We have over 100 Pomegranate trees at The Holler. They are blooming and forming fruit now and I thought you might like to see some photos of the process. These are the initial flowers.
You can see the pomegranate starting to form at the base of this one.
Our pomegranates are organic and haven’t been touched by insecticides for at least ten years. Here’s a bug to prove it!
As a matter of fact, when we moved in, the builder had mowed down all the pomegranates, so we didn’t know we had any. Pomegranates share a common root system, and are a very hardy tree, so they just grew back, bringing up more trees with them. So, surprise, we now have a large orchard!
Flowers and newly forming fruit as it appears on the trees.
Here are some juvenile fruit, about as big as my first thumb knuckle.
We don’t sell the fruit, we consume it and give it away. I have been trying to donate poms to food banks but so far no one will take them. I think they imagine that poms are too exotic. Poms are healthy and delicious and I think a food bank would want them. Go figure.
I’d even include recipes. Necessity is the mother of invention, and I have learned to make pomegranate jelly, juice, ice cream, cakes, cookies, and smoothies. I use the seeds in salads, on fish, with Asian food, with goat cheese. The list goes on and on. Of course it is wonderful, just picked from the tree, cracked in half and eaten, with the juice running down your neck!
Poms have been rumored since ancient times to have aphrodiasic properties. All I know is that the coyotes eat lots of them and there are lots of coyotes! The bunnies eat lots of them and there are tons of bunnies! The birds eat lots of them, and there are lots and lots of birds! Plus, if Willy Wonka says it, you know it has to be true……
Cheers to you from the accidental orchard owners, and eaters, at The Holler!!
Lovely flowers – and photos of course 😀
Merci beau coup!!
Lovely. Never knew what the flowers looked like.
Thanks for posting these, Cindy.
So glad you liked them & they are unusual! Thank you~
My Auntie had one by her back door. Love that seedy fruit. When I went to Mexico in summer of seventh grade the lady I stayed with would get up in the morning, sweep the scorpions out of the house (we had no screens on the windows) and make pomegranate juice for breakfast by the pitchers.
Oh, she went through a lot of work with both the scorpions and pressing the poms!! What a wonderful memory!!
These are beautiful. I had no idea this is what they looked like in flower. Do you just squish the seeds to make juice?
You can eat the seeds. I have a post listed under recipes on how to juice a pomegranate. One way is to score it in fourths with a knife. Submerge it in the sink and pull out the seeds with your fingers. The membranes float to the top. The seeds can be eaten whole, or mashed in a strainer or juicer to extact the juice. Check out the post if you want to try it and good luck!! It is so good for you!
Me neither! I never knew they came from a flower. I thought they were like apples. So much for a kid from the northeast.
Maybe it is a good thing that the food banks do not want them.
You grow everything at the holler. Holy ca-rowly. What happens if you eat the seeds?
Nothing except they are a good source of fiber and are very good for you. I think Willy Wonka was wronga!
Wonderful info and full of humor. I’ve had juice, but I’ve always thought the fruit sort of difficult to mess with. But if you can eat the seeds too. Do you roast the seeds at all? Maybe you could mix them with air popped pop-corn? Like roasting or baking chickpeas after coating them with spices.
Wonderful photos. Most of my berry plants were bird gifted. Though I don’t have all that many. I have to pick a few every day when they ripen and save them until I get a quart or more to make jam. 🙂
OOOOH, what an idea to try to pop them in the micro with popcorn…..that is a new one. I wonder if they will explode??? My enquiring mind wants to know. You can mix them with a chocolate bar and microwave them and let cool and crack and you have chocolate-pomegranate bars. Yum! They are not a simple fruit to process, that’s for sure. Cheers to you Jules. You are always interesting!!!
I was thinking more on the lines of roasting in the oven or a pan on the stove…like when you roast almond or walnuts to enhance their flavor. Please do be careful putting those seeds in the mirowave. 🙂
Roger that!!! LOL!
Gorgeous flowers beautifully captured!! I also had no idea pomegranates flowered.
I remember when they started to sprout, I asked a gardener what if they were pomegranates. He said no, they were nock-pomegranates. 100 plus trees later, I guess he was pretty wrong!! LOL!
