I know this is kinda an old thread but I have been concentrating tangerine and grapefruit juice lately. I juice the fruit and freeze in jugs (separately) and once the jugs freeze, I pull them out and allow to partially defrost. I can then prop them upside down to pour off the sweeter juice while the water stays frozen longer. Once the stuff dripping out of the previously frozen jug seems to be more water than fruit juice, stop and dispose of the rest of the ice. I've found that if I mix the two different concentrates together I get a really sweet strong juice that doesn't take up as much space in the freezer. I have not been diluting this juice before drinking but I suppose some people might want to. I guess it might be possible to freeze and do the thaw concentrate operation again and get an even stronger concentrate but I don't know how effective it will be in subsequent runs.

I had a large Valencia orange tree in Venice, but now I only have a small one and will probably not get oranges for a couple of years yet. The previous owners' dogs kept the orange tree from growing and they completely killed another orange tree - the only trees that I liked in my new back yard. I now have Meyer lemon and Bearss lime trees growing in wine barrel planters, where they can live fine for a couple of years before I plant them in the ground. In Venice I had mature lemon, lime, mango, and fig trees, and I did not wash the fruit unless it looked dirty. I certainly never washed any of the figs. I never sprayed any of the trees, and I used natural methods for keeping pests under control, such as worm casings spread around the tree. When I did wash citrus or mangoes, I used only water. However, I never had my soil tested, and I don't know that much about the soil in my back yard now, but the lemon and lime trees are growing in potting soil, which I guess is okay. I'm concerned that parts of the yard may have had bad things dumped on them. There is one corner of the yard where grass will not grow, and so I put the bird bath over it. Lars

Well, I have done a little reading, and here are my impressions, which seem consistent with what has been mentioned in this thread so far. A centrifugal juicer such as mine separates liquid from solids. The solids contain most of the vegetable's fiber and pulp. Fiber is typically considered to have about 2 calories per gram or 56 calories per ounce, when eaten by people. It actually has more energy, but we are not able to extract much of it. How much, depends on if the fiber is soluble or insoluble in water. Which means that I could do a little weighing and estimate the calories in the juice and in the solids. The pulp contains exactly what, I dunno, but apparently skin, pith, etc are nutritionally significant in some way. The juice contains most of the vegetable's nutrients - vitamins etc - and sugar. The advantages of drinking juice include rapid and convenient consumption of a large quantity of vegetables, or at least the veg sans fiber and pulp. The disadvantages include rapid consumption of a quantity of sugar. I tend to juice vegetables more than fruit, which might reduce the sugar content. When the vegetable is juiced, it starts to oxidize and lose some nutritional value, compared to the whole vegetable. I can't find any reliable information about how quickly, or how significantly, that happens. It may not be meaningful at all. I mostly juice beets, and mix it with a small amount of carrot juice and apple juice. I started doing this because I like beets. Now I want to test the effect of beet juice, and whole beets, in reducing blood pressure.

Sunflower seeds and homemade ice tea. Our local McDonald's don't have Sweet Tea, I wish they did though. I tried it when I was in AZ and OMG, I loved it! I'd heard about "sweet tea" for years but had never seen it offered here (living in "Southern" California, is not the same as living in "the South" LOL). So glad I had a chance to try it. Now some of you southerners might tell me McDonald's Sweet Tea doesn't count or qualify as true southern sweet tea but I don't care, I loved it nonetheless. Jodi-