Blueberry Juice

[Durgan]

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?SATFZ 27 July 2014 Blueberry Juice
Blueberries are in season in my area. There are many local U pick farms. Today 33 pounds of choice berries were picked at Kent Kreek Farm in Simcoe, ON. The berries were priced at $2.75 per pound. Twenty three liter jars of juice was produced. The berries were processed in two batches. Seven liters of water was added to the berries in the pot and the berries ere cooked until soft. The cooked berries were blended into a slurry. There is little gross fiber in blueberries and they may be canned at this point, but I strain the slurry to remove any coarse material, which is very little. The residue from the screening was put through a Champion Juicer (not shown), which produces a fine pudding or it may be mixed with the main juice. The product was then pressure canned in liter jars at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?OKFOS 30 July 2014 Blueberry Juice
Fifteen pounds of blueberries were picked and made into eleven liters of juice. Double the amount was required but it started to rain so left the area.There was no residue after blending probably due to the quality of the berries. Pictures depict the juicing procedure.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?NZKIF 4 August 2014 Blueberry Juice
Twenty nine liters of blueberry juice was made from 35 pounds of U pick blueberries. Kent Kreek Farm, Simcoe, ON. Berries cost $2.75 per pound. The juice was pressure canned at 15 PSI for 15 minutes for long term storage at room temperature. Annotated picture depict the process.

 

[peachdejour]

Oh wow! How long did this process take? I am allergic to synthetic dyes and I've been looking into ways to make my own food colorings. I don't know if just getting a simple juicer is good enough for the job after seeing this post. How are you storing the juice? Did you can it?

 

[Durgan]

Oh wow! How long did this process take? I am allergic to synthetic dyes and I've been looking into ways to make my own food colorings. I don't know if just getting a simple juicer is good enough for the job after seeing this post. How are you storing the juice? Did you can it?

Boiled blueberry juice is a strong blue dye. My juicing method is more than just the water, since almost all the structure is incorporated into the end product. After pressure canning the product is simply stored in a box at room temperature. I keep it for about six months until it is all consumed.The Champion Juicer sort of gets the last of the nutrients from the first staining, and separates the little bit of cellulose.

The process takes little time. Probably three hours from start to finish for a batch. Pressure canning takes about an hour for seven jar batches. I don't find the process for canning onerous at all. I pressure can all my juices. It is quick, simple and safe.

Sometimes with blueberries, I only do the first straining, and accept a few small particles in the final juice.

 

[peachdejour]

Boiled blueberry juice is a strong blue dye. My juicing method is more than just the water, since almost all the structure is incorporated into the end product. After pressure canning the product is simply stored in a box at room temperature. I keep it for about six months until it is all consumed.The Champion Juicer sort of gets the last of the nutrients from the first staining, and separates the little bit of cellulose.

The process takes little time. Probably three hours from start to finish for a batch. Pressure canning takes about an hour for seven jar batches. I don't find the process for canning onerous at all. I pressure can all my juices. It is quick, simple and safe.

Sometimes with blueberries, I only do the first straining, and accept a few small particles in the final juice.

Okay. That doesn't seem to take long at all. My grandmother used to do a lot of pressure canning before I came to live with her, but she had stopped a lot of it because of her arthritis. I'm learning to do all of it on my own with a few memories of tips she used to give me. My mother started to do some canning with corn cob jelly. She has some mishaps herself before she finally got it right. When I try this myself I'll post pictures of the product and the mishaps! It's always good to have a few laughs. I'll have my daughter help me with the juicing that way she learns how to do it too!

 

[Durgan]

Pressure canning is a bit of an art. I have my own established method that deviates from the published dogma. I use 15 PSI for 15 minutes. My jar contents are always homogenized thus insuring that the contents reach 240F, which kills all bacteria. I never have anything spoil but do take care.

 

[Rosyrain]

I really enjoy fresh blueberries and would like to male my own juice and jams from them. I have never thought about juicing them for the dyes before, but the color of the juice really is rich.

