Melissa DelMastro
Where to Find Produce for Juicing
Adding vegetable, citrus juice and smoothies to your daily diet is a powerful way for maintaining optimal health. If you are fortunate enough to live close to a juice and smoothie bar, the juice bar has to worry about sourcing all of the produce. If you are looking to juice at home, where do you buy all of that produce? Juicing and smoothies require quite a bit of produce if you are juicing daily. Here are some buying tips.
Fresh is Best, Shop Local
Your first place to shop for produce is either farmer’s markets or direct from the farms. Go to Local Harvest and investigate what produce is available locally. Your best option is to purchase locally grown pesticide-free produce. Many small-scale growers cannot afford to become a certified organic farm because of the high costs, so they may still farm organically, not using chemicals to fertilize or for pest control, but not be officially listed as an organic farm. At your farmer’s market, ask what their farming practices are and see if they grow chemical-free produce.
Two more great options for organic fresh produce are Organic Buying Clubs and CSA’s. If you search on Local Harvest, you will be able to find both groups listed in your area. You might want to search Google as well as Facebook to find additional local groups. You will pay a weekly or bi-weekly amount for a box of in-season organic produce. Each club is different, but they usually have a nice mix of fruit and vegetables. Some clubs even have a juicer box filled with the most common veggies for juicing!
Grocery stores are adding more organic options and are now another great source for your juicing produce. Our local grocery store is Publix, and they are very helpful and friendly. Don’t be afraid to find your local store’s manager and ask them to stock what you are looking for if they don’t have it. Our local store welcomes requests and often will begin to stock new items as consumer requests come in. Make sure you try all the top fruits and vegetables for juicing, and learn the best times to drink them.
Organic produce is more expensive. But if you follow the Environmental Working Group’s guidelines, you can put your shopping dollars to work by purchasing the produce that is usually the most contaminated (like apples and greens) organically, and purchasing conventional choices like pineapples and citrus to save. Refer to the list below to help you reduce your exposure to toxic pesticides.
12 MOST Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables
- Strawberries
- Spinach
- Kale
- Nectarines
- Apples
- Grapes
- Peaches
- Cherries
- Pears
- Tomatoes
- Celery
- Potatoes
15 LEAST Contaminated Fruits and Vegetables
- Avocados
- Sweet Corn
- Pineapples
- Sweet Peas Frozen
- Onions
- Papayas
- Eggplants
- Asparagus
- Kiwis
- Cabbage
- Cauliflower
- Cantaloupes
- Broccoli
- Mushrooms
- Honeydew Melons
Happy Juicing with your Fruit and Vegetable Juicer!
