Jessica Dalmedo working her new juice bar at Fairwinds Deli Friday. (Click to enlarge)

By JOHN T. WARD

Two years after losing her teaching job in a budget squeeze, a Rumson woman has reinvented herself as a squeezer of fresh fruits, wheat grass and other healthy ingredients.

Dalmedo opened Freshicas organic juice bar Friday in a corner of Fairwinds Deli in Fair Haven, where she’s blending the juice of apples, beets, kale, lemons and more into all-natural drinks that taste better than they sound.

“It’s amazing how good some things can be when you mix them together,” she told redbankgreen as curious Fairwinds customers made their way to her counter. There, behind an ice cream freezer,  Dalmedo was giving out samples of drinks with names like “Sweet Craving” (apple, cinnamon and celery) and “Emerald Garden” (apple, spinach, lemon, cucumber, celery and kale).

Freshicas was born of Dalmedo’s frustration after she lost her job as a fifth-grade teacher in Rumson due to budget cuts two years ago, and her inability to land a new job. So she decided to turn her interest in healthy living into business, her first.

After a number of unsuccessful attempts to find an existing store in which she might find her footing, Dalmedo pitched the idea to Fairwinds owner Warren Abrahamson, who eagerly made space for her cutting boards, blenders and eyecatching terrarium filled with wheat grass, she said.

Now, she’s hoping Fairwinds, known for its sandwiches, will start offering more salads to attract more health-conscious moms, like herself, and others, she said.

Freshicas is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Thursdays through Sundays.