 

[peachdejour]

I never thought about juicing them for dyes either until I became allergic to synthetic dyes. You would not believe how many foods in our supermarket have dyes in them. Just the white products alone have yellow and blue dyes in them to make the white brighter. We eat with our eyes. I've had to start learning how to make my own cakes and icings because there are very few on the market that are dye free. My daughter loves color and natural dyes are really expensive. Learning how to making my own is going to be an invaluable skill and might become a lucrative one if I can do it well.

 

[Rosyrain]

I was recently looking at some organic clothing and they are very expensive. If you are allergic to dyes, it is probably much cheaper to make your own clothes.

 

[peachdejour]

Luckily, my skin allergies are minimal. It seems to only be a problem when I ingest dyes. I do try to go organic as much as possible. Anything organic costs a pretty penny so I tend to buy a lot of quality staple pieces of my wardrobe in organic materials. I make my own cleaners and pantry items when I can. It's a learning process.

 

[kammy]

I have never really ate the fresh blueberries however i have purchased blueberry juice at the grocery stores and find it to be to my liking as a matter of fact i don't really see any blueberry plants in my area.

 

[Mockingbird]

I love the summers and being in WNY I have about the same availability to the same grown food as you do. Durgan, I have to ask, why in your opinion is a slurry the better process? I juice a lot. I have a centrifugal juicer and am able to get a nice juice with no water added. Depending on speed I can have a thicker or thinner juice. The juice is in a form where I can add additional fruits or vegetables, strain it, drink it then or bottle it for later. I juice easily 12 lbs of organic berries in season- a week and drink it fresh My point is I have not added water. Don't the water dilute the vitamin even more? You do lose some of the vitamin content when you pressure cook it, but I agree it is better then any processed food on the market.

I do still have the heavier components to the produce that I can use in different cooking ways, for example the slurry is used for jam, there is enough juice left in the pulp to make a nice compote or jam easily. I make toppings for pancakes and add to bread and muffins. Why just limit your use of that much fruit? I am not trying to be critical I am just trying to see if there is some point I do not understand.

 

[Durgan]

I use the complete vegetable or fruit, except for some minor cellulose. The pressure canning is for long term off season storage.
No sugar is ever used in my process. I consider added sugar to be the ultimate poison.
I tried raw processing and find the cooked version now used to be far superior.
Nutrition-wise the process has to be far superior to commercial processing.
Water added is to make the juice drinkable, depending upon the material being processed.
No salt is added to any of my products.

For years I use to simply blend raw products and drink raw as required. Storage was only in the refrigerator. I had a centrifugal unit for some time but did not like it. Juice is mostly water unless one utilizes the particles. There is not a supermarket juice fit for consumption in my view.

Fiber is microscopic. It is not the gross indigestible bit which should not be ingested unless one is a ruminant.

In my view there is something fundamentally wrong with our diet evidenced by the obesity epidemic.

Here is my effort. I utilize all that is available about 500 liters each year. http://durgan.org/2011/

I am always experimenting.

 

[Mockingbird]

In my view there is something fundamentally wrong with our diet evidenced by the obesity epidemic.

I completely agree with you on this point, there is something wrong with the processed food today. When I was young we did not have all this ready made stuff like they do now. My family were farmers and we ate from the soil for the most part. I raised my children with the same thought. With time things change and life got hectic, I found we ate differently and my health suffered terribly from it. Not just weight gain but very serious joint pains and things of that nature.

We, as a family took a very hard stand and totally went back to how we used to eat, I call it bare root eating. You get the raw food and from that make the recipes you like. I am very fortunate I have many of the hand wrote recipes from my great grandmother and her mother still. They lived on a farm in PA, made everything they ate and preserved. I applaud your efforts and thank you for sharing!

 

[claudine]

I'd love to drink fresh blueberry juice! I'm sure it's delicious and very healthy, especially since you don't add any preservatives to it. Unfortunately, blueberries are really expensive in winter. I must wait until summer to buy more of them.

 

[globulon]

Blueberry juice sounds amazing and yet, surprisingly, I've never tried it! Whenever I buy or pick some blueberries my first instinct is to munch on them right away. Maybe next time I should save some up for the juicer!