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Originally Posted by JJ43
Are you using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer to test the wheatgrass samples?its strange that what we see as green is really not green at all.For that is just the part of the spectrum that was reflected back to our eyes.Things are truly not as they seem to be.may I ask how you keep the juice cool during the juicing phase of production?I would imagine that the juice is very high in free form amino acids along with lots of other nutritional goodies.Is the grass tested at different stages or growth or just at harvest time?And is the grass harvested just before the jointing stage?Thank you for your replies it is nice to have a civil conversation here for a change.For some strange reason theres a poster here that thinks everybody is refering to the grass he grows as opposed to just grass in general.
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I do not believe we are using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer. It appears that this is more advanced than the one that we use. Quite frankly, the spectrophotometers range in price from the low end of about $750, then about $3000 and then into the $10,000+ range. It looks like the fourier methods are higher end, faster, and have broader spectral ranges vs. our device which is on the low end of the range. For us, this doesn't matter as we are looking only at absorbancy for chlorophyll A which is at 430nm.
We don't test the grass during the season. We only did that in experimentation with our refractometers and the spectrophotometer to come up with a sensible, significant and repeatable measure.
We do constantly measure the juice during the harvest. The grass is harvested all around the jointing stage and of course the plant is always in motion. Cool weather will hold growth but warm weather will trigger growth. Our harvest will end when mother nature pushes the grass beyond its peak. In the meantime, we set our standards by ensuring we maintain satisfactory chlorophyll readings. We actually use seven properties which allows us to rotate and fallow the land. Sometimes, a certain property type may not achieve those measures and we can now choose alternate courses of action such as allowing the field to go to seed so that we have great non-treated, non-GMO seed available for planting.
In terms of keeping things cold, that isn't an issue at all. Techically, we are very fortunate to have a retired engineer (and my old boy scout troop leader) help us out at the farm. He and his son (also an engineer) are skilled in heat transfer and have designed our systems and process.
Fortunately, for the most part, we don't rely on technology to keep things cool. The grass itself comes off of the fields in both the spring and even more so in the fall cold. The washing is done with cold deep well mineral water and actually chills the grass a little further. The juicers do not impart any heat and the juice leaves them slightly below field temperatures. Juice leaving the juicers runs through a chiller and to our packaging machine. The description makes it sound like a bigger production than it is; in reality, it is simplicity in action with the whole process taking only a few moments before the juice is packaged and flash frozen.
Your questions are solid and I think you would find the farm very interesting. It is quite a sight with people ranging from 18 to 87 (literally) working side by side. Most of the retired guys in the neighborhood hang out there fixing, building, welding and helping out during harvest. They have a great time, we have a great time and you get to wear a lot of different hats. I get the sense from your posts that you'd fit right in.
Just a quick side note regarding wheatenergy's comments. Ann Wigmore's book was written in 1985 and we also consider it quite dated but not in regard to the hemoglobin / chlorophyll point. This actually relates to much earlier research done by Hans Fischer in the 1930's who you can read about here:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/c...scher-bio.html
Certainly, the current and far more complete text is from Steve Meyerowitz titled "Wheatgrass Nature's Finest Medicine". In the first edition of his book, you can find the hemoglobin / chlorophyll diagrams on page 50. In the current second edition, the diagrams are on pages 48 - 49.