Of gadgets

I've never been much of a gadget person. I don't need the latest technological advances at my fingertip or the newest kitchen aid, just because it looks stylish. Why have a camera inside a telephone, when a camera does the job of a camera already? I don't even know how to operate a microwave oven and I'm completely lost when a technical discussion starts involving terms like dongle or HTML or such like.

I have nothing against new gadgets as a matter of principal, but I just hate something clattering up my kitchen, which gets used only once a year or so. So far in the kitchen my gadets tended to mostly like this:

In addition we have a simple food processor, our fantastic hand driven tomato mill to make all those gallons of tomato sauce every year and a set of reasonably sharp knifes apart from the usual set of pots and pans and bowls.

But NOW, with some of Susan's birthday money, we got ourselves a new machine and , frankly I don't know how we ever managed without it: a wholefruit juicer. It's brilliant! With our gluts of various fruits and vegetables, this is a great way of using them up without any waste. It just juices anything in seconds, apples, pears, carrots, tomatoes, you name it. Whereas you wouldn't normally eat 4 apples in a row, if you juice them, you get a generous glass of real apple juice, with all the goodness in it.

We have just got a whole box of apples and pears from Graham and Anna, the people we have recently helped with their grape harvest. The apples are a local variety called Rotelle and are absolutely delicious: sharp and juicy and packed with flavour. The pears are huge and sweet. So now we make a pear and apple juice every morning. And when we work on our land, I now always gather a few extra ingredients to make an energy reviving, delicious and healthy juice.

Here is one I prepared today:

Can you tell all the ingredients: apples, carrots, tomatoes, a small cucumber, a few small yellow peppers, purslane (remember that super weed that I introduced you to recently http://pathtoselfsufficiency.blogspot.com/search?q=purslane), a slice of lemon, a sprig of mint and a sprig of lemon verbena.

All that goes whole as it is (washed first of course) into the juicer:

Turn it on and press it down:

and drink with a bit of ice:

It's like a liquid salad, tastes great and did you see what all goes in it! I reckon everyone should have one and I promise I'm not on commission with the manufacturer.