That's awesome. I was kind of the same way. We had Kumquat and Loquat trees in our backyard, and my grand father had one of those Star Fruit trees. People always gave me weird looks!

Yep, I lived for stewed quinces, but absolutely none of my friends had even heard of them. IŽd strip my grandparents trees bare and spend hours stewing them as my mum refused too. If I was really careful the frozen blocks of stewed quince would last until next quince season.

I've got two satsuma trees in my yard that are bursting with satsumas. They are so good. I think I've picked 500 so far and given them away. There must be 1,000 left on the trees at the moment. I'll get to them.

I loved pomegranates as a kid--but I never took them to school. My Mom said they were too messy for that.

And here I was thinking that pomegranates were just too much work to eat....ha!

To quote my darling daughter and her first experience with a pomegranate, "hmm, you eat the seeds?? Kinda taste like jello..mmm..Mom did you try this yet?? Mom..MOM, that's MY half!!!"

I'd never had one until I SCORED a bag of a half-dozen barely overripe ones at the grocery store for a whole $1.49.

My kids think they are too much work to eat. Sigh. Would it be horrible if it all wound up as juice?

You'd love Egypt. When I lived there (mumble) years ago we'd have pomegranate two or three times a week in season. Thet were ok, but my love was the oranges the size of grapefruit.

My stepdaughter loves them! I haven't tried them, yet. I'm going to have to.

One of my favorites is the clementines. mmm.

Hey...care to share the secret of how to easily get those seeds outta there in one piece? I make a salad dressing w/ pomegranate seeds in it and I always wind up covered in red juice...

We had a pomegranate tree (bush?) in our backyard when I was small. We picked at leisure and ate them in the backyard (messy) and had seed spitting contests. I was shocked when I saw the price of just one at the grocery store recently! We were rich and didn't even know it.

I'm hooked on Republic of Tea's Green Tea with Pomegranate. It's a beautiful red and tastes delicious!

My fingertips are already black from eating pomegranates. They are my absolute most favorite fruit in the world (with raspberries a firm second).

I have to ask, though, how much do they cost out there? I pay about $1.50 each for *big*, luscious pomegranates, which, pound for pound, doesn't seem all that bad to me for exotic fruit that has to be imported.

Right now you can get 2 large poms for $5.00 I've also seen them for $3.00/each. It all depends on the store.

The easiest way I found to get the seeds out (I learned this trick from watching Nigella)

Cut the pomegranate in half, hold it face down over a bowl, and thwap it repeatedly with a wooden spoon. The seeds will rain down like "luscious rudy drops"

Nigella is awesome for descriptive narratives.

We have a pomegranate tree in our front yard that is just bursting with poms right now. Really bursting. That's how you know they are really ripe - when the skin begins to crack open because the seed are so full of juice. Discouragingly, someone came around a month ago in the middle of the night and stripped all the pomegranates from the tree that could be reached without a ladder. The sad thing is, they weren't even ripe. Red, yes, but not ripe. Idiots.

I can totally identify with this story... I was a 4th grader with a love for braunschweiger on crackers... I kinda stuck out. :)
Then again, eating with chopsticks in the cafeteria was enough to cause a stir.

Along with the 2 varieties of orange trees, a yellow grapefruit tree, a tangerine tree, grape arbor, strawberry plants, and asparagus, we also had a pomegranate tree in our backyard.

I remember mom devouring them.

Sometimes (rarely, though) she would share with me.

- hfs

But now there's Pom Wonderful so we can enjoy pomegranates year round. Of course it's not the same without the messy seeds. And the juice is not a bargain either. Oh well, few good things are cheap.

You can tell the seasons at our house by the fruit my wife eats, and pomegranates are at the top her list.

I love them.. and eat them by the ton when I was a kid.. not such much now (wonder why???) But I'm on my way to the supermarket right now and will pick one up and treat myself for lunch! YumO!

I was only in first grade but I couldn't "get over" this one girl who would come to lunch with ice cubes in her thermos; to keep her milk cold.

I freaked at the thought of watered down milk and she said she liked it. I'm very particular about my 1%-in-a-carton-milk these days too.

Growing up in Southern California, there were pomegranate trees in so many yards, as a kid we could pick them and eat them as much as we wanted. Of course my mother would make me sit outside on the steps when I ate them, so I didn't stain the carpet! I remember many an old t-shirt stained red with juice.

And I had a Partridge Family lunch box too!

I absolutely love poms too. I have gotten one in my Christmas stocking every year for as long as I can remember. I have passed on this tradition to my 7 year old now and she loves them too.

I remember this half-Korean kid in grade school whose mother would give him dried squid in little plastic baggies to take to school to snack on. I sure hope it tastes better than it smells, because it seriously smelled like something died in his pockets. How something that smells so horrid could be so good to snack on, I'll never know. Oh well, to each their own I guess.

I never even saw a pomegranet as a child.. but discovered them when my own children were very small... they were a huge hit and it was a special treat every year...

this was a great post, brought back some nice memories for me, even without the poms!

It also inspired me.. next time i am in the store.. i think i will pick one up.. even thought my kids are grown and flown..

Your post reminded me how great poms are. i remember being a kid and thinking they were just the height of fancy and regal food. We only ever had them when it was a special treat, and the color and the novelty of only eating the seeds just spoke to me.