Squeezin The Juice

What the hell!! I've been buying gallons of organic orange juice when I've got a frigging orange tree in the back yard. For quite a long time, I've dismissed the orange tree as a nuisance, somtheing to be dealt with. The fruit would fall to the ground year after year, requireing clean up. I had never tried to eat the fruit, having been told by more than one person that the oranges from the tree were sour and not fit to eat. What a suprise then, when I finally decided to see for myself! The ripe fruit is sweet, juicy, delicious, hands down the winner over store bought for the financial savings alone!!

I picked up a trillium juicer at Sally's on half off day for $2.50. It looked brand new, in the box and all the parts were wrapped in plastic. SCORE! The master plan was to juice every last orange on the tree. Since then I found this Granny Miller video and realized I should can some of these wonderful oranges. That will be the next task.

All members of the family were enlisted for this job. No one was coerced and no husbands were injured in the making of this juice.

The girls and I picked bushel after bushel of oranges. After picking over 100 oranges, I decided to get through what we had before picking any more. We brought the oranges in from in sacks, about 20 at a time so the girls could carry them. Freya washed and rinsed the oranges while I peeled them. All the peels and pulp went into the compost after we were done.

Bella and Dad put the oranges through the juicer, its not the most efficient juicer but it ROCKS for $2.50! After letting it settle for a while, Freya scooped out the pulp. Or as she calls it, "The Gulp".

We worked all day, the girls were really into it and couldn't wait to drink their own homemade orange juice. At last, after about 4 hours we were done and the girls went out to play while Scott and I did the clean up. I don't think this juice will last us all year, but it will definitely put a dent in our grocery bill!

The big problem we are running into is space. There is not a lot of space in our freezer....and 20 bags of frozen OJ takes up a lot of room. Another reason to buy a deep freeze!!