I know when I first thought about dedicating time to juicing, I was unsure of what to do, how to do it, and how to make sure I’m getting the full benefits of juicing. Well I think it’s time to get back to the basics a little bit and welcome our new fellow juicers by giving a brief Juicing 101 crash course. Here are a few things to know when you’re a beginner juicer.

Lesson #1: Cleaning Your Juicer
Once you’ve received your juicer, learn how to clean it. Cleaning your juicer right after using it makes it very easy to clean. For example, with the Power Juicer, you can simply rinse off or throw out any pulp in your Pulp Collector and caught in the Filter. Then, you can wash all parts in the dishwasher, except for the Base of course. Here a tip to make it even easier to clean. Use a plastic shopping bag or small trash bag to line the Pulp Collector. That way, when you’re done juicing, all you have to do to clean it out is throw away the bag.

Lesson #2: Preparing Produce
Apples, grapes, cherries, berries, beets, and many more fruits and vegetables contain seeds, stems and hard peels. It can get confusing how to prepare your produce. First you should always clean your produce to make sure no chemicals or dirt gets in your juice. As a general rule of thumb, if something has a hard pit like cherries or very tough skin, remove it. If you wouldn’t eat it raw then don’t juice it. So beet greens and carrot tops are examples of things that should be removed.

Lesson #3: Storing Your Juice
A lot of people also ask if and how they can store fresh juice. Well I say it’s always most beneficial to drink right away. But if you only have time to juice in the morning and want a juice for lunch, you can store your fresh juice in airtight containers in the refrigerator. They can last for up to 1 day like this.

Lesson #4: Juicing Leafy Greens
Leafy greens are among the healthiest things to juice. Two problems with leafy greens; they don’t taste great and they’re difficult to juice in any juicer. Well I’ve got one solution for both problems… sweet, juicy fruits! Sometimes, the leafy greens will get caught up in the juicer. You need to follow it with a juicier ingredient to get it all out. By doing this you’re also improving the taste by adding some sweetness. And don’t be alarmed if you see a lot of pulp from your greens, you’re getting the juice out of it. You just need to use more leafy greens than you do fruits. Apples and citrus fruits are great for this but you can experiment with anything. Which brings me to my last lesson.

Lesson #5: Experiment
You don’t need to stick to strict recipes and only follow the basic juices you already know. Experiment with different flavors and ingredients! This is the fun part, learning to create your own healthy juices and customizing them to your own liking. Get creative and figure out which ingredients make strong colors for your juices to create special juices for special events. For example, beets make juices a deep red color perfect for Valentine’s Day juices.

What are some of your tips and tricks for beginner juicers?

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