of juice. The clean-up is simple and easy and the straining bags are reusable.  The design has been in place for 75 years and changed very little, there is a reason. I am looking forward to many years of juice and a healthy future.

We have a CSA this year and expect much in the way of extra greens and vegetables, I can’t think of no better way than to juice these things out. I guess I will carry the asterisk with me because… I am a juicer, no not that kind…the good kind.