One of the best things about having a vegetable garden is actually enjoying your harvest. There are plenty of ways to enjoy garden vegetables, but one of my favorites is juicing. Fresh juice is one of the easiest ways to appreciate and use all your garden has to offer. Here are some pointers for juicing from the garden and a basic recipe to get you started.
One of the easiest vegetables to grow is also one of the very best ingredients for making green juice. It is none other than leafy greens! Leafy greens cover a wide range of different vegetables, kale, chard, spinach, mustard greens, beet greens, lettuce, and many others. Leafy greens of all kinds are easy to get started from seed and can be eaten or juiced at any stage, from sprout to flower.
Herbs are probably already part of your garden. They taste great and are a source of juicing nutrition that is often overlooked. To juice your herbs add them right along with your leafy greens. Parsley and cilantro are my favorites for fresh taste, nutrition, and how easy they are to grow.
Cucumbers are also easy to grow during the right season and are perfect for juicing. Garden fresh cucumbers make for some of the most refreshing juice. For maximum yield, harvest fruit when they are still young. Regular harvesting will encourage more fruit production besides, overgrown cucumbers can be bitter, have thicker skin, and less juice.
The Garden Green juice recipe featured here calls for celery. To be honest, unless you have a celery farm, it is near impossible to grow enough for a daily juicing habit. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give celery a go in your garden. Garden fresh celery is vibrant in color and flavor.
My celery for juicing usually comes from the market but when the season is in swing, I always add a couple of stalks from the yard. When you have a celery plant there is no need to harvest the whole bunch. Just trim a couple of the larger stalks from around the edge. The plant will continue to grow and produce more stalks for juicing. It will eventually flower and give you plenty of seeds that can be used as a spice and to grow next year’s celery patch.
One of the reasons I love juicing with my garden haul is that nothing goes to waste. After all the best picks for sharing and dinner are taken, everything else gets juiced. A perfect example is my broccoli plants. The leaves, stalks, and stems that don’t end up on the dinner table will go into the next morning’s green juice. Just about anything, even if it is bruised or overripe is great for juicing.
With a veggie garden and a desire to juice the Green Garden juice recipe featured here is really just the tip of the iceberg. Getting inspiration for your juicing is all over the place. There are lists of great books and online juicing references that can give you juicing ideas that your garden harvest can be part of.
Easy Garden Green Juice D’jour Recipe
Celery and cucumber are mild simple green flavors that provide a great base for just about anything the garden can throw at it.
- 2 stalks of celery
- 1 cucumber
- 2 cups mixed leafy greens, herbs, and other garden vegetables
- 1 cup water
Optional:
- Squeeze of lemon and a pinch of salt
- Juice ingredients as fit for your juicer. For a delicious finish add the lemon and salt and stir. Enjoy!