Love the Willy Wonka quote…never would have remembered that one ;0) Also, I cannot BELIEVE they won’t allow you to donate! Maybe they don’t know what to do with them? Sounds like maybe you should try the “next up” the ladder to see, I can’t even imagine why they wouldn’t take them, especially as healthy as they are. Also, those photographs are phenomenal. Just beautiful. And then lastly, I wanted to take a sec to thank you for visiting my blog so often and reading and “liking” even so many of my posts. I know everyone has restraints on time and time is precious and all that, so I just wanted to make sure to let you know how much I appreciate it. Thank you ;0)
I love your blog and am so happy to support you! Yes, the not being able to donate is frustrating, BUT, maybe this post will change that!! Thank you so much for your kind comments~
Only someone from the “holler” could tie poms and Willy Wonka together, and do it so well!
The setting looks just beautiful.
Yup. It’s all moonshine we consume….oh, and pomegranate seeds!!!
I had no idea… So beautiful! Thank you, Cindy!
Thank you Amy for appreciating them!
Thank you for sharing. I am always interested to see flowers or the actual trees that give fruit we eat.
I so look forward to your always kind comments. Thank you my friend~
Spectacular!
Beautiful, hardy little guys aren’t they! Thank you Bette~
Wow, such beautiful flowers. I’m hoping to see lots of pictures of the fruit later in the season! 🙂
Deal!! Maybe I’ll include some recipes and photos too!! Thank you for the appreciation!
That’s the best deal I’ve made in a long time. Thanks!
Happy you like them & cheers~
pomegranites are so beautiful! their colors in bloom are so rich and vivid; the fruit so lovely on the tree, equally lovely in informal groupings in the house,and wow – what amazing color they provide when cut! how could people refuse such beautiful and good-for-you fruits?!!!!
thanks for such a color-filled post of lovely images as well as the great story! seeing those trees in bloom must be a delightful gift!
You are so kind. Thank you! Yes pomegranates are a big part of our lives now. I use them as decor inside both fresh and dried. They make such pretty arrangements with flowers and fruit. I cook them in all sorts of ways, but mainly I just eat the seeds!! Lots go to waste which is not right. Thank you for your appreciation!
What vibrant colors. The leaves are almost shaped like the mango but the flowers are like the passion fruit. Either way I love pomegranates and I would definitely take a case of them off your hands if I could. Lovely photos once again. Retirement is grand isn’t it? 🙂
They aren’t ripe yet, but you can fill your trunk when they are!!
Amazing. It never occurred to me that pomegranates flowered like that. Wonderful photos.
Aren’t they lovely. They are a scraggly tree, but hillsides of them are so pretty at every stage, especially full fruit! Thank you my friend!
Your photos are simply… beautiful!
You are simply kind and a super talented painter! I am enraptured with your paintings of the west~
Thank you.
I always wondered what the blossoms looked like, Cindy, and how the fruit formed. Thanks for sharing. Can’t believe anyone would turn down pomogranates…, and a food bank at that. Food is food, ya know, exotic or not ! Great pics.
Paul
I think this is an example of staff with limited imagination. People need to eat more than canned food and boxed mac n cheese. If we lived in Amish territory, they would have a well oiled distribution plan in effect for the needy. That’s what communities are supposed to do……Thank you Paul. Gotta check out your rennovation status~
Lovely to see the pomegranates. The colours are gorgeous. I love freshly squeezed pomegranate juice. Such a pity they are not wanted at the food bank. Never mind, all the more for you and the Holler to enjoy.
The juice is heaven isn’t it? Just squeezed is the best and so healthy. Cheers to you my friend~
Never saw one of them on the plant very cool and so yummy
I didn’t know what they were when we moved in, and then presto, a year passes, and we have a hundred trees! Amazing. Cheers to you Eunice~
🙂
Lovely lovely pictures…Humans eat anything and there are lots and lots of them on earth but poms sounds a delicious idea than garlic for a change 🙂
Yes poms are delish & healthy too. Aphrodiasic, don’t think so, sorry Willy Wonka. He was obviously eating too much chocolate~
A delicious and nutritious fruit. Marvellous post..
