Interesting thought on flour alternative for bird baking...

[Kiwibird]

My mom had a really interesting idea when I talked to her the other day. If you've been following my other thread, I am doing a juice fast right now and thus am ending up with a lot of pulp I have to toss since I have no composting options in my current living situation and have no idea what else to do with. The leftover pulp is one of the big reasons I typically do smoothies over juices- it just seems so wasteful. Anyways my mom asked what I was doing with all the juice pulp because she found a new brand of "chips" that are made from juice pulp at her local health food store. Now, I'm not overly fond of hard, crunchy chips and crackers but I know "something" that LOVES chips and crackers...

With nut milks, I toss the pulp in a big ziplock bag in the freezer and when I have enough, I put it in the dehydrator and then grind it into flour. I've been doing that for years. I got to thinking, I could do the same thing with juice pulp! Once I have a bag full, stick it in the dehydrator then grind it into a flour for baking bird treats with. I know most of the nutritional content will be extracted during the juicing process (though my juices are NOT exempt from sharing with he who has feathers so he gets some of the goodness) but it still has to have some healthy content right? Any thoughts on this idea I'm not seeing? Obviously, I wouldn't include pulps from juices that contain onion or anything else not bird friendly).

 

[Tami2]

Well that's a cool idea. We have a compost for our garden, so this never occurred to me. :smile049: I'm interested to hear what others think.

 

[SilverSage]

I love this idea!


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[Kiwibird]

So, I saved a batch of pulp containing carrot, bell pepper, celery and spinach. Over the next few days, I'll add to the bag (being stored in the freezer) and once I have enough to fill a few trays of the dehydrator, I'll dry it out. Once dry, I'll grind it up and see if it can be made into a *usable* flour. I'll also have to taste it. If it's really nasty flavored, guaranteed Kiwi won't eat it but will be fine for experimenting with. If it works out, I may separate by pulp type in the future....

This could also be the somewhat 'mythical' concept I've been chasing for a long time of what to use as a base to be able to make "pellets" I actually feel ok feeding Kiwi. I'm envisioning experimentation with a 'dough' made of veggie flour and using the pasta extruder attachment on my juicer to make "pellets", then bake until crunchy... Any additional thoughts on this idea, or better ideas of how to achieve this goal?

 

[KozmoKramer]

Actually, I've read that a lot of the fruit/veggie nutrients are in the pulp, so making a flour out of the pulp sounds like a great idea!!

 

[smbrds]

That's a great idea using the pulp. A lot it does go to waste but can be reusable for recipes or feeding the Earth! Good on you for doing a juice fast also! I typically prefer smoothies but also have a juicer and juice once in awhile.