Kitchen Organization: The Easy Juicing Zone

Come to a fall retreat and bring a map of your kitchen: I'd love to sit down with you and show you how you can get your own kitchen into "the zone".

Back to the City Edition:

Fall has always been my favorite season. I especially love the abundance in our area farms vineyards and gardens. Fall has fully arrived, bringing with it all sorts of colors and activities. The air is cool and crisp, the trees are showing their most beautiful colors, and delicious fall vegetables that offer new exciting flavors are ready to harvest. Of course, with the beauty of fall comes a burst of activity, and maybe a little stress. The kids are back in school, work commitments and social activities begin to fill every moment in our calendars. Even pre-holiday preparations get squeezed in, miraculously! So if you find yourself shifting into "overwhelm" a little organization and forethought will help you or as the holiday season approaches. Do you find yourself getting overwhelmed with a busy schedule once fall comes around?

As your schedule picks up it can be hard to eat right. With a million different things vying for your time and attention, you may sometimes feel that making juices or smoothies can be overwhelming. When the pace quickens, it's not necessary to leave juicing by the wayside. Here are a few things I do to organize my kitchen so that juice happens effortlessly -even on the craziest of days:

GET IN "THE ZONE": Consider reorganizing your kitchen into ZONES. I have a salad zone, a dehydration zone, a cooking zone and of course: A JUICING ZONE. The juice and smoothie zone is the most used area of the kitchen here at hohm. I keep a special part of my kitchen reserved as a "juice and smoothie zone." That way, everything I need to make juices and smoothies are in arm's reach. My juicer is next to the sink where I wash and prep them. The compost bucket is handy, and all sorts of delicious fruits and vegetables are right where I need them, arranged in an ever-changing seasonal display. All of my nutritious spices and super foods are tucked away in the cabinet beneath my Vitamix blender, and to the right I keep nut milk bags and juice containers.

TAKE TIME TO PREP: Preparing fruits and veggies for juicing or smoothies can take up some time. Instead of leaving all the preparation work until the moment you want some juice, prepare your ingredients beforehand. Wash your fruits and veggies so that they're ready to go when you need them, and keep them in your fruit and smoothie zone so they'll be easy to access when it's juicing time.

MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL: "EASY" does not necessarily mea
"utilitarian": it's so important to make things "BEAUTIFUL", it truly has a positive effect on your nervous system which contributes to health, and can be the difference between successfully getting into the juicing habit, or feeling it is just another overwhelming task. Let "Easy" and "Beautiful" co-exist.

CONTAINERS: I like to put some thought into how I display my juicing materials. The Container Store is a great place to get some wonderful milk jars for your hohm-made nut-milks and juices. I'm always discovering new

things, but my long time and current favorite are inexpensive glass canning jars that I purchase from Kmart or Target by the dozens.

ARRANGMENTS: Arrange your fruit and vegetables thoughtfully in creative ways: a tower of lemons or apples, a pretty dish for your ginger, a beautiful bowl for a gorgeous array of color and flavor. Mix in some flowers and fresh herbs tucked into a bud vase of water. Pick up some mason jars and keep them near your juicer to fill with extra juice for storing in your refrigerator so you will have a good supply handy to take along with you to work, send to school with the kids, or just for a quick juice pick up. You will discover a fresh jar of hohm-made juice can give you an even better energy boost than coffee!

Your kitchen is a place for nourishment - so nourish yourself by tuning into the natural world of your geographical location with beautiful fruits and vegetables, seasonal flowers and fresh herbs from the natural world. It's easy to set up a space that is both beautiful and functional. Give yourself and your family the gift of juice and smoothies as you take time to organize and think through your juicing set up- then your healthy juicing habit will never fall by the wayside even when life gets fast! After all, its when things move fast that we most need the juice, right? Take time to enjoy a cleansing drink while you take advantage of everything this busy, wonderful time of the year has to offer.

Be sure to let us know in our comments section how your easy juicing "zone" kitchen organization is helping you.

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