wheatgrass-the worst tasting thing you'll ever love....

[theresaann]

Just wanted to share-this is great stuff-although I"ve got to hold me nose to get it down every time. Thinking of setting up to grow it, but need grow lights cause we don't have any windows that get enough sun, esp. in winter.

In my area the cheapest I can find it is $12 a tray. But it's so health promoting, I'm going through about 4 trays a week (dc and me both drink it...)

[Shivananda]

Just wanted to share-this is great stuff-although I"ve got to hold me nose to get it down every time. Ha! Yes I do know what you mean. I still feel that way about the juice from other leafy greens. :eek:

But here's a few things I've learned about wheatgrass in particular over the last 6 years which have helped me a lot.

1) The green tips of the wheatgrass produces juice that is pretty sweet to my taste. The trick is learning how far up from the roots to cut it. A simple experiement is to cut a small bunch a couple inches up from the roots and juice and taste, then cut a litttle bit closer and juice, and a little bit closer and juice. I'm not sure what your experience will be, but mine was that there was a distinct point where the flavor changed to yucko, and so I backed up a little.

2) Young wheatgrass tastes milder and sweeter than old wheatgrass does, at least to me. From this I learned to harvest it in the 6-9"range and not let it get longer. If my crop production is running ahead of my consumption, I just cut the grass, bag it in a big ziploc, and freeze it. To me making fresh juice from that frozen grass is superior to freezing the juice.

3) Any mold on the grass makes it bitter and gives a nasty gag response that many mistakenly call "detox." It ain't detox, m'dears, it's just plain tox! Now that I am growing my own wheatgrass systematically, with a rack and a sodium vapor growlamp, and using Citricide and liquid kelp for mold control, I don't get that any more. But when I was getting it, I learned Pam Free's trick of rinsing the wheatgrass off by swooshing it around in a bowl of water to rinse off the mold before juicing the grass.

4) Although Anne Wigmore and others have said wheatgrass by itself is best, if you still can't handle it after using the above tips, then blend it with a mild green juice like lettuce or cucumber to make it more palatable.

5) And finally, Shiva's Secret Wheatgrass Formula when all else fails is... add a drop or two of oil of peppermint to the shot. That seems to help some people a lot with the "aftertaste" wheatgrass gives them.

[rawpriestess]

if you want wheatgrass to taste good, this is the secret,

mix it with lemon with peel, and it cuts the bitterness, you will be so surprised at this.

you can drink it two ways, either just mix some wheat grass and a half a lemon in the Vita Mix and drink, or you can add water and even sweetener if you like

or you can take wheat grass whole, lemon and peel and water, blend in Vita Mix, then strain through a nut milk bag, and you have a green juice withought the fancy wheatgrass machine to clean, Vita Mix just rinses clean, voila'

[sport]

or you can take wheat grass whole, lemon and peel and water, blend in Vita Mix, then strain through a nut milk bag, and you have a green juice withought the fancy wheatgrass machine to clean, Vita Mix just rinses clean, voila'
I understood that the twin gear system has been designed to break down the fibres of the wheatgrass and so properly release the juice. Would you be afraid that the vitamix would not achieve the same results.

[Shivananda]

I understood that the twin gear system has been designed to break down the fibres of the wheatgrass and so properly release the juice. Would you be afraid that the vitamix would not achieve the same results. I personally think the new $35 Lexen Easy Juicer, which is a handcranked single auger juicer, does a better job of juice extraction from wheatgrass than ANY blender in the market, even the K-Tec I prefer, which is 50% more powerful than a Vita Mix.

Why? Because wheatgrass is really in a separate category from any other green you can think of. It's a very tough grass, so breaking down the cell walls is not easy at all. What the auger juicers do, single gear and double gear both, do is employ the physics of a rotating spiral to apply tremendous pressure to the grass stalks to break open those cell walls. It's an amount of pressure a whirling blade in a liquid simply cannot even approximate.

IOW, a blender would be better than nothing to make a wheatgrass juice, but even the cheapest wheatgrass juicer does a superior job to a blender. At the raw restaurant and juice bar I am currently associated with, several blended drinks are offered which include wheatgrass as an ingredient. We make the drinks in a Vita Mix. We juice the wheatgrass first in a Wheateena juicer then add the shot of juice to the blender jar with the other ingredients for final blending.

