Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

So much of eating fresh produce is KNOWING what to do with it. There are so many fruits and vegetables in my grocery store that I just have no idea how to peel them, how to eat them and even whether parts of them are poisonous. The Produce Picker Podcast is a great resource for learning about all kinds of fruits and vegetables.

This episode shows us how to cut open a pomegranate:

The steps are:

• Put a towel down on your cutting board to help prevent staining.
• Cut off the top and bottom of the pomegranate.
• Make four scores along the tough skin of the side of the pomegranate with your knife.
• Fill a large bowl with water.
• Break the pomegranate apart into four sections in the bowl under water.
• Pull the skin and pith away from the seeds.
• The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl, while the skin and pith will float.
• Skim the pith and skin off the top of the water.
• Empty the bowl into a strainer with holes small enough to catch the seeds.
• Transfer the seeds to whatever storage container you want.

As a child, my dad used to get a pomegranate. He would just open it up like and orange and we’d pick the seeds out with our fingers to eat it. The Produce Picker method is MUCH cleaner, because pomegranate juice really stains your fingers and clothes.

My friend, Nami, came from Iran, where pomegranates grow naturally. He would eat one by squeezing and squeezing it until it was soft and mushy. He then would poke a hole in the skin and drink the juice. I always thought he was missing out on the yummy pulp that way, but he also missed out on crunching the seeds.

However you eat a pomegranate, they are supposed to be super healthy for you and they fulfill one of your fruit/veggie requirements for the day, so get one and eat it today!