Crafted Vegetable Juice-Better than V-8

How to home can all Natural Vegetable Juice in 4 steps

With all the studies about toxic BPA still lurking in store bought canned foods I decided to double down on crafting my own organic natural vegetable juice for my family. So if you are committed to making good healthy food for your family you may want to consider opting out of store bought canned vegetables and juices.

“The researchers found that people who consumed one canned food item in the past day had about 24% higher concentrations of BPA in their urine compared with those who had not consumed canned food. The consumption of two or more canned food items resulted in about 54% higher concentrations of BPA.”-By Jacqueline Howard, CNN

Crafting vegetable juice is not rocket science and each recipe can be different depending on what vegetables you have on hand but the main ingredient is tomatoes. Here’s what I used for this recipe.

• 15 lbs of tomatoes                                                Makes 7 quarts
• 1 bunch of organic celery
• 3 lbs of  organic carrots
• 5 whole beets with leaves
• 2 bell peppers
• 1 salsa pepper (hot)
• 10 long kale leaves
• 10 leafy kale leaves
• 10 Swiss chard stems and leaves
• Fresh herbs; I used a handful of Basil, handful of sage, handful of Oregano
• 3 heads of garlic

To each empty jar add one teaspoon of canning salt and a teaspoon of lemon juice. (Since 1994 studies show that new tomato varieties do not contain enough acid to stop the growth of unwanted organism after the canning process).

STEP 1

Gather your vegetables and wash them.

STEP 2

Rough chop all the ingredients. I used an electric food processor. No need to peel or remove skins if you are using organic foods. Put all the ingredients into a large stock pot and low boil for one hour until vegetables are soft enough to mill in a press. Do not cut up the beets. Leave them whole with skins and stems on. Stir to insure even cooking. Do not let it burn to bottom of pan. Let cool some for the next step.

STEP 3

Use a food mill to remove juice from cooked vegetables.

STEP 4

Pour juice into a nonreactive metal pan and bring to the boiling point. Pour into clean jars. Add 1 teaspoon of canning salt and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Seal and process in boiling water for 40 minutes for quarts; 35 minutes for pints.

Always practice  safe canning methods and inspect your jars for chips on the rims before use.

 

Other vegetable that I add are green beans, zucchini, cabbage, lettuces and onions. Crafting vegetable juice is fun and is the perfect way to use up extra vegetables. You may want to  write down your ingredients so you can duplicate the recipe if you get a really good one. Happy crafting.

If you have a good proven recipe for organic vegetable juice please share it with me below.

Tip: Find out more about why to add lemon juice here.