Every other juice bar I've ever seen does the same, for good reason. It just works best.

[RawSandi]

Hi,

I'm new to the board, lurking since yesterday. Love the positive energy and relative lack of flaming here!

I, having grown tired of dropping entire paychecks at juice bars, have just started growing my own wheatgrass. Does anyone have a good source for bulk seeds? :confused:

Also, I've read that barley grass has a more beneficial potassium/calcium ratio, but it is a bit bitter. So, I want to try mixing barley and wheat grass 50/50 to get the best of both. Has anyone tried mixing wheat berries and barley together in the same flat, or is it better to grow separate and juice together? Thanks!

:) :) :) :)
Sandi

[EastCoastie]

Sandi,

We got started growing wheatgrass using a kit from WheatGrassKits.com. Their seed is pretty reasonably priced as you can see if you click the link I've attached below, but I've not looked at the shipping costs. http://www.wheatgrasskits.com/seed.htm

We have a co-op here and I get my seed at about the same cost, but don't have to pay any shipping costs.

Hope this might work for you.

EC

[rawpriestess]

My goodness, if the Vita Mix can't break down the fibers, and release the juice, nothing can,


It pulverizes anything in it's path

[Shivananda]

Does anyone have a good source for bulk seeds? Yep, I get mine at Wild Oats or Harvest Co-Op in the bulk food section. It's organic Red Winter Wheat.

Over the 6 years or so I've been growing wheatgrass myself I've ordered "sprouting wheatberries" from various vendors and never seen any major difference from what I get at the NFS for less money and less hassle. The main difference seens to be simply that "food" wheatberries tend to have slightly more broken grains which don't sprout.

And if you want GOOD information on growing wheatgrass, the best advice and info I've found are from Pam Free at www.growwheatgrass.com She actually LIVES wheatgrass 24/7, unlike many other purveyors of supplies and info who don't really know what they're talking about.


So, I want to try mixing barley and wheat grass 50/50 to get the best of both. Well, I don't really get the point, because the healing power of wheatgrass is superior to barley. But if that's what you want to do, grow them separately so you can optimize growing times for each.

Lastly, if you want to be sprouting seeds for other green sprouts, then Sprout People are tops. www.sproutpeople.com

[lily]

Coming back to the comment Raw Priestess made about making wheatgrass taste nice, in my opinion a slice of lime -- about an eighth of a lime, skin and all -- juiced with the wheatgrass makes it taste sublime... I like it with the juice of 3 small apples added into the mix too and it's soooo good. Even my 'don't bring that stuff anywhere near me' husband had a sip and had to agree it tasted 'OK'.

Fresh ginger also helps it along no end: another fave combo of mine is carrot, wheatgrass and just a tiny piece -- about the size of a chickpea -- piece of fresh ginger root.

lily

[cheflissy]

I like wheatgrass with lemon and apple juices. It's very nice and refreshing. It's the only way I've ever had it, actually the first way I had it, too. It still tastes kinda grassy, but the flavors are all masked together with the lemon and apple.

Melissa

[Shivananda]

It's the only way I've ever had it, actually the first way I had it, too. May I suggest that it might be worthwhile for you to try it just as Anne Wigmore first recommended it, undiluted and on an empty stomach?

Honestly, once I learned that so called "detox" and nausea and other gag responses were mostly caused by cutting the sprouts toooo close to mold infested roots, I've never had a personal issue with the juice nor seen one.

[lily]

Mmm, that's a good reminder of what it's all about. Although the taste is -- er, unusual -- it isn't unpleasant, in my opinion. Think I'll go back to the drawing-board on this and persevere with it in it's pure 'Anne Wigmore' form... it certainly doesn't make me gag.

lily

[theresaann]

hey, thanks everyone for the wheatgrass resource recommendations, esp. Shivananda!

I'm gonna explore the "growing at home" option!

