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“Best Buy” Hydropress Juicer
Jim Riddle, Hillsborough, N.H.: “My wife and I operated a 5-acre berry farm for 10 years and sold multiple kinds of berry juice. I used to think a steam juicer was the best ever for turning fresh, raw fruit into juice. Then I came across the Hydropress from Pleasant Hill Grain, Hampton, Neb. (www.pleasanthillgrain.com; ph 866-467-6123).
    “Our commercial grade steamer cost only about $200. The Hydropress cost around $800, but it’s faster than steaming, does a better job, and doesn’t require any power aside from a garden hose. I think the juice tastes fresher than with steaming.
    “You place fruit in the linen liner bag inside the stainless steel basket, then turn the ball valve connected to your garden hose. A heavy-duty rubber bladder in the center of the basket inflates under the water pressure. As the bladder fills, it presses the juice out through small holes in the basket where they drain into the base, through a tube into a catch bucket.
    “The juice comes out of every pore, as opposed to the conventional mechanical screw press or hydraulic top press that pushes the fruit down, leaving a very dry pomace cake.
    “With the steamer, I could only do 20 lbs. of fruit per batch, with each batch taking several hours. With the Hydropress, I can do 50 lbs. per batch and extract all the juice in half an hour. That’s with the smaller 20-liter model. Pleasant Hill Grain also carries an 80-liter unit.
    “In addition to berries, we also raised plums. When a brewery ordered plum puree for a plum-flavored beer, I had to figure out how to cook them up and strain out the skins and pits.
    “I adapted the Hydropress to puree by replacing the stainless steel basket with its small holes. I had a local metal fabricator use stainless steel with 1/4-in. round holes to make a new basket the puree could pass through. Concerned the pits might puncture the bladder, I put the mesh liner bag between the bladder and the fruit.
    “When the bladder began to fill, the puree started shooting out of the holes, all over my wife and I. I went back to the metal fabricator and had a solid stainless steel jacket made for the basket. With it in place, the puree dripped down to be collected.
    “With the steamer, making juice meant heating it twice, once for steaming and again for bottling. Each time you heat juice, you lose some of the health benefits. All of these fruits have the highest level of antioxidants and other benefits when fresh and raw. The Hydropress produces cold pressed juice. We still heated it for bottling, but if it were being frozen, it wouldn’t be heated at all. You would preserve even more of the health benefits.”



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2020 - Volume #44, Issue #6