juicing with a nut mylk bag?

[mel_s12]

I own a juicer but was reading on RFRN that Heidi uses a nut mylk bag.
It seems to me that this way would be easier in terms of cleaning.
Does anyone use nut mylk bags and find them better or worse to use? Which way would extract more juice?

[raweater]

What's RFRN?

If you used a nut milk bag you'd have to have a Vitamix, and even a vitamix can't grind carrots without added water unless you have the tamper thingy.

I heard of this nut milk bag way of making juice but still decided to get a Green Star juicer, I think the juicer is actually easier to clean than a nut milk bag, I HATE cleaning nut milk bags, in fact I find it impossible, so I dehydrate it with the junk still on it for next use!

I haven't tried making a nut milk in my Green Star juicer yet, but it may be much simpler to clean than a nut milk bag, I clean my green star several times a day, I have yet to successfuly clean a nut milk bag a single time.

[kaybee]

it seems nut milk bags would be alot messier, and way less sanitary; your basically pouring the juice through your hands before it hits the bowl. ick. i would think a juicer would get better yield too, think of all that is lost sticking to the bag, etc or that you cant quite squeeze out. i think a juicer probably has more force/horsepower than your hands--

[mel_s12]

Definitely true.
Thanks!

[raweater]

it seems nut milk bags would be alot messier, and way less sanitary; your basically pouring the juice through your hands before it hits the bowl. ick. i would think a juicer would get better yield too, think of all that is lost sticking to the bag, etc or that you cant quite squeeze out. i think a juicer probably has more force/horsepower than your hands--

I hadn't even thought of that, absolutely true also, I never extract that much out of nut milk bags, and when I try, I rip them appart.

I love my new green star juicer, it cleans up much easier than a nut milk bag, at least for me.

[Rawkinlocs]

Hey Mel!

YES! It can be done! I do it sometimes in my Vitamix (and I own a juicer) because for me, it's quicker and easier to do it this way than pulling out the juicer and then having to clean the gear and the screen, etc. (I have the Champion).

I know that some of the juice feasters I've come across also use this method of "juicing"...I "think" Angela Stokes used that method if I'm not mistaken.

I just now made my eldest daughter (per her request) some apple-carrot-pear juice with the Vitamix and a nut milk bag and it was delicious!

For one apple, a nice handful of baby carrots, and only half of a pear plus about 1/8-1/4 c. of water, I yielded about 16 oz. of juice; the pulp (which is going to make a very nice addition to a veggie burger or something was very easy to remove from the bag and the only remnants of pulp stuck on the bag was equivalent to the amount that would be on the gears of my Champion and it wasn't any messier than making a batch of nut milk. I guess the level of convenience vs. inconvenience just depends on the person and their definition. I've seen some folks claim that making nut milk is too messy but I've never felt that way...I can see that being the case using cheesecloth or something like that, but not with the bag...at least not for me personally.

Also, as for being unsanitary...how is the juice passing through your (hopefully clean) hands any different than your hands touching the fruit you're eating or touching the food you are preparing or touching the milk you are making? If your hands are clean, then they're clean and there is no "unsanitary" conditions involved here.

So, why not try it out and see how it works out for you?

[SuziS]

I just tried using a nut milk bag today to make my juice and really liked it. I don't really like my champion juicer.

[kaybee]

maybe im just OCD... sure, i touch the food i prepare and eat, but try to keep extra hand contact with it to a minimum. not that my hands are dirty, but a roommate once reminded me while she was rolling dough into balls for pb cookies how dead skin cells are always falling constantly off our hands/skin, so basically the cookies she was rolling with her hands were covered with dead skin cells... sorry, i know its natural, but thinking about this just grosses me out. so i prefer to use more utensils for food prep and less handling....

kb

[Tirza]

Eeeuwww! Now I'm going to get paranoid! Dead skin cells - reminds me of CSI!

Anyway, I have been using a nut milk bag to line the bowl the juice goes into just so I can catch the extra pulp and make the juice smoother. I use a Champion for my carrot juice, even though I have a Samson. I guess it's faster. The Samson so far just does wheat grass juice - oh yeah, some cashew butter once too...

After reading about the Norwalk juicer method, and how beneficial it is to have the last squeezings of the pulp, I decided to squeeze out my pulp since the Champion does tend to leave a wetter pulp. Sometimes I just put the pulp back through a couple of times and that does help, but then my motor tends to make funny clicking noises sometimes and my husband freaks out. It is the Commerical one too.... Oh well.

So back to the nut milk bag. I do get quite a lot of juice out of that pulp, but I also hate to use my hands for it, and I am always splitting the stupid bags at the seams. So I thought I would just get some nice fabric like they use to make the nut milk bags or paint strainer bags and just bunch it up around the pulp rather than deal with the seams. I hate them and it does make cleaning more difficult.

Hope that helps.

[Tirza]

Personally, I don't find cleaning up that big of a deal. I juice carrots with a Champion and wheatgrass with a Samson several times a day and a rinse with a dish brush and a little dish soap is very adequate. They are so easy to take apart and reassemble! I just drip them dry and they are good to go for the next round. Even juice bags aren't a big deal. First of all, I found that if I keep the seam side turned to the outside so not so much pulp gets stuck in the seam, it is MUCH easier to clean the pulp out. Just the finished side is on the inside. Fist of all I turn it inside out to get rid of the ball of pulp, then run water through the cloth with the sprayer one way, then turn it outside-in, do the same thing, squeeze it out and lay it over something so it air-dries. I do not like that they get so stained and not nice looking though. I have tried washing them with soap but it doesn't really help with carrot juice stains. I have even tried bleaching them which isn't going to be good for ME if I get more chlorine residue than I already get from tap water and taking showers. So I just block it from my mind and use them stained. The stains bugged me so much I actually got black replacement parts for my white Champion when the cutter etc. started showing stains. :)

Addressing the question of making wheatgrass juice in the Vitamix etc., I have read that if you chop up the wheatgrass into something like 1" pieces (or less maybe) and then blend it with some water, it works well. It won't wind around your blades that way and you can break open the cells and access more juice.

Then you would likely want to squeeze out that pulp as well (with a square or circle of fine nylon cloth as mentioned above to make it easier). One might get away without a special juicer with that method. People often add water to the wheatgrass juice anyway to cut the strength of it. You could even blend it with other juice...

Sounds quite possible to me.