Not Sure About Home Juicing your CSA Share? A Member’s Review of a Juicer for Small Spaces & Starting New Habits

By Amanda Anderson

My little family is really excited that the summer CSA is back in motion. We’re especially excited because this is the first year in the last four that we’ve been CSA members that we have a juicer. 

​After some thought, my husband and I took the plunge and bought a juicer this winter. We’re not new to drinking fresh juice, but we had never home-juiced before, so we weren’t sure of our motivation or of the ease, especially considering the tiny size of our home. We just knew that we wanted a more cost-efficient way of staying healthy with juice. 

​​We settled on Breville’s Juice Fountain Compact, picking it right off the shelf at the Union Square Best Buy for just $99. We couldn’t be happier. We juice 1-2 times a week, which we’ve already increased since starting the CSA pickups. This morning, I made a delicious kale, cantaloupe, celery, carrot juice that would have easily set me back at least $15 (for 2) at B&H. Tallying up two large juices twice a week for five months, this little machine has saved us roughly $750! In other words, it has paid for itself 7.5 times already!

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​​If you’re on the fence about home juicing, let me tell you a little bit more about why we like this little machine:

​It’s easy to clean When I asked a friend with lots of home juicing experience what to look for in a juicer, her first and most adamant suggestion was getting one that we would use, and easily clean. “If you can’t clean it quickly, you won’t use it,” she said, and she was dead-on. The trickiest part to the cleaning is the internal centrifuge filter thing, but the juicer comes with a special brush that makes that pretty easy. What makes it even easier is cleaning it immediately.

​It really juices things The leftover pulp is dry and easy to dump into a compost bin. We tried recycling a bit and adding it to our dog’s food, but he wasn’t too keen on it. Another friend makes crackers out of hers - we are waiting for a cool day to try this recipe. The one thing that is a challenge, as is for every centrifugal juicer, is processing greens. We found that the juice is richer when we sandwich the greens inside a handful of other hard fruits or vegetables like celery or carrots. 

​​It takes up very little space Life in the East Village is great, but our apartment is wee little. This juicer takes up about a foot of counter space, and fits easily on a little shelf. One word of caution: the container that holds the juice comes with a lid that keeps the spray contained while juicing. Don’t make the mistake we did on our first pour - take off the lid before you pour! It sprung off mid-pour and caused a big mess. Other than that, the machine contains its spray very well.
 
It’s pretty quiet & very quick Our dog Jeff doesn’t even move from his perch on the couch when we turn it on, and Afonso can sleep through it completely when I juice before work in the morning. The whole process from prepping fruits and vegetables to cleaning takes less than 15 minutes - the same time it would take to walk to, stand in line and pay for juice at a bar.
 
It forces us to be healthy The weeks that we juice every morning we both agree that we feel better and more productive. With the bounty of CSA produce, I hope we’ll increase our use of this machine enough to test out the warranty that came with it! From cost-savings, to knowing the exact quality of product being juiced, to the intentionality it takes to prep and juice our share, health benefits abound!