Capturing the essence of pomegranates

The first weekend of June arrived with the blessings of rain. Just on 30mm of much needed rain, to be precise. The wintery weather reminded me that it was time to harvest all the remaining pomegranates and quinces. It was clear that the trees needed to go into rest.

Nearly all the leaves from the pomegranate tree have dropped. Leaving the last fruits to hang there on bare branches, resembling the silk painting of 'Pomegranate Branches’ by Sano Gofu (1904).

           'Pomegranate Branches’ by Sano Gofu (1904). (https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/pomegranate-branches-29082)

Some of the fruit had been completely hollowed out by the birds. They had managed this feat through the round portholes they had made in the skins of the fruit. It is quite poetic in some respects. ‘Portholes to pleasure’, if one thinks like a bird.

Picking pomegranates is always easier than the task of deseeding them, or however one might describe the task of removing the arils. Well, Sunday morning disappeared into bowls and bowls of arils. Standing at the kitchen sink removing the near black-red arils to the background sounds of the neighbourhood, the sounds somehow seemed more pronounced. Dogs barking, parrots screeching and children laughing.

Eating the wayward arils that tried desperately to escape, I was aware of the typical aromas of a Sunday in the country drifting into the kitchen. These were primarily in the form of the homely aromas of the open fire braai drifting by from neighbours.

With all the pomegranate arils harvested, I decided to make some pomegranate liqueur. I did so using the added combination of lemon zest and cardamom. This year, I also opted to make a pomegranate and rose geranium infused gin.

The bulk of the arils were poured into sealable bags. The trick which follows, and which I picked up from the internet, allows one to conveniently roll out the juice with a rolling pin. It is very handy in that it helps one to extract the juice from the pomegranate arils in no time. After rolling out the juice, one simply snips away at a corner of the bag, enabling one to decant the juice into a container. No mess, no fuss.

The squashed pomegranate arils

I plan to use the juice to make homemade grenadine. This in turn will liven up cocktails at Towerwater. It is such a luxury to make cocktails with one’s own home-grown, homemade produce.

The arils of the pomegranates that actually overstayed their season on the tree, the late harvest, were the most glorious black-red in colour. The white bowl of arils was reminiscent of an offering of the most amazing precious stones.

I could spend hours trying to capture this beautiful fruit in all the possible ways it might reflect and capture the light of the kitchen. In the end, I could stand back, feeling satisfied that I had captured this season’s pomegranate harvest in more ways than one.