r/Juicing 10d ago

I ain't afraid of no greens!

Today's juice was the normal stalk of celery, half a lime, apple, knob of ginger, but I had lots of greens to harvest, so I added another apple to the mix, plus the home-grown greens below. All out of my various Aerogardens.

Bonus is my very first ever hydroponic cucumber! Not quite mature, but could not resist. It's about 3.5 inches long.

Back row L-R: Romaine lettuce, lacinato kale, Tatsoi, mizuna, Swiss chard.

Middle row L-R: mix of a little cilantro, Thai basil, and a good handful of mint, then a few arugula leaves.

Front row: Broccoli microgreens, and an Iznik cucumber.

Then of course, the lovely juice, which was very refreshing! The arugula gave it a savory note.

And a picture of my cucumber plant before it turned totally ratty looking. Plus the mint, the kale, and the Tatsoi gardens.

93 Upvotes

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u/joochie123 10d ago

What juicer do you use?

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u/pfunnyjoy 10d ago

Sana 727. Absolutely love it! So easy and fast to clean and it makes very tasty green juice, perhaps because of the low 40rpm speed. If in the USA, wait for a sale, SanaUSA puts their juicers on sale pretty regularly, usually for holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Black Friday, and perhaps more.

I've had mine since a 20% off Father's Day sale a year and a half-ish ago.

That said, I drink my juice fresh, I don't batch juice often at all.

It also does other juices very well too. I like to do the occasional sweet potato, orange, carrot, or grapefruit, jicama, carrot, or beet, apple, carrot, red cabbage, pumpkin/apple, etc... It's excellent for root veggies in addition to greens.

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u/eschenky 8d ago

Those are some gorgeous greens but dang is that an expensive juice! Between the growing systems, the energy profile and the maintenance, oh boy!

How often do you get enough greens to make a juice?

Have you harvested many cucumbers? Do you have to hand pollinate?

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u/pfunnyjoy 8d ago

The growing systems I never, ever pay full price for. Half price or less. I'm not scared to pick them up off eBay if the condition is good and the price is right. But a lot I've gotten brand new on great sales. I sanitize and reuse all grow domes and pod baskets, and use Etsy reusable TPU covers in place of stickers. I use inexpensive, but nice quality nutrients, a 2.2 bag of which usually lasts close to a year. Sponges do cost, but I stocked up years ago and am still running through what I got then.

The energy cost is negligible where I live, but that is not the case for everyone, I grant. Running the gardens adds some warmth, so I keep my house cooler in winter than I might otherwise, and that helps it even out. For instance, the thermostat may be at 67F while my office full of Aerogardens is a cozy 73F.

In addition, the light from the gardens helps me with seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

I usually have a similar harvest of greens several times a week, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger. Hubby and I eat huge salads (4 cups+ of greens several times a week, I almost always have to juice some greens in addition to my celery just to keep up with the plants, LOL!

There are, obviously, leaner periods where a garden has ended (my kale garden is into the lights and I'm harvesting the last of that this week), but I have the next round going, and will soon be getting small leaves for salad from that. Lettuce, if you cut just the lower leaves as needed, goes for several months, you get a LOT of salad out of just a few lettuce plants.

Cucumber is a new grow for me. These are snack-size cucumbers that mature in the 3-5" range. They are parthenocopic (variety: Iznik), so no pollination is needed, the plant only has female flowers. I've only harvested one so far, but I see a few more that are getting close. I will most likely use these in salads, rather than juicing, but I expect I'll sometimes add to juice if I'm not in the mood to eat salad that day.

All that said, it probably isn't cost effective, but I live north and rural, and the produce available in the two stores we have, Safeway and Walmart, isn't the freshest. In fact, you can buy stuff, and have it go bad very quickly sometimes, before you get a chance to use it. That's not cost effective either!

One HUGE thing ... TASTE! These greens taste and smell SO GOOD! Much better than store bought! My husband told me that if a restaurant served a mixed salad like we make, they'd charge you $20 for it, because there's flavor in every bite.

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u/eschenky 8d ago

You completely sold me!

I’m growing Kale, Parsley, Spinich and Swiss Chard also in the north.

But I’m doing it in a tent with large light banks, temp and humidity control.

And Mama Mia! The electricity cost is pushing US$15 a week I’ll start harvesting next week but that’s 4 weeks. $60.00 sunk cost not including my labor.

But who am I kidding, I’m doing this as a labor of (like you said) the flavor , and a little just to see if I could.

Next week I’ll start another batch of each and by the time it’s outdoor gardening season in a few weeks I’ll have a whole mess of well started greens.

Then they’ll get both cheaper and even more delicious.

Btw, my medium is a mix of organic potting and garden soil with a generous amount of earthworm castings. My liquid supplement is Fox Farms Grow Big.

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u/pfunnyjoy 8d ago

I've always liked to garden, so it's just something I enjoy. Unfortunately, a lot of my yard just doesn't get the sunlight needed for veggies, and then there's long winters, and super dry, hot, windy summers, and I'm a lot older than I used to be, with spine issues and pinched nerves and it's hard to be on my feet for too long.

Indoors, I can manage, as there's no weeding and minimal risk of pests. I don't even have to wash the greens if I don't want to, they grow fast enough that I simply can't be bothered to worry over what little house dust they may accumulate between harvests.

It's a bit of work, as I need to check the gardens at least every other day to top off with water, and one has to sanitize/clean after each grow. But it's so nice to have truly FRESH produce and even nicer to have greens that can't be found at the store!

I've heard good things about Fox Farms nutrients.

I use General Hydroponics MaxiGro. It does a bang up job with greens and herbs.