These items have been tested and rated for pesticide residue by the Environmental Working Group as of the 2010 harvest (testing completed in 2011) and are the produce items most heavily loaded with pesticide residue. The last thing you need to be doing when you juice is adding pesticide residue to your diet. So, if you cannot buy these products as organic, the best idea is to skip them altogether, or grow your own.

      The importance of this list is twofold. First, you need to know where you are most likely to encounter high levels of toxic chemicals in your food. Second, you need to know which foods are particularly excellent juicing candidates and so highly nutritious that they should be in your juicing regimen. In the list above, the items that jump out as important members of that list are apples, celery, blueberries, kale and collard greens. These are all excellent cleansing foods (isn’t that ironic?) and eliminating them from your juicing regimen would be a serious loss. One way to solve this problem is to look for them at local farmers markets and be sure to ask the sellers if they do not specifically state that their produce is organic. Another solution is to frequent local grocers who carry a larger selection of organic produce. Here in the Pacific Northwest that means local smaller grocery chains such as Market of Choice, or even the regional chain, Fred Meyer where there is a much higher assortment of both local and organic produce than in many of the nationwide chain stores.

      So don’t give up too soon if you don’t find the organic produce you want for juicing right away. You can often find it, and it does not have to be super expensive either. See the chapter on planning your juicing budget for more tips on best shopping practices for your produce for juicing.

      There are also what is known as the ‘Clean 15′ which are the produce items with the LOWEST measured pesticide residue for the same period. I’m not sure why the newer 2011 harvest data results don’t seem to be showing up anywhere yet, but perhaps they are so similar, the folks at the Environmental Working Group didn’t think they needed to re-do the list.

      Here is their 2011 Clean 15 list:

      Unfortunately, not all of these are great for juicing – but a lot of them are. The cantaloupe and kiwi, and of course cabbage; and adding a grapefruit to your citrus mix can jazz things up nicely as well. Sweet potatoes (aka yams), mango, asparagus and pineapple are all perfectly good juicing candidates.

      Specific Instructions for Preparing Your Produce for Juicing

      We know, it’s true, the manual for the Omega juicer says to chop everything into small pieces in order to extract the maximum amount of juice; but, honestly, it is not necessary and it takes way too much time. Refer to our newbie juicer mistakes chapter here.

      There are some things you can do to make juicing quick and easy and to get the most out of your juicing produce and chopping them all into small pieces is not one of them.

      So here are the steps to take to prepare your produce for juicing, in alphabetical order to keep it simple and easy:

      Apples: Wash, core and juice. Do not juice the core. Do not peel. Larger apples will need to be cut across the cored sections to make them narrow enough to fit into the juicing chute.

      Beets: Scrub well with a vegetable brush. Cut off root tail and cut greens just below the leaf. Cut lengthwise into pieces slender enough to fit into the chute. Juice greens separately from the beets using celery, carrots or other firm vegetables to help feed them through the juicer. Or keep the leaves aside for salads, soups and stews.

      Bananas: You cannot juice fresh bananas, too mushy, but you can freeze them and use the blank cap and make great banana ice desserts. Cut the banana into lengthwise pieces before you freeze it.

      Barley Grass: Cut sections two inches square out of your growing container and feed into juicer in small bunches with firm vegetables or fruit to help feed them in and get them all through the juicer. Barley grass is very astringent, so only use one two inch square of grass at a time (about 6 to 10 inches tall) until you get used to the taste or decide you want more.

      Basil: rinse a handful of leaves and either shake or pat dry. Basil is quite pungent fresh, delicious, but start by adding just a few leaves at a time and add more to taste. Wonderful with cucumber and half a lemon.

      Bok Choy: For small heads, separate outer leaves and wash thoroughly as they may have dirt trapped along the base. Inner leaves of the head are usually clean enough for just a quick rinse. Chop lengthwise to 3/4 inch widths. For large heads, cut the bottom half inch of the base off before washing and proceed as above. Very light and refreshing taste, great with apple and celery.

      Broccoli: Wash and shake to remove excess water from floret heads. Cut off base of stem and cut whole stalks lengthwise to fit into juicer chute. Great with half a lemon or lime.

      Cabbage: Remove outer leaves, usually two or three leaves will get the outer surface fully removed. Cut in half and then cut ‘wedges’ about 1/2 inch thick. Break apart wedges to get slender enough sections to feed into the chute. Cabbages can be surprising – some are super sweet and some are hot and spicy. Taste the cabbage as you juice it to determine which it is and how much of it you want in your juice.

      Carrots: Cut off stem ends first, then scrub well with a vegetable brush. For large carrots cut lengthwise to make them into skinny sticks, for small or medium carrots juice whole.

      Celery: Cut off base of stalks and trim any wilted leaves, then scrub with a vegetable brush. For larger stalks, break lengthwise by squeezing the outer edges toward the middle so they will fit into the chute.

      Chard: Wash and shake excess water off leaves. Remove any wilted or spoiled spots and feed into juicer either leaf tip or stem first. Chard is generally sturdy enough to be fed into the juicer either way. Use a carrot or celery to ‘push’ it through the juicer.

      Chives: wash and shake dry, use small bunches at a time and slide into the juicer, use a carrot or celery stick to push them in and help get them through the juicer.

      Citrus: All citrus are great in juices. The best way to prepare them is to cut just through the peel in a complete circumference of the fruit, then turn 90 degrees and cut again all the way around so that you have four sections of peel from top to bottom that can be easily peeled off without puncturing the cells of the fruit. Once peeled, simply slide in your finger and separate the sections and juice them whole. This keeps more of the juice in the fruit until it gets into the juicer and wastes less juice which is typically lost when you cut the citrus up into pieces. There is something amazing about a juice of orange, lemon and lime – really complex and delicious tasting.

      We like to juice four or five oranges, a lemon and a lime or some combination of them all and then set that juice in its own mason jar and add it to taste to our

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