VRT 350 HD String of the Day in the Desert

The Southwest Desert nights have been chilly.  The mercury is down into the 30s (F.).  The days warm up into the 60s or 70s.  The weather is good for working outdoors, hiking, snowbird sports like golf and tennis, or just sitting in the sun.

I will give you the Omega VRT350HD vertical juicer "string of the day" report:  today the inch of ginger root I added produced a really tough string in my carrot, baby spinach, cucumber, and apple juice.  It was nearly as long as the strings I photographed from yesterday's juice.  See first photo:  spinach strings.
1/20/12

Strings from baby spinach in yesterday's juice!  A few pieces of pulp got into the lower portion of the photo.

Lower strings (green) are the dried strings from yesterday's juice, 1/20/12, as in the first photo. Upper string in this photo is the ginger from today's juice, 1/21/12.  The measure is in inches.

  

I apologize for the poor quality of the photos, but it gives you the idea of what my juicer produces when juicing what I think of as string-free produce, and/or produce cut in small pieces.  The problem is exacerbated when I juice celery or other stringy vegetables.  I assume there are strings that I unknowingly swallow, thus never photograph.  I only pull out the strings that are bothersome in my throat or mouth.  I never experienced a juicer that produces a juice with strings like this.  Have you?

The price of celery has gone up over the past few weeks, so I switched to cucumbers as an addition to my daily mixed vegetable juice.  I have been getting good quality non-organic cucumbers and peeling them prior to use.  I try to avoid cucumbers with oil on their skins.  What is that about?  --keep their skin moist?  --keep them from drying out?  --add weight to the produce?  And what exactly is that oil-like material on the cucumbers?  And what about the wax on the apples?

I have found a thin, wax-like material on organic apple skins.  Sometimes you can scrape it off with a knife, but it does not wash off with reasonable effort, so if I have time, I will return the wax coated apples to the store.  I expect organic to be free of artificial coatings like wax. Apparently this is not always the case.  Is the wax "organic"?

Next week we will have a waxing moon.  Let us not have waxed apples.

Tip: try soaking a spoonful or two of shelled pumpkin seeds for 2-4 hours.  It makes them tender, wetter, and a good snack. 

Be well,
Southwest Desert Blogger
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