I’m Carolyn Washburn with Utah State University Extension,
the family consumer science agent here in Washington County.
And today I have one of our true delights of Washington County
that is grown here, that of the pomegranate.
Pomegranate is just a wonderful fruit and it grows very well down here.
We probably have six or seven varieties,
Some of them are called the Dixie Sweet.
And then if you’re not fortunate enough to grow pomegranates
in Washington County, when the season comes in
in early September,
you can go ahead and purchase pomegranates in most all grocery stores now.
And they will run until about the middle of December or to the end.
But the pomegranate is really a treasure.
It’s a wonderful fruit. And if you’ve ever eaten it,
you’ve just kind of started digging on it and deciding
how should I go ahead? And cut a little spot—
and as you do that it takes you a little while
to pick out all of those little tiny seeds.
And so today I’m going to show you one of the most asked questions I get:
How can I open a pomegranate and not just have to pick out each seed?
So it’s a quick, little skill, and you may try it this next season
when you decide to have pomegranates.
But I’m simply going to cut the end off of my pomegranate,
and then I’m going to score it.
And you can see the beautiful colors,
those little seeds that are inside, they are simply great to eat
and truly full of nutrition.
In fact we’re finding out that pomegranates
have more antioxidants than even blueberries.
So they are excellent in helping to prevent some cancers,
blood pressure, cholesterols...
They are wonderful fruits.
So I’m going to score it now, much like I would an orange.
I’m just going to take and score several places
all the way down to the end of the fruit.
[silence as scores pomegranate]
And now that I have it all scored,
I’m going to go ahead and just simply get ready
to put it in a deep bowl with ice water.
And it’s important to have some ice in it, that it’s very cold.
That just helps the membranes come off a little bit faster.
And certainly you want a deep bowl because
when you look at that bright red color that is full of juice,
if you don’t have it in a deep bowl,
you know that’s going to splatter all over you.
And you certainly don’t want that.
So I’m going to get ready now to just submerge it this way
into my bowl.
So now I’m going to submerge it in and then I just simply break it apart,
putting my hands down there at the bottom.
And as I break it apart I kind of brush or pull apart just a little bit,
so that I know all the seeds are falling right to the bottom of the dish.
[tearing pomegranate]
So I’m going to take and go ahead—
and you can see that I can bring those right out
If I have a few more I just put them right back in there—
scrub them a little bit more— the membranes.
The skins come right to the top.
I’ve still got a big piece here…
Now pomegranates, generally they’re nice to use when they’re brand new,
and they will keep a little time.
These I have actually kept for about three months,
and we were very fortunate to keep them this long.
I keep them in a crisper, wrapped.
But a great thing to do with pomegranates
is to freeze them so you can use them in salads,
or simply juice them and make wonderful pomegranate juice or jelly.
One of the favorite salads here in Washington County
is Dixie Pomegranate Salad.
A real favorite at Thanksgiving time,
it simply has these fresh pomegranate seeds,
apples, quick cream. You could put raisins—
A little bit like a Waldorf,
only with the pomegranates it’s truly a Dixie Sweet.
I also like to put it in a cottage cheese, Cool Whip salad.
And then my very favorite is I make a salsa.
And I use these in the recipes there.
It calls for a little tomato and green pepper.
But anyway, I’m going to take this now and simply drain it.
Now I’m just going to put them in a bowl—
or whatever I decide to do with them. But you can certainly see—
and I may pick back a tiny bit and see
there's still maybe just a few little membranes inside.
But what a great way to get a total pomegranate
in just a very short time.