$5 Bargain

As some of you know, I just bought a juicer on Amazon. I can't remember whether I posted about it or not, but I had a $25 gift certificate, and so at its full price of $30 I got a factory refurbished Waring JEX328FR Health Juice Extractor (it extracts juices from health???) for a mere $5--almost less than what I'd pay for a serving of fresh juice.

So by all counts, it's a bargain, at least as a hunk of machinery to take up counter space. How well does it work? Significantly better than $5 worth, for sure, and well worth the original price of $30, although (as plenty of reviewers on Amazon affirm) it doesn't get the most juice out of the pulp, and if I don't clean out the pulp collector fairly often it lets quite large bits of stuff pass through unpulverized. The instructions say that it can handle spinach and other leafy things, but not grass, but I haven't tried any of that yet. Cleanup is no more a pain than any other juicer I've used, including the much-worshiped Champion brand.

Caveats aside, the juice I made last night was divine, and although I am sorry to throw away all that carrot/apple/ginger pulp, with a little foresight I can use some of that material for muffins, soup base, etc.--I just have to take the extra trouble to peel anything that needs peeling (like the apples). Today I try something involving celery.

Well worth $30.