Signature Dish: Good Life Juice’s detox greens

Dershin said they set out to make a vegetable-heavy juice which tasted great and contained all the essential vitamins and minerals contained in raw vegetables.

“We chose a lot of vegetables with a higher water content…it makes it a lot more palatable. My goal was to make a green juice that was as alkalizing and nutritious as possible while still being as delicious as possible.”

It’s the cold pressed process which keeps the juice as natural as possible.

Thousands of pounds of fresh, triple-washed produce are fed into a hydraulic juicer twice a week to extract every drop. The initial round of juice comes from the cut before the press goes to work, squeezing the pulp firmly.

“The reason it’s fabulous is the juice doesn’t get heated up at all so you don’t lose any of the enzymes that are the life force of plants and what make drinking raw juice so powerful.”

Vegetables along with any fruit additions are carefully sorted and weighed in large tubs based on Good Life Juice’s established recipes. Dershin’s crew will take a matter of minutes to turn what was a giant pile of vegetables, into a pourable jug of juice.

Dershin is understandably picky about the produce going into her product, with no cooking or sauces or garnish about to cover up sub-standard fruits and vegetables.

Her product is classified as ‘high risk’ by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, meaning her and her suppliers must get and maintain special accreditation.

Any farmer we use has to have a certain hazardous certification because we have to make sure we get the cleanest, safest produce and everything. Only the really beautiful, freshest produce goes in it so if anything comes to us and it’s not pristine condition, we don’t use it.”

What is left behind from the juicing produce doesn’t go to waste either.

Dershin said a local farmer is making good use of their pulp, coffee grounds and other organic byproducts.

“From the beginning we’ve found farmers in Nanaimo who can benefit from the mulch to feed their animals. We have a wonderful farmer, Scott, who comes twice a day on a juice day to fill his vehicle with bins of mulch and he takes it back to feed his animals.”

If the animals aren’t a fan of a particular ingredient, ginger for example, those rinds are composted making the operation as close to zero waste as possible.

Good Life Juice began around eight years ago in Dershin’s basement kitchen with her husband.

It’s grown since then and now products are available at their Wilfert Rd. warehouse and storefront, near Merle Logan Field, along with retail outlets like Thrifty’s and Country Grocer.

Dershin credited her team, comprised of 17 employees, as the key to growth of the business and allowing Good Life Juice to service a large percentage of the Island.

Short shelf lives of the fresh produce and subsequent juice make logistics a challenge, with products and deliveries available between Campbell River and Victoria.

It goes without saying, but there are no added preservatives included in the finished product.

“It is a very challenging business model,” Dershin said. Our juices last between four and 10 days based on the flavour profile which means we’re constantly washing produce, prepping produce, making more juice, stocking our fridges, stocking our retailers and then we’re back to do it all again in about three days.”

A full list of retail outlets, along with their complete juice menu is available at the Good Life Juice website.

Their storefront on Wilfert Rd. is open Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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by NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

Signature Dish: Good Life Juice’s detox greens

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