The Verdict

After the hour of prep work yesterday, My juice pulp flax seed crackers took six hours in the dehydrator to become crunchy. I'm thinking twice about the carbon footprint implications of this exercise.

The result? still warm, dry and crisp, the crackers were okay, not great. With hummus they were great, but for me anything spread with hummus is great. Today, not quite as crisp anymore, the crackers were less great still, even with the hummus.

Everything we do in life has educational value. I am grateful for this experiment because I can add it to my list of things I know how to do. Will I do it again? Probably not.

I am reminded of the time I taught myself how to reupholster my sofa -- not slipcover, though I have done plenty of that too -- reupholster. I disassembled the furniture, panel by panel, and worked with tack strips, piping and hobnails. I used a crow bar, a hammer, a nail gun, a staple gun and a rubber mallet.I sewed each panel, leaving a rough edge for the next section. A couple of times I discovered I was on the wrong track, so I had to disassemble and redo it. I ultimately did a pretty good job with the sofa, but realized I could have benefited from an instructor. So, when I decided to redo my kitchen cabinets, I splurged on an $85 faux painting class. I did it right, and years later the cabinets are all still in good shape, but the whole process took five weeks. Though I saved $20,000-$30,000 doing it myself, I have discovered that time is more valuable than most sums of money. If we spend our time doing something fulfilling -- a learning experience counts here -- it is time well spent. So the crux of the issue is whether we would choose to repeat a project after the fulfillment of learning it is over.

Juice pulp flax seed cracker creation is not an experience I will repeat. My pulp will much more efficiently and appropriately feed the soil of my vegetable garden than it could ever feed me. I believe most of the nutrition left the pulp with the flavor and color, anyway. My healthy diet is a gift to myself, and as such, it should be enjoyable. Every mouthful is carefully chosen and prepared, and is so much more flavorful and pure than the junk I ate for many years. I don't want to waste a bite on something less than fabulous. I will continue to reap the benefits of making delicious juices, and I won't feel guilty about just saying no to homemade pulp crackers.

P.S. -- The topic of the nutritional value of the pulp fiber being lost in the process of juicing has come up among non-vegan friends. You vegans will understand that, unless you are eating only vegan junk food, lack of fiber is not an issue. Juicing simply allows us to pack in a much more diverse selection and quantity of vegetable nutrition than would be possible by consuming the entire vegetable. The juice is not a replacement for a well-rounded diet, it's an enhancement.

Juice Pulp Crackers!

This was way more effort than I usually expend, but an early sampling of these crackers revealed an unusual but not disagreeable flavor. Once they are crunchy, I just might like them. I spent an hour getting the texture and seasonings right. I first spread out a batch of this "dough" and cut it just like this, and struggled to transfer each little piece to the dehydrator without it falling apart or falling through the mesh of the tray. I finally got wise and scraped it all back into a bowl for some more ground flax seed. I am not sure how much I used. I just kept adding it until the dough was quite bready. It was at least a cupful. I used the pulp from two batches of juice -- again, an unknown quantity. I seasoned with salt, pepper, shoyu, lemon juice, a little sprinkle of curry and coriander. I came up with this combo from several different pulp cracker recipes I found online. Once the dough was bready enough, it behaved well for me, keeping its shape on the dehydrator trays. It's been going an hour so far, but it is not crunchy at all yet.

There was a lot of complaining about all the food processing I had to do to homogenize the pulp. The guys were trying to watch football and I was making an awful racket. My 14 year old daughter came in as I was spreading the dough out and when I told her what I was doing she burst into hysterical laughter, taking photos to e-mail all her friends. I do tend to keep that lot entertained with my vegan antics. It is a curiosity to them -- very different from the way things happen in their own homes. At the last sleepover, Wynne's friends all tried my fresh juice. They said they liked it. I was so proud!

Here's the pulp with only half a cup of flaxseed -- way too moist to hold together.

Here are the crackers in the dehydrator. I stacked four of these trays. The pulp of two juicings, a cup+ of flaxseed, etc. was the perfect quantity to fill the dehydrator.

The khaki-green color is kind of pretty in an odd way. These crackers are raw, vegan, gluten-free and utilize the fiber from my juiced veggies much more effectively than my ill-fated bean soup/chili experiment.I need to wait another couple of hours at least, but I'll report on the final verdict of whether this exercise will be repeated once I've had a chance to take a crunchy bite.