Dwarf Pomegranate

I love pomegranates. I'll never forget the day Samin threw a small dinner party and served a small bowl of pomegranate seeds for dessert. She took the pains of separating the seeds from the rind and presented them in a lovely bowl for each guest to easily sample without worry of getting red juice stains on their clothes. Naturally, I went in for some fruit, gently nibbled the fruit and juice from the seed and then spit out the hard nut-like interior. Well, that sure did put Samin in a tizzy. She refused to believe that anyone but my family and I would go to the trouble to spit out the seeds. Thus began the pomegranate seed controversy. If I remember correctly, it ended in a truce: some chew the nuts, some spit the nuts. Ah, but the sweet look on her face when she saw me spit out the seeds was priceless. Why anyone would ruin the sweet, tart smooth flavor of the pomegranate by chomping on the nasty seed, I don't know. Apparently, some people believe it is too much work to gently nibble the fruit from the seed.



I had a pomegranate tree in my back yard one year when my family lived in Spring Valley, CA. I tried intently to squeeze the seeds to release just the juice. I was rarely successful, but it was loads of fun. I remember that I always had to do my juicing experiments in the garage because the juice was so dark and stainy. The trick is to open the pomegranate under water, the rind floats and the seeds sink and no squirting, voila!



Pomegranates are a very old fruit. They are harvested in fall here in the Northern hemisphere and is grown over, particularly in Mediterranean climates. The fruit has long been recognized and documented. It makes an appearance in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible (hence its appearance in my Fruits of the Bible debacle), and in Greek Mythology (Poor Persephone!). Wikipedia has a fabulous entry on the pomegranate and discusses the many other cultures, ancient and present that use the pomegranate as a symbol.

Needless to say, about 6 months ago I sucked it up and bought a dwarf pomegranate tree from Gurneys. The picture here is the tree. It has a lot of growing to do and I don't expect to see any fruit growing for at least

another year or two. But I am excited for when it does. I seems to have adapted will to my front patio and the little leaves appear healthy. It is not growing quite as fast as the fig grew when

it got to San Diego, but I am patient. So stay tuned for more news on this young plant as the months go on.