I love being able to take my time making food. And I like supporting the local Farmer’s Market, small local businesses (but of course, what with us running The New Deli!), locally-sourced foods, etc. The whole Slow Food Movement thing is awesome. (BTW, it’s not a movement devoted to crock-pot cooking, in case you wondered!)
Today, I worked on seeding some of our many pomegranates. It’s that time of year. And although I enjoy the convenience of store-bought pomegranate juice (even this powder on Amazon), I don’t want to waste what God’s given us. So, having planted so many fruit and nut trees in our yard, I’m doing my best to eat, process, or give away the bounty we have.
So I was seeding pomegranates today. I don’t think there’s any real fast way to get the seeds out. Talk about a slow food movement!
I’ve tried a number of things. Someone said, “Just press and roll the pomegranate around on the counter, then stick a straw in it and suck the juice out. Wow- that sounded like a great idea! Alas, it was too good to be true. It really wasn’t all that effective.
For the last few years, I was still trying to save time, so I tried another approach. I put on the gloves, scored and broke apart all the fruits, added them to a 5 gallon bucket, and mashed ’em with a sledge hammer. (A large, clean rock would also do.) They juiced up, and I strained the whole thing in a giant colander, into jars for storage. That yielded me a decent amount of juice; a pretty quick method if you’re inundated with pomegranates. You can do a whole lot of fruits, and make pomegranate juice ice cubes, for future smoothies.
This year I used the more traditional bowl o’ water method. Warm water’s a good idea, since fruit-stained hands are less likely in warm warm (cold water sets fruit stains). I rolled ’em around a bit to loosen the seeds some, and cut the tops and bottoms off the fruits. I scored them into sixths (trying not to cut into the fruit and bruise the seeds). I broke them into sections underwater and broke the seeds apart from the pith. The pith floats and the seeds sink- perfect!
I strained the seeds, then set them on screen-racks to dry. (Paper towels could work too, on cookie sheets.) Once dried, they can be frozen, or stored in the fridge for 5 days or so. Another (healthy) way to “store” them is to turn them into pomegranate kefir, as follows:
Pomegranate Kefir
To blender, add: > approx. 1 quart pomegranate seeds > approx. 1 quart kefir water (strained from grains after a day or two of brewing)
Blend the seeds and kefir, letting seeds settle. Strain off liquid into kefir bottles; let ferment a day or two, until bubbly. Refrigerate when done!