In this age of fast fruit, the pomegranate seems a paradoxical candidate for mass appeal. Of ancient origin, celebrated in myth and art, it is regally beautiful in its leathery scarlet skin and turreted crown. Inside, it is like a treasure chest, with papery white membranes encasing hundreds of glistening garnet gems: seeds embedded in juice sacs. The flavor is sweet-tart and winy, intense but refreshing. Pomegranates are laborious and messy to eat, however, which is probably why only 5 percent of Americans have ever tasted one.
Despite this limited market, Stewart and Lynda Resnick, Beverly Hills billionaires, have planted 6,000 acres of pomegranates here in the San Joaquin Valley, a step that will almost quadruple United States production of pomegranates in five years. The couple’s Paramount Farming Co. and Paramount Citrus Association, which grow navel oranges, pistachios and almonds in addition to pomegranates, together rank as the nation’s largest fruit and nut growing operation, with 125 square miles of farms.
Pomegranates, which contain high levels of antioxidants, have been reputed for millennia to have therapeutic properties, and recent medical studies convinced the Resnicks that the fruit could be the next big thing. From 1996 to 2001 they radically expanded their pomegranate orchards, which now stretch for 15 miles along a lonely strip west of Interstate 5. The California Aqueduct, which flows through the property, provides water.
Pomegranates grow naturally as bushy shrubs, but the Paramount plantings have been pruned into freestanding trees with single trunks, grown from cuttings in the farm’s nursery. During the harvest, in October, workers search through the thorny branches for the reddest, ripest fruit, which they clip into canvas bags and then carefully release into large plastic bins.
Almost all of the nation’s commercial pomegranate crop comes from the San Joaquin Valley, where hot dry summers mature sweet, attractive fruit. Several of the largest plantings, including Paramount’s, are on the valley’s west side, where cool night air draining from the hills helps the fruit color faster.
By far the leading variety in California, and the only kind planted by Paramount, is the modestly named Wonderful, which a Porterville, Calif., farmer propagated in 1896 from a Florida cutting. It yields large quantities of big glossy purple-red fruit, with juicy deep crimson pulp, high in sweetness, acidity and flavor.
Pomegranate trees start bearing after three or four years, but take eight years to reach full production. Joseph MacIlvaine, the president of the Paramount Farming Co., estimates that when all the farm’s million-plus trees are mature, in 2007, they will yield 15 tons an acre, or 180 million pounds a year — almost one fruit for every American.
Fears of a glut
Other growers fear that such an avalanche will glut the market for pomegranates, which so far have been mostly an ethnic and specialty item.
“The Resnicks have the power to bankrupt virtually every pomegranate grower in the state,” said Dee Slayman, who farms 470 acres of the fruit in Kern County.
Lynda Resnick, who has made the pomegranate project her personal crusade, maintains that the fruit’s health benefits and the coming promotional campaign by Paramount’s pomegranate marketing affiliate, Pom Wonderful, will silence the doubters.
“Yes, I’m up at night worrying–that we won’t have enough pomegranates!” she said in her company’s West Los Angeles office, where art depicting the ruddy fruit adorns the lobby.
As part of Resnick’s marketing and sales plan, a specially designed press at the farm crushes whole fruit, including cosmetically challenged specimens, into a red river that flows out a spout at the bottom. Three weeks ago, Pom Wonderful introduced a new line of juice in distinctive glass bottles, shaped like stacked pomegranates, at markets in southern California. National distribution is planned for next year.
Samples tasted recently were superbly rich flavored and winy, with a pleasing tannic tinge and a lingering aftertaste, but without cloying oversweetness. Other brands of pomegranate juice, available mostly at Middle Eastern and health food stores, vary greatly in quality. Beware of poorly stored juice, which turns musty, and if there is sediment, don’t stir it up.
Fresh pomegranates are on sale from August through December, but peak availability is in October and November. Generally they’re ripe and ready to eat; prematurely harvested fruit never sweetens. The best specimens are large, heavy and dark for their variety, with fresh-looking, unbroken rinds. Pomegranates keep several months in the refrigerator, but eventually dry out and lose their sprightly flavor.