Wish I could send you a box! Loving your poetry~
Those flowers are such a gorgeous shade of red. Anything that looks this good has to be full of healthy goodies….right? Lucky you to have so many to go at. I’m sure you can spare a couple to the odd bug. 🙂
They do get consumed by bugs, birds and animals, but there is more than enough to go around! Cheers to you and stop by for a box!
Maybe the food bank doesn’t want them because of their aphrodisiac quality . . . more mouths to feed! 🙂 Maybe you can have a party and everyone can take the arils out for the food bank and give that to them instead of the whole fruit. Loved the photos as usual, Cindy! You’re a fantastic photographer. You could publish a photography book called “The Holler.”
That’s a good idea about the party. I did think of the aphrodiasic angle my self, and actually wouldn’t reject that this may have played into the illogic. Why can’t the needy enjoy an active libido for heavens sake, along with a bunch of fresh poms????
Exactly!
very cool…I’ve never seen a pomegranate tree never mind an orchard before…thank you for the showing the natural progression I love to learn new and interesting things like this!
So glad. I will post some progressions later. They do ripen slowly. Just like Martha says, we can “learn something new everyday.” Boy can you imagine what Martha would do would these poms? Maybe I should send her an email!! LOL!
How is it that I learn something from all of your posts? This post is spectacular. I love everything about the poms now and wish they would grow here. How lucky you are in the Holler!
Next time you come to Carlsbad to visit your son, you must come by the holler, and I will load you up with all things Pom!! Mark your calendar~
oh my….I grew up eating “Chinese Apples” and would simply adore being able to pick my own….so blessed!
I have never heard that term. How fascinating. I grew up eating them too, so it was a blessing to suddenly have all these trees~
That’s what we called them in NY back in the 70’s!
Fascinating….I learn something new everday blogging, Just like Martha Stewart says I should! 🙂
So gorgeous!
Just like you and your blog! Thank you~
Wow! Great photos! What do you do with all the Pomegranates?
I cook with them, eat them, and give them away. I wish I could donate them! Thank you & cheers~
This is the first time I have ever seen the flower or growing process of a pomegranate — how totally interesting! Sadly, I have never even eaten one — the closest thing to it was seeing my college roommate eat them a few times. Recently coupons have been coming in the Sunday paper for some brand of pomegranate juice, and it will be worth a try when the stores here start carrying it!
If you give me your address, I will mail you some! The juice at the store doesn’t do them justice. They’ll be ripe in about two months~
Oh wow, that is so cool — thank you!!! I could not find your email address and I’d like to email you my mailing address — my email is becky6259@yahoo.com — I am so excited! How very kind of you, and I am thrilled at the thought of tasting real California pomegranate juice!
When they are ripe, I will contact you!! So eager to hear what you think. Happy weekend!
How I would love to have my own pomegranates! Their flowers and fruit are simply exquisite. Alas, I live in a Zone 4 environment and pomegranates don’t like it that cold. Enjoy them!
Isn’t it amazing that a food bank would decline fresh fruit. I had some discussions with a church that has a food bank and local social services because I would have loved to contribute some of my excess garden produce. I was told that only packaged (ie. highly processed, unhealthy) foods are allowed due to government regulations!
I’m a clinical social worker, and what you say about how charities regulate what they provide to the needy resonates significantly. I was in Amish country recently. I went to the “rent-n-dent,” a place that sells dented and not sellable merchandize. I bought a case of water and felt guilty. It cost 5 cents. Needy people were loading their carts with food. I asked the Amish about their model. This was entirely a chartible enterprise, not limited to the Amish. They said they purchase what is rejected by our culture and sell it back at cost to the needy. It is part of their religious comittment. So yes, I get it, bushels of organic pomegranates, so good for you, is rejected by the foodbank in favor of boxed mac n/ cheese. Same with your produce.
Hard to find the logic.
LCSW – we mental health folks seem to find each other on the net 🙂 I just retired from a career in clinical psychology…
Oh my. No wonder I instantly connected with what you wrote. Let’s see, there are now eight of us!! 4 psychologists (counting you). Two are in Europe. And 4 clinical social workers. One is an expat in France and the others live in the US. You will likely see their comments here! What a small and wonderful world! Welcome to you.
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Wow, this is so beautiful❤❤❤