Making your own Pomegranate Juice!

Now is the time to plan for the fall harvest of pomegranates.  There comes a time each fall when the new harvest might sell for as little as $1 apiece for big juicy fruit.  Once the sweet tart red seeds are free from the rind they will last a long time in the fridge for use in salads and on ice cream.  But at my house most will be turned into juice.

Cut the fruit in quarters and open out in a full bowl or pan of cold water; break out all the seeds working under the water to prevent squirts of red from your clothes.  The white pith and red peel will float and can be skimmed off – the red seeds will sink to the bottom; drain the seeds; pulverize in either a food processor or blender to create the juice; pour through a fine sieve – rubbing with a spoon to force out all the juice; you will get about a quart of juice from 10 pomegranetes.

I freeze the juice in wide mouth pint canning jars and defrost it for addition to punches or other juices.  It makes a really good punch about half and half with some sort of bubbly white wine!  The Middle East produces the most pomegranate juice and it is available bottled in the super market but the juice is fun to make and after all how much pomegranate juice could one need?  Yum.