Ode to Pomegranates and SoCal's greatest gifts...Home Grown Produce
/It’s that time of year again, when there is just a hint of yellow starting to show and the reds are really starting to turn into a vibrant beacon of delight. Let’s get real here, we live in Southern California, which means the yellows and the beautiful reds can mean only one thing. It’s pomegranate season!
Growing up in Southern California means we live in one of the few places in the U.S. where we can grow almost anything if we really want to put in the effort. If the idea of putting in too much effort scares you away, then fruit trees can be your best friends.
Background time my friends. While Allie dreamed about moving to So Cal as a child, I dreamed of figuring out how to skip winter altogether by moving to Australia for four months out of the year. (I blame the movie Crocodile Dundee for choosing that location.) Don’t get me wrong we grew up snow skiing (yes, I am that old), and loved all the trips to Snow Summit, Bear Mountain. But we also grew up going to the lake, skiing, tubing, and even a few knee boarding experiences (still that old), wake boarding didn’t even exist till I was in college. My wandering point is that we do live where we have the best of both worlds’ seasons, which also means we grew up with a huge garden.
My childhood home was on an acre and the back ½ acre was animal pens and gardens. My parents don’t have the walking backwards in the snow to school both ways stories. But they do tell of the time in the late 70’s where they grew so much produce from their garden one summer that they set up a stand on the driveway and sold enough stuff to make their house payment. That is a lot of fruits and veggies my friends. Needless to say we learned how to garden. Saturday chores often included weeding, dumping some sort of manure into the garden, planting stuff, pruning fruit trees, making new rows, transplanting something, but in reality, mostly weeding.
There are 4 of us siblings and though we may not agree on all points of life, we do agree that some of our favorite childhood memories are picking blackberries and eating pomegranates. (Not at the same time... blackberries are ready in April-June, Pom’s are ready September-November.) Now that I’m older and have to clean up after kiddo’s, I do realize that both of the fruits rate a 10 on the scale of potential messes and stains. But oh, it is so worth it!
Let’s talk about this odd fruit called a pomegranate. Most people have never eaten one unless they had a bush of their own, a neighbor had a bush and gave them some, or their mom was adventurous and willing to shell out a few bucks for one fairly small and often pathetic pom at the store.
Not all pom’s are created equal. (Note, I am tired of typing out the entire word, so pom is the abbreviation we get for the rest of this ode to pomegranates, starting now.) Meaning the pom’s in the store vs. the poms on your tree are not one in the same. The ones on the tree if left to ripen to the last minute are much sweeter than the ones in the store. For example, we picked our first 4 pom’s a few days ago (Oct 8th ) and they are still amazing, but not quite as sweet as they will be in 2 weeks. But we can’t eat all the pom’s in a 5 week period, so we start a few weeks before we really should - they taste like the stores pom’s, still good, but not yet hitting a state of nirvana. Pom’s are like dessert in our house. For reference, we love real desserts too, so it’s not like we are deprived of sugar. They are just that good. My kiddo will willingly get up to help peel (and sample) as we get the arils out of the skin, whereas if I asked her to help with cutting up oranges, she definitely wouldn’t be jumping for joy. It’s the equivalent of opening a new carton of the good ice cream and saying if you want some, come scoop it… they come running.
There are really only 8 types of pom’s in comparison to some fruit trees having 30 to 100 varieties. But that’s okay since they are so good, there is no need to mess with what is already perfection. If you want to be fancy and delve into the eight types of Pom bushes out there, I would suggest this website www.treesofantiquity.com. The kind I have growing in my Murrieta backyard is called “Wonderful Pomegranate”, the other common variety is “Sweet Pomegranate”. They were very creative when they named this bush all those years ago. Honestly those 2 varieties are the only kind I’ve ever seen in local stores. So when Costco or Armstrong’s have one… grab it.
Bush vs Tree? It’s a bush. Ask the experts. But we often hear the following “oh my grandparents had a pom tree in their yard when I was little”. You may think that it was a tree, but it’s a bush pruned into the shape of a tree. Why is it pruned into the shape of a tree then? The reason I try to get it a bit more tree shaped is that the low branches bend over and the scrumptious poms are growing in the dirt. I don’t want to clean that off and sometimes the bugs get to them faster if they are lower on the ground and if they get too moist from water they rot from the side touching the ground. And it’s a pain to reach between the branches to get the fruit in the middle.
