Manual wheatgrass and "weed grass" (wild greens) juicer

I've been using my manual wheat grass juicer everyday since I got it. Not only for juicing wheat grass but also different weeds like nettle, carrots, apples, kale etc.

Wheat grass is known to be very nutrient dense. You can't take a lot of it and probably even shouldn't.
The wild edibles I've juiced had some of the same effect as wheat grass has. Some sort of potent dark green alive substance and that can eliminate feeling hungry for several hours.

There can't be too many calories in weed juice you would think, but good quantities of vital vitamins and minerals can be downed relatively quickly compared to have to chew them up. Of course you can chew in addition.

If you know the nutrients that are in the different wild edibles then you could compose pretty nutritious weed smoothies and that would keep you going for quite some time even if there would be nothing else to eat for maybe weeks? Or maybe use such a juicer to complement an otherwise poor diet?

In the winter months you can grow wheat grass and other micro greens, but from spring to late fall I would just go and harvest weed.

The juicer I got is in stainless steel. Should last a long, long time. Takes some practice to learn to juice the different fruits and vegetables but this is a typical long term survival item I'd say.

Martin, what is the taste of the "weed" juice, comparable to wheat grass???

In general, and from the weeds/wild edibles I've tried, a bit less intense and some milder than wheat grass. Still quite potent and often very distinct tasting and something you have to get used to before taking larger amounts.
Half an ounce of nettle juice gave me a loose bowel the day after. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, I suspect that may have been a cleansing reaction.

Most know the taste of the bottom ends of some types of grasses. Sort of sweet and snacky. I imagine that would make for a rather sweet and refreshing drink.

Here's someone who's juicing milk thistle. In a blender but can be done using a manual juicer too:


Most will need to study the subject of wild edibles before trying to survive on weed juice. It may as well kill you if you don't really know what you're having in your weed smoothies. Sergei Boutenko is one of several good resources on the subject.

All in all I suspect this to be a vital part of any long term off grid survival strategy. May be able to replace and/or supplement quite some pork&beans, dried vegetables and fruits, and even fresh vegetables.

I read a little book long ago and which was about a Polish mom or grandma and family and that survived and stayed healthy during the second world war. Mainly on wild grasses and other "weeds" if I remember correctly.

In the end you can't do too long without good amounts of calories, especially during winter. For long term fats and proteins you would need to look for additional solutions.

Just noticed it seems to be OK to link to commercial websites at Permies.com, so taking the chance.
http://www.harvestessentials.com/hurricane-wheatgrass-juicer-stainless-steel-like-mj445.html

This is not for advertizing for this particular brand. I'm just impressed by it after one month of use and I like the simplicity of it.

Again it takes some practice and power to get the best out of this hand crank juicer. For example I cut up wheat grass and weeds in 2 inch lengths, large carrots are split up in thinner lengths etc. You'll find out how to work it when you really have to

The removable stainless steel mesh can sometimes get stuck after use. I sometimes have to use a monkey wrench to get it out for cleaning. That's the only thing I dislike about this juicer but I can live with it, NP.
This mesh also tends to become saturated with pulp after some use and then it simply is time for cleaning and continue juicing after. The cleaning is a rather simple process.

It grinds coffee beans as well and even wheat berries can be milled to flour -again you would need to practice and get the grip of how to do it without using too much power. I don't recommend it as a grain mill, just saying it will work if necessary.

As for the investment, this juicer comes with a 5 year warranty. May not last that long if it's used by the whole family as a grain mill though. For now I'd guess it will serve 2 persons well for at least 5 years. It is a solid handy little crusher and that should outlive it's plastic variants several times.

I'm in Norway and payed 90 bucks extra :/ (custom taxes and shipping). But still not expensive enough to scare me from buying one more. Items like these are, to me, as good as gold for investment when it comes to long term prepping.

Demo:

I was curious about this so I followed that link.  It turns out that it's just an old fashioned manual food grinder, like every household probably had before the days of the electric blender.  I often see these for five dollars or less at garage sales, although finding them in complete working order with all their parts and blades and screens is much less common.

I was curious about this so I followed that link.  It turns out that it's just an old fashioned manual food grinder, like every household probably had before the days of the electric blender.  I often see these for five dollars or less at garage sales, although finding them in complete working order with all their parts and blades and screens is much less common.

not exactly Dan.  A meat grinder will not function as a wheat grass juicer.  It is quite similar to a meat grinder/food grinder but has a slightly different make-up, particularly in the fine removable screen, but also in the pulp separator plate, if I remember correctly.  Mine is in storage.  Note to self...    :)

Roberto, I note you say "meat grinder" -- I was a bit careful in my phrasing.  The old antique household hand grinders often came in sets, with a wide variety of cutting blades, screens, and plates, suitable for every task from grinding up sausage to making baby food to preparing fruits for jelly-making, which last task has a lot in common with what we are talking about.  I can't swear that a fully-featured kitchen food grinder always came with a combination suitable for juicing greens but if you tell me that you're certain it never did, I'm going to quietly suspect you of undue certainty.

Hi Dan.  

I agree that it's possible that I am guilty of undue certainty.

The way that I read your post was that you can commonly find food grinders used for 5 or so bucks.  In that case, I feel some doubt that, in that case, that the grinder would have the entire gambit of bits, particularly the, perhaps (in my thinking), lesser used bits.  I would suspect/assume that most people used those types of grinders for grinding grains or grinding meat, and not making juice, and as such by the time it ended up on the table at a yard sale, it is likely to be in one of those configurations of bits, and unlikely to have the lesser used extra bits that would have found their way to the bottom or back of drawers and cupboards and then later lost in time.  

That said, I also was thinking, more to the point of my post that the grinders in question are made most specifically for juicing greens, via the shape of all of its bits, including a spout where the juice pours down.  While a person can use this type of grinder for other things as the OP says, I would use a heavier grinder with a very different assemblage of bits for most of those other tasks.  

The specialization of the tool makes it a bit different, inherently, from the multipurpose adaptable grinders that you are mentioning.          

I guess we're talking past each other, because it seems to me that you're saying the same thing as me now, only with more words.  No worries!