In addition to being able to make compost with your VitaMix, you can also make natural pesticide with your VitaMix!

Many vegetables contain substances which work as pest repellants, for example tomatoes and hot peppers.

Says Vita-Mix, “hot pepper sprays have been known to work especially well on leaf eating pests as well as root maggots, ants and soft-bodied insects. Best of all, mixing up a hot pepper pesticide is easy! Simply throw a handful of hot peppers into your VitaMix with a quart of water, mix well (about 2 minutes), strain thoroughly with cheesecloth before pouring in your spray bottle, and use this mixture to spray on affected plants.”

Interestingly, Vita-Mix says that you can also use their salsa recipe for the same purpose! VitaMix explains that the salsa recipe in the VitaMix cookbook works perfectly as a natural pesticide! “Prepare the salsa recipe contained in the cookbook with the same ingredients, but instead of using LOW to chop, process on HIGH speed for 2 minutes to liquefy. Strain with cheesecloth, pour the liquid into a spray bottle and spray on affected plants. The general rule of thumb for most applications is spraying every 3 to 5 days for 2 weeks.”

And if you have any leftover, you can drink it!

Of course, despite that these are natural ingredients, be sure to test the ingredients on your plants before spraying your whole garden, and as always, wear protective gloves and glasses.