Pomegranates, pomegranates, and did I mention pomegranates?

Isn't it funny how when something is under your nose, or in your backyard it is taken for granted until you don't have it anymore. All the years we lived in Logandale we had tons of pomegranate bushes and we never did a thing with them. Jacob was the only one that loved them and would pick them all during the Fall and eat them. We all liked them but didn't really know how to get all the seeds out easily and we weren't patient enough to really do it. I made pomegranate jelly a couple of times but got the juice from others. Now that we have been in Alamo for four years we really miss them! It is too cold at night here for pomegranates to grow. Jacob was having serious withdrawals a few weeks ago and wanted to buy one at the store. They were $2.69 a piece! Needless to say, he didn't get one.:) I told him I would find someone in Logandale who would want to give some away. I talked to my cousin Dawn and sure enough she had four boxes that she didn't need so Martine and Nathan picked them up and brought them down with them on Thanksgiving day. Jacob was SO excited! Actually I was too, I have missed them. So we began on our journey of finding out the best way to get the seeds out and to juice them. I talked to a few seasoned experts and watched a few videos on "YouTube" and we began our adventure. Matthew and Jacob are both working on their Family Life merit badge and needed family projects to do, so this was perfect. We had a system going of me washing and cutting the pomegranates, Jacob getting the seeds out and Matthew juicing. I know a lot of people don't take the seeds out before they juice, they just cut them and juice but the skin leaves a real bitter after taste so we seeded them first. It took more work but the juice is delicious! After two and a half hours we had one gallon! Now I know why people sell it! I am sure there are lots of people that have easier ways of doing it but oh well this is how we did it. The kitchen was a disaster after-wards. There was pomegranate juice splattered everywhere! We did two more sessions in the next few days and took it outside the next time. The only draw back was that it was really cold and our hands were freezing. So for the last attempt we draped garbage sacks over everything in the kitchen then the mess was easy to clean up. We put most of the juice in water bottle containers and put them in the freezer. We left some out to make smoothies with....delicious. Someday in the near future (when I get enough energy again) I am going to make pomegranate/jalapeno jelly.....then it will all be worth it - yum!