[soprofound]

today was my first time trying wheatgrass and i actually liked the taste. it is some funky smelling stuff but it tasted kinda sweet to me. i was fasting today so it was the first thing on my stomache. i think i had a reaction to it though. maybe somebody can shed some light on this for me, after i drank it, i began to feel a little queezy and lightheaded a little while after i drank it..was this suppose to happen?

[onesmartcookie]

this is a really basic question but--do you all observe a *noticeable* difference in yourselves while consuming wheatgrass regularly? What are those differences? Energy level, mental clarity, appetite change, etc?

I must confess, I've never done a wheatgrass shot in my life. I'm curious, and am sure I will at some point. I just don't have access to anything fresh here in Burlington (that I know of), but have seen the frozen stuff at my local health food store.

[EastCoastie]

OneSmartCookie,

When I consume WG juice on a regular basis, I notice that it cleans me out pretty quickly and I also feel a bit of an energy "buzz" from it. However, I drink freshly juiced WG so I am not sure if I'd notice the same drinking frozen.
EC

[AJ Bodine]

Just a note here about growing wheatgrass. I know everyone has their own preferred method of growing, but if you are having trouble with mold, I have found a solution to that. I use a Ionic air cleaner next to my trays on their first 1-2 growing days. I'm careful never to sprout the seeds too long either, which can promote mold growth before you even get the seed under the soil. Just a tiny tail and then I rinse and plant. I use no growlights. Just cheap McDonalds food trays, (see McDonalds is good for something), and a bright indirect sunny window. I use Ocean Grown in my watering bottle, I have a fine mister that I mist the trays with twice daily. And at night, I put my trays in a cooler area to replicate how hard winter wheat would naturally grow outdoors. By hardening off the grass in the chillier night temps, (maybe out on your deck or a like place, nothing below freezing though), you make the grass much stronger. After you've used the ionic air cleaner next to the grass for 1-2 days though, you'll have no issues with mold. I grow my wheatgrass mainly for 3 seasons and then don't bother in the hot summertime. I have too many issues with growing the grass when it's not cool at night. The grass is much lighter in color, is weak, and does mold much easier. After all, it is winter wheat that we are using here.

These have been my findings with growing good grass. It's been my goal to perfect the most awesome wheatgrass with not a speck of mold. I can cut mine all the way down and get a lot of the white sweet area without the worry of juicing the headache provoking white fuzz. I look at the stuff the sell at the health food stores and it looks terrible compared to what I grow at home. And I spend about .75 per tray compared to $20-$25 at the co-op!

[Shivananda]

Just goes to show ya, there are sometimes very different ways to do the same thing.

I use a Ionic air cleaner next to my trays on their first 1-2 growing days. I can get that. A fan does the same thing. Mold thrives in still damp air, so keeping the air stirred up inhibits it.

I'm careful never to sprout the seeds too long either, which can promote mold growth before you even get the seed under the soil. Just a tiny tail and then I rinse and plant. And after trying many things I have gone exactly the other way. Using tiny amounts of Grapefruit Seed Extract in the rinse water eliminates mold entirely, and sprouting the wheatberries longer in the jar has proven to give me a faster, better crop and is easier for me to spread evenly in the flat. Currently I soak for 8 hours, then sprout for 2 days before spreading over growing medium I use. It's a 50/50 perlite and sphagnum moss mixture I use instead of soil, because soil fosters mold and adds nothing to the end quality of the juice. I don't cover the seeds with planting medium. I do place an empty tray over the spread sprouts for a day or two, and the sprouts lift it up when it's time to remove it. And I water 2 to 3 times a day with a little liquid kelp and GSE in the water. Once the sprouts are 1/2" up I water from beneath, rather than misting, as that also helps suppress mold.


I grow my wheatgrass mainly for 3 seasons and then don't bother in the hot summertime. I don't stop sprouting in summer. No need to. It just takes a little more attention.


I can cut mine all the way down and get a lot of the white sweet area without the worry of juicing the headache provoking white fuzz. I could do that but I don't, because what I want is the magic of the living green chlorophyll. I cut an entire flat worth of just the white part one time and juiced it all by itself to see what would happen. It had a kind of sweet insipid nothing taste, and I got none of the wheatgrass "zing" so I decided to leave it out of my juice henceforth.

But isn't it interesting that we both like the results we get. :)