It grows like a weed and will pay for itself within 1-2 years. Most bushes on sale, or at Costco, (Did I mention I love Costco’s fruit tree’s and bushes?) are around $25.00. Sometimes Armstrong’s garden has them for $50.00 if they are more mature. The Trees of Antiquity site has them for around 26.00 plus shipping. First year on the 2 most common types of pom bushes get fruit the very first season. Mine got 5-6 poms, the next year 12-15, the third year 50-60. I now consistently get 50-80 pom’s each year. At two bucks a pop for the huge ones, it definitely is worth having. Oh and they are organic as they really don’t need much. So it’s hard to make them not organic.
High yield – low maintenance means more than just the type of church member we try to teach our kids to be… it’s double meaning totally applies to this tree. It doesn’t get beetle rot, it takes 10 minutes to prune it for the entire year, if you choose to prune it at all! You actually don’t really have to prune it. So for all of us lazy gardeners, it’s like getting something for nothing. Just don’t tell your kids.
How to peel a pom. There are YouTube videos out there with various ways. I’ve tried many. I’ve been peeling them for over 30 years. Many say to put it in a bowl of water and peel them into the water submerged. It’s a pain and takes longer, but there is less splatter. I have a $3.00 dollar green tool that you use to kind of hit loose the stuff. It kind of works. The way I’ve done it recently is sadly the old-fashioned way with disposable gloves on. Cut the thing in half, take one of the halves face it into a medium sized mixing bowl, push the middle with your thumbs while pulling out the edges towards the bowl. It showers a ton of arils into the bowl then go to work. If arils aren’t falling out easily it means they aren’t ripe. I use gloves, if you peel 20-30 of them your nails turn yellow from the acid and it doesn’t go away quickly. I also wear an apron as they stain. I use a cutting board that has the run off track for juice. If I want to let kiddo’s or neighborhood kiddo’s eat some… they have to peel it themselves - outside. Make sure they are wearing play clothes… they stain… and it’s an ugly stain…yellowish brown once it is washed out.
Pom Jelly. It rates a 10 on the delicious scale and is even better than pom salad. It used to take forever to make as you had to first peel the pom’s, then get the juice out of the pom’s. I used to put the arils in a freezer bag and then run a rolling pin over it. What a pain that was. Then I bought a juicer. Best 100.00 I ever spent. It’s still a pain, but it’s a faster pain. I usually only make Pom Jelly once a year. It’s like a little homage to the great fruit we have to wait 9 more months for to eat again. It’s one of those things that takes so long, we rarely ever give it away. It’s one of the few selfish pleasures we don’t share. So if you want to experience this delightful tradition, plant a bush. It’s totally worth it.
If you don’t know how to garden and think you will kill it follow this advice. If you have trees or bushes in your yard that are alive, you too can grow this. Just buy it, plant it where it gets full sun, (meaning 6 or more hours of sunlight), water it and feed it four times a year. Not too hard. I promise. We carry around these cool devices that sometimes cost $1,000 and come with hundred page online manuals. You can plant a tree. If it dies, no biggy, if you bought it at Armstrong’s they offer lifetime warranty on their tree’s and bushes. Try again.
Trouble shooting: I often get people calling me and asking me that have tried to grow fruit tree’s ask why they aren’t getting any fruit. My response. Did you water it? “Yes”. Did you feed it.. “well no” then it won’t really grow fruit. It’s like a kid if you just watered it, it wouldn’t really grow. Feed it too. Nothing complex, just fertilizer you sprinkle on the ground. 4 times a year. But not September- November. Don’t get the fertilizer stakes that you have to pound into the ground with a hammer. Those things take forever to release. It’s logic, if your pounding it with a hammer, it probably won’t dissolve for a few years.
Last tip… if your tree’s leaves all turn yellow and fall to the ground in December or so, the tree isn’t dead. That’s normal. It does that every year. In the spring they will grow back. Yes, I really have had concerned friends ask me about this. Love them to pieces, and it was a great laugh. We all have our talents.
Plant something folks. Out of the 15 fruit tree’s/bushes I have, this one truly is idiot proof. Easiest one to grow. Just leave it alone, minus food and water.
Not all of life is this simple. But sometimes we can see this one thing and just be grateful that some of life’s most cherished memories are from something so simple – fruit. Most favorite memories of our kids or family time or friend time will never be the TV or video games. It will be time spent together. Hands busy, mouths chatting about whatever happened that day. Kids talk when they are occupied. It’s a good kind of world where we live where we can decompress over a bowl of food. You don’t need 15 tree’s and years of experience. Be the Grandma that has that “pom tree” in her yard that grandkids remember enjoy going to and eating, or the family that has the pom bush. It’s a great conversation starter, a great way to meet neighbors and a great way to connect to each other. If all else fails it looks like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree with red balls already on it. And that also makes my heart happy my friends. Happy gardening.
