Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/take-back-the-juice

Comment #1171

2019-05-06T03:27:15Z

Paying for disposal of the peels? You mean I shouldn't begrudge the impulse that makes me bury ours under the grapefruit tree? I'd say you need to get some worms, but they don't like citrus peels -- too acid. And even if they did, they'd never keep up with the quantity we produce in making juice. Fortunately, citrus peels decay very quickly, so whenever you get a bit of ground for a garden, you'll be golden.

Comment #1170

2009-04-06T17:19:41Z

I'll ask my husband if we can get some worms. There might be room for them at the foot of the bed . . .

Comment #1169

2009-04-06T06:36:21Z

It must be noted that if I made orange juice from Swiss oranges the price would be a good deal higher, so my comparison only reveals my situation and can only apply to those living close enough to the German boarder to shop in Germany. Unlike the sales tax in the states, if you import German goods into Switzerland (as a resident) you can get the sales tax back from the German government but don't have to pay Swiss tax. Of course there is a limit on the amount per person per day so it is only of personal advantage. With tax on food at 7% and the VAT at 19%, this is significant. For some reason OJ in DE is taxed at 19%. Makes me think it's considered a luxury drink. Also, don't forget there is a fair amount of labor involved in biking in Germany (which I do for piano lessons anyway), filling out the paperwork for the tax refund, and of course squeezing the oranges and paying for the disposal of the peels. Still, it's a fun discovery.

Comment #1168

2009-04-05T19:44:50Z

$4/half gallon of good juice is a great price, even here. At our local Fresh Market (pricey but much closer than Whole Foods)I pay $5/half gallon for grapefruit juice and $6/half gallon for orange. The price is better at the farmer's market, but again I pay in travel time. Last week I paid $2 for 4 lbs (1.8 kg) oranges (on sale), so your price is a good one. Why is orange juice so expensive in Switzerland, if oranges are not?

Don't think of yourself as an orange juice snob. It's more like understanding why living in Japan is a richer experience than visiting the Japanese pavilion at EPCOT.

Comment #1167

2009-04-05T18:54:13Z

There is a great danger in becoming an orange juice snob. My solution in Switzerland so far is to occasional pay out the ear for a good glass of orange juice from an automatic juice machine, but it is far to expensive to be made into a regular habit. However, I just discovered "Saftorangen" or juice-oranges that I can buy in Germany for 1.50 Euro (2USD) a 1.5kg bag. That's about 11 medium-sized oranges with no seeds so I can dump all the pulp back into the juice which means the yield is much higher - about four cups or OJ per bag. I squeeze by hand, which isn't so bad since I'm only squeezing for myself (my husband still drinks the concentrate stuff). I guess that means a half-gallon (about 2 liters) costs 4 dollars. For an idea of how incredibly cheap that is, the same amount of the cheapest OJ from concentrate in Switzerland is 2.50 USD. I can't remember the price of the good stuff exactly, but it would be something like 10USD. The same amount from the above mentioned juice machine would be over 20USD. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with the new discovery of Saftorangen!

Comment #1166

2009-04-01T19:55:37Z

First thing you do is teach your kids to make the juice. :)

For me, the longest time goes into the before and after work—home-grown fruit requires more washing, though if you don't mind a little bug poop in your juice, you can skip that part. And I bury the rinds instead of throwing them out. If you get your fruit from the grocery store it at least looks cleaner; you can judge whether or not that's really true.

Actually slicing the fruit in half and squeezing the juice is a quick operation with our old juicer, and I'm sure there are better ones on the market these days (and worse ones as well). Ours looks a little like this. The kids would really like the squeezing part, I think.

Quantity, however, may be a problem, if I remember correctly how much orange juice you drank each week at Carroll Street. I think the last four-pound bag I bought at the store made about a quart and a half— it's hard to tell since we usually sample our wares generously during preparation. (The exhortation about kine treading out grain comes to mine.) You might want to stick with the store-bought version for everyday wear and let the good stuff be for "Sunday best."

As a compromise, check out the juice at Whole Foods. Ours, at least, sells unpasteurized orange and grapefruit juice. It doesn't say so on the label, but it doesn't say "pasteurized" either, and I was told that it is the real thing. If it's not, it's the best imitation I've tasted.

Comment #1165

2009-04-01T19:07:06Z

I'm considering the possibility of switching to "real" orange juice, but I'm afraid it would require too much time, effort and money. And that I'd be stuck, never again satisfied with mere "not from concentrate" mass-produced juice. How many oranges and how much time does it take to make a quart of juice (including cleanup) with a good home juicer?