How to seed a pomegranate

When I was young, I used to eat pomegranates that my mom had planted in pots.  The plants were usually about one or two feet tall, and the fruits were about 2 inches in diameter.  I recently got an opportunity to take my mom’s pomegranate plants pictures, so I will share them right here.  🙂

This plant was about two feet tall.  And there was one pomegranate dangling on a branch.

 

On a closer look, uh oh, this one was definitely not for human consumption.  The fruit had split open, so I guess that fruit was better left for the birds.

 

I decided to get a ruler and took a measurement of the fruit.  This one was barely over an inch.  The ruler was in centimeter by the way, and I think that was the ruler I used when I was in high school!  My mom still keep it!  🙂

 

In another pot, there was another fruit growing.  This one was about the same size as the other one, except with the whole crown, it was almost as tall as two inches!

 

Back to memory lane.  🙂  When the fruits were ripe, my mom would pick the fruit off the tree and let me have at it.  I remembered my mom would cut the fruit open, and I would pick out the seeds one by one.  And after I sucked the juice, I spit out the seeds.  I don’t remember if any of my sisters ate pomegranates or not; I just remember that I liked it.
So when the grocery stores around me starting selling pomegranates, I was just amazed.  I know I live in Texas, where everything is pretty much Texas-size.  But these pomegranates, they are humongous!!  The fruit is about 4 to 5 inches in diameter, about twice the size of what my mom’s little tree produced.

I never bought them until a few months ago.  I thought that I couldn’t eat the whole thing in one sitting, and also, I didn’t want to spend the time peeling the fruit to get into the seeds and then be spitting them out as well.  I might have enjoyed doing that when I was a kid, but as an adult, I don’t have much patience.

For a while, I saw articles about pomegranates where you can sprinkle pomegranates seeds into salad.  Eer… do you spit the seeds out?  So, with that question in mind, I started researching online.  It turned out what I referred to as seeds are called arils.  And yes, you can either spit the seeds out, or just swallow them.  With that knowledge in mind, when I was at the grocery store, I bought one of those gigantic red fruits.

Oh, I also googled how to seed pomegranates.  I found this video which really helped me in de-seeding this fruit!  All in all, it took me about 15 minutes, compared to the half an hour if I tried to seed it my old way.  Mind you, I enjoyed seeding the fruit, so I did it slowly – I took this opportunity as a mind therapy!  🙂 The other method that I have not tried was soaking the arils into cold water, which supposedly within five minutes, the arils loosen up and sink to the bottom of the bowl. I will try that next season. 🙂

See how big this fruit was? My white square bowl is about 6 x 6 inches, so the fruit was about 5 inches in diameter.

 

This is the shot from the top of the fruit.  The fruit is a bit past its prime; I got it at the end of the season.

 

Using a small knife, I carved the top part of the pomegranate at an angle, where I was hoping to remove the skin and rind that holds the arils (the correct term is albedo) on the top of the fruit.

 

After I made a full circle, I was able to remove the top part of the fruit.

 

Then I did the same thing to the bottom.

 

The bottom was off…

 

It turns out that pomegranates are not quite round.  Where I was pointing my finger was one of the ridges of the fruit.

 

By my thumb was the next ridge.

 

Then I scored the skin lightly along the ridges of the fruit.

 

I don’t know if you can see where I scored the fruit, but there were about seven or eight marks.

 

Then, by holding the top part of the fruit with my both thumbs and other fingers encircling the fruit, I tried to crack it open.

 

There you go!

 

Now the fruit has been split open, you can see the exposed arils and membranes covering arils.

 

And I just broke the fruit open even further along the scored ridges.

 

See how easy it was?

 

And now, I was in the process of removing the arils from the fruit. Just a gentle nudge would release the arils from the fruit.

 

Ta da!!  Now I can enjoy eating pomegranates by the spoonful!  What do you think?  🙂