Well, I don't know if it really does all that, but I'm pretty convinced that it's a good addition to a healthy diet. It's a whole food, it's green and rapidly-growing (like Weston A. Price's research applauded), and you can grow it, then cut it, juice it, and drink it yourself, all within about 5 minutes (obviously not including the growing part). That's about as fresh and local as you can get!
A few weeks ago, I decided to jump on the wheatgrass bandwagon and see what the ride was like. I had dirt. I had wheat. I had a little pot. Success!
(It's the one that looks like grass)
Unfortunately, I forgot about the juicing part. The whole grass cannot be consumed because it contains very tough fibers (and our non-cow stomachs can't handle them).
So I did a little Googling and came up with a blender juicing method for beginners like me. Apparently, using a blender on wheatgrass is just short of heresy to the wheatgrass community (and if you don't do it right, it can wreck your blender), so I will not describe the process here or show pictures. Suffice it to say, my blender method produced a very weak, watery wheatgrass solution about the color of lime jello. All the pictures I've seen of wheatgrass juice have been emerald green and nearly opaque, so I assume my product was about 1/5th the strength of the actual stuff.
It tastes fine, though, and I think it gave me some extra energy (could have just been the placebo effect). More importantly (to me), it really seemed to help my ornery problem-prone skin.
I ordered a real wheatgrass juicer today. I'm pretty excited.
Update: The wheatgrass juicer has arrived and is pumping out green goodness. Want to read all about how I juice my wheatgrass? Continue on to Wheatgrass Juicing (The Real Way).
This post has been added to the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop
and Simple Lives Thursday, hosted by GNOWFGLINS, and Tasty Tuesday at 33 Shades of Green
Update: The wheatgrass juicer has arrived and is pumping out green goodness. Want to read all about how I juice my wheatgrass? Continue on to Wheatgrass Juicing (The Real Way).
This post has been added to the Real Food Wednesday blog carnival hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop
and Simple Lives Thursday, hosted by GNOWFGLINS, and Tasty Tuesday at 33 Shades of Green
Hi! I'm so glad you found me through the Real Food Wed deal and glad you posted your link. I liked reading your post about the wheatgrass today. I have a Champion juicer but apparently you need some sort of special juicer, not a regular one, for juicing grass, right?
ReplyDeleteJenna, I think so. It sounds like normal juicers aren't quite as good for leafy greens either.
ReplyDeleteU need to ferment it because this wheatgrass contain lots of oxalic acid That binds iron! If I don't remember wrongly, it is the same as spinach. U consume this raw. I crush the blades, add a tsp of milk kefir & soak the whole bunch of grass in a liter of cool boil water or half diluted organic juices with the lid loosely covered. A day of fermentation is sufficient under temp 30dC. For diluted juices, usually, I leave for a week. This method of extraction uses the enzymatic action of fermenting friendly probiotic bacteria that eliminates the need of juicing.
ReplyDeleteWow, I have never heard of fermenting the wheat grass before. I will have to look into this some more. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDelete