Juicing

Does your child know that juice is squeezed from fruits and vegetables? My kids are amoung the lucky few who get to see juice get made from raw materials. We have an orange tree in our back yard from which we gather fruit by the bucket load to squeeze fresh juice. We also have an Omega 8006 Juicer that we use to make juice from kale, carrots, cabbage, apples, celery, ginger, watermelon, and many other foods (not all in the same recipe!).

I think that helping make the juice is an invaluable experience for my kids to have a sense for the economy of food but I think they like it for other reasons. My 1.5 year old likes to help...it doesn't matter what she's helping with as long as it is meaningful. My preschool engineer on the other hand like the machines. He likes the press for the oranges with its lever and obvious rack and pinion gear. He LOVES the worm gear that he can watch turn while the Omega grinds and squeezes juice from food.

Last week we were on another juice kick...making vegetable juice every morning and Mikey choosing to watch "George Meets the Press" every afternoon. As you can see from the picture above, the mechanical wonder of the apple press in this episode is super cool. There are belts and gears and a conveyor belt. It is, of course, a barn-sized version of what we do in our kitchen: wash the food, chop the food, press the food, pour the juice.

Watch for free on YouTube or buy it on Amazon.

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