Fresh juices, step by step

1. Clean fruit

Fresh juice is only as safe as the fruit you press it from.

1. From the tree, not the grass — For fresh juice, pick fruit from the tree or the bed. Windfall apples from grass where sheep, goats, hens or cattle graze go only into juice that will be pasteurised.
2. Two crates — One crate is "for fresh juice": hand-picked, sound, unbruised. The other is "for processing": windfalls, small fruit, minor damage.
3. Sort — Throw out fruit with rot bigger than your thumb and anything mouldy. Mould in apples and pears produces the toxin patulin, which cooking doesn't destroy.
4. Wash, then into the cold — Wash under running water with a vegetable brush. Juice poured into a clean jug goes straight into the fridge, not onto a table in the sun.

Why: Unpasteurised apple juice and vegetable juices have spread E. coli O157:H7, salmonella and cryptosporidium, most often to children. The source was almost always animal droppings on windfall fruit from the grass, or dirty equipment. Cold juice keeps these bacteria alive for days.

• Children under 5, pregnant women, and older or sick people drink only heated or pasteurised juice.
• Peel carrots and beetroot or scrub them well; soil carries bacteria.

2. Equipment

One good machine is enough for a family.

1. Centrifugal juicer — Fast and noisy, but the juice is frothy and darkens within half an hour. It struggles with leafy greens.
2. Slow juicer — It grinds and presses slowly, so the juice foams less. It juices everything, leafy greens too, and gives more juice.
3. Blender and muslin — Blend soft fruit, cucumber and watermelon and strain through a cloth bag. For lemons and oranges a hand squeezer is enough.
4. Pusher, not fingers — Push fruit in only with the pusher that comes with the machine, never with your fingers or a spoon. Unplug the juicer before cleaning the sieve.

Why: Choose it by what you juice most: hard fruit and vegetables, soft fruit, or larger quantities in season. A slow (masticating) juicer heats the juice less and mixes in less air, so the juice is thicker and browns more slowly.

• Don't keep juice in aluminium, galvanised tin or glazed pottery of unknown origin: acidic juice draws metal out.
• Children don't work at the scratter or the press.

3. Small press · Locked

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4. Vegetables and blends · Locked

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5. Birch sap · Locked

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6. Children and keeping · Locked

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