The fruit that wears a crown

Today, pome­gran­ates have become the “it” fruit. It’s every­where and in every­thing — ice cream, juice, salad dress­ing, skin prod­ucts and per­fume. If you look on your gro­cers’ and drug store shelves you will find an end­less array.

The his­tory of a pome­gran­ate is long and involved. It is seen through­out his­tory in ancient art, med­i­cine, the lit­er­a­ture, reli­gion and mythol­ogy. Some even believe that Eve was tempted with the pome­gran­ate, not the apple. It’s been a sym­bol of pros­per­ity, hope and abun­dance. Ancient his­tory has linked the pome­gran­ate to health, fer­til­ity and birth. The fruit was car­ried to Amer­ica by Span­ish sailors, first estab­lished in the south­ern states of the U.S. and then taken to Cal­i­for­nia in the 18th century.

Most of the pome­gran­ates in the U.S. today are grown in Cal­i­for­nia and the sea­son is upon us right now. It ranges from mid-October to Jan­u­ary. When you are shop­ping for one in the store, look for a bright, solid unblem­ished skin that has a good weight to it. Check out the crown as well, if you squeeze the crown slightly and a puff of dust exits, then find another one. A great ben­e­fit of this fruit is that it can be stored in the refrig­er­a­tor for up to two months. They are loaded with antiox­i­dants, vit­a­mins, potas­sium, folic acid and iron. An aver­age pome­gran­ate con­tains any­where from 200 to 1,400 seeds depend­ing on size.

The name comes from the Latin “pomum” (“apple”) and grana­tum “seeded.” It’s grown as a small orna­men­tal tree or shrub in the Mediter­ranean region, Mid­dle East and Africa. In the U.S., Cal­i­for­nia is grow­ing a vari­ety called “Won­der­ful,” the name behind the Pom Won­der­ful prod­ucts on our gro­cery shelves. We can­not grow them in our zone in cen­tral Ohio in the ground, but we can grow a dwarf vari­ety called “Nana” in a large con­tainer which is brought inside for the win­ter. Thomas Jef­fer­son is reported to have grown them at Mon­ti­cello in 1771.

Eat­ing this fruit can be infu­ri­at­ing and time con­sum­ing. How do you get all those seeds out of the fruit? There are two ways which have been suc­cess­ful for me. One way is to fill up a bowl of water, cut your fruit in half and sub­merge in the water. As you pull the fruit apart the arils (the red gems) will sink and the other pulp floats. This is an easy way and won’t make such a mess, but the draw­back is that you lose the juice. My favorite way is to cut the fruit in half, then into quar­ters. Hold each quar­ter over a large bowl and smack the back of the fruit lightly with a wooden spoon. The arils will come out and end up in the bowl — plus, you get the juice. You may choose to either swal­low the seed or not, it won’t hurt you if you choose the first option. You can eat it right out of the fruit half with a spoon or you can eat them one at a time for a cathar­tic experience.

The culi­nary uses of the seeds are var­ied as well. You can reduce the juice to a thick syrup to use in cook­ing, or as a sauce. The syrup known as Grena­dine is pome­gran­ate seeds, juice, sugar and water. Pome­gran­ate jelly is also a real treat. The arils add tex­ture, color and a burst of fla­vor to veg­eta­bles, fruit sal­ads, green sal­ads, ice creams and tarts.

Enjoy pome­gran­ates for the sea­son while they are avail­able in our area at rea­son­able prices. They are a beau­ti­ful and tasty touch to your hol­i­day dishes.

Susan Liechty is an OSU Exten­sion Mas­ter Gar­dener volunteer.

Posted by Master Gardener on Nov 9 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.