stereoman's Blog

Way back in the early eighties, when I was working in the very last corporate job I had, I used to take a lunch hour every day. Often I'd take my company car, a Subaru Brat, over the big bridge to the old Westgate Mall, where there was a tiny little juice bar run by a vegan couple with three small children. Back then, vegan couples were rare, and juice bars even rarer! But we had one in little old Asheville, and I went there at least once a week, in search of the elusive carrot juice.

I remember sitting at the counter gleefully watching as a fresh two-pound bag of organic carrots was opened, trimmed, and fed into the chute of the magical, mysterious Champion juicer. My eyes would brim with delight as the freshly mashed carrot pulp oozed from the front of the juicer, and the bright orange liquid poured out of the bottom. Two pounds of carrots, one pint of juice. I'd take the glass and gulp that juice down in seconds. I could feel the vitality coursing through my body while that fabulous flavor still lingered on my tongue.

Two pounds of carrots, one pint of juice, ten seconds, three dollars. That was a lot of money to pay for a drink in those days, especially one with no alcohol! But at least once a week, I paid it, drank it, and wished for the day that I could grow carrots in my own garden, and juice them with my own Champion juicer. In those days, I was gardening in Georgia clay. You know what carrots do in Georgia clay? They suffer, that's what they do. They suffer, they split, they stunt, they rot, they dry out. One thing carrots do not do in Georgia clay: they do not make good carrot juice.

After the first few years of utter failure growing carrots in Georgia clay, I didn't even bother planting them any more. But I never let go of my dream.

Now I live in this incredible place, this tiny plot of Eden with deep, rich, loose, loamy topsoil teeming with happy, industrious microbes. Last year, my old carrot juice dream came bubbling to the surface, and I sowed a small patch of carrots to see what would happen. Ten pounds later, I was resolved! Next year, I decided, I would grow carrots in earnest, and when they started coming in, I would buy myself a Champion juicer and live my dream.

And so I have.

Much to my surprise, I got just shy of a pint of juice out of only 20 oz. of carrots! Maybe it's because the juicer has been improved over the past 25 years. Maybe because the carrots were so fresh, they were still vibrating. Or maybe because my carrots are the happiest carrots in the world, because I tell them every day that I love them.

Whatever the reason, those 20 oz. of carrots made the best glass of carrot juice I've had in many a year. I can feel the vitality coursing through my body, even as the fabulous flavor still lingers on my tongue. Looking at my two carrot patches in the back garden, I can't even see a dent where I pulled those dozen carrots out of the ground. And just last week, I sowed a third carrot patch.

My juicer is here! Life is good.