Caution when cutting
There’s an art to filleting a pomegranate, an operation best performed with the fruit submerged in a bowl of water, to avoid squirts from its staining juice. Cut off a bit of the crown end, lightly score several vertical lines, and break the sections apart. Scoop out the seeds (properly called arils, a botanical term that includes the tiny actual seeds and the juicy, edible pulp around them). Discard pieces of rind, pith and membrane. The arils can be eaten by hand, or served in a bowl with a spoon. In the Mideast they are often sprinkled with sugar, lime juice or rose water. Most aficionados swallow the nutty-flavored actual seeds, but those who find them objectionable spit them out.
Scientists in Israel and at the University of California at Davis have devised a method for extracting the arils from halved fruit with jets of air. But so far no one is selling ready-to-eat pomegranates.
The arils can be sprinkled over salads, rice dishes and desserts. The juice is used for making jelly, sorbet, cool drinks similar to lemonade, and a kind of wine.
In the Middle East the juice of sour pomegranates is reduced to a thick, dark syrup and used in dishes like fesenjan, a traditional Persian stew made with walnuts and duck or chicken. Turks and Syrians also mix the syrup with walnuts and tomato paste in muhammara, eaten with bread as an accompaniment to main dishes. In Indian cookery, sun-dried sour pomegranate arils, called anardana, are ground and used to impart tartness to chutneys and curries.
Pomegranates originated in the region from Central Asia to Turkey, most likely in Persia, where they have been cultivated for 5,000 years. The Spanish brought pomegranates to the Americas, and in the late 18th Century Franciscan friars planted them at California missions. Although the fruit was common in early California gardens, commercial cultivation began just a century ago, soon after the introduction of the Wonderful.
Myriad varieties
Although just a few pomegranate varieties are grown commercially in California, several sources do maintain an amazingly diverse range of exotic varieties.
The Agriculture Department’s National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Winters, west of Sacramento, has a collection of 60 types of pomegranates, with red, yellow, orange and greenish skins. Some are purely ornamental, with ruffled, bright orange flowers but few or no fruit; others are sour with tough, bony seeds.
Several, judging by a tasting last year at this time, have rich fruity flavors and deserve wider interest. The Elf, for example, has yellow skin and very sweet, translucent blond seeds and juice with a sparkling tutti-frutti taste.
Many mavens maintain that such light-colored varieties, rare in the United States, make the best eating. Spanish Sweet, occasionally grown in back yards, has a yellow rind blushed with pink, and white or light pink arils of surpassing sweetness. It’s different from red varieties in the same way that low-acid white peaches differ from traditional yellow types.
Farmers say that blond pomegranates can’t be grown commercially because they’re very perishable, but a few show up at farmers markets.
Butternut squash soup with pomegranate cream
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Yield: 8 servings
This recipe is adapted from Bolo restaurant in Los Angeles. Look for pomegranate molasses at Middle Eastern markets. Pomegranate syrup could be used in place of the molasses.
2 medium butternut squash, halved, seeded
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt, freshly ground pepper
5 cups chicken broth
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Pinch of ground cloves
3 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup whipping cream
Pomegranate cream:
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 container (8 ounces) creme fraiche or sour cream
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Brush cut side of squash with olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Place squash on large baking sheet, cut side down; roast until soft, about 1 hour.
2. Remove flesh from squash; place in a large saucepan with 5 cups of the chicken broth, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Cook over medium-high heat 40 minutes. Puree soup in batches in a blender until smooth; strain into a clean saucepan. Add honey, 1/4 cup of the whipping cream and water if necessary to thin the soup; heat to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Place pine nuts in a dry skillet over medium-low heat; toast, stirring constantly, 3-5 minutes. Reserve 1/4 cup of the toasted pine nuts for garnish. Place remaining pine nuts and remaining whipping cream in a blender; blend until smooth. Place creme fraiche in a medium bowl with pine nut mixture and pomegranate molasses; mix until combined. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Ladle soup into shallow bowls; drizzle with pomegranate cream. Garnish with reserved pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.
Nutrition information per serving:
320 calories, 52% of calories from fat, 20 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol, 31 g carbohydrates, 9 g protein, 805 mg sodium, 4.7 g fiber
