Pomegranate juice

Tom and I planted a pomegranate tree seven years ago, and have enjoyed fruit from the tree for at least the past five years. I wanted the tree mostly for the beautiful flowers during the summer...the fruit in the fall is a plus, but what can one family do with 60 pomegranates? Give them away...which is what we've done for years.

We (especially Tom) have always wondered how we could juice the pomegranates, because eating them one aril at a time is a little tedious. Should we invest in a juice press? It never rose high enough to the priority list, so we just kept giving the pomegranates away, and using them as table decorations.

Today I saw on a blog about making a pomegranate smoothy. The blogger blended the pomegranate arils with a little water in a blender, then used a sieve to strain out the seeds. Presto! Pomegranate juice!

Here's our experiment with 2 large pomegranates (our tree produces large ones). Lukas couldn't be torn away from watching me harvest the pomegranate arils out of the fruit...it was high drama for 15 minutes. We got about 2 cups of juice (well, 1/2 cup was the added water, so it would blend properly). Very yummy! And we didn't have to buy a new appliance!