Hello !
Today, I would like to share my experience visiting pomegranate farm and self picking them up from the trees. Well, we have been to apple picking and strawberry picking before but pomegranate picking was something that I had never heard of, until this year. We went on an early morning drive from south bay to Winters, California and visited the Blue ridge Organic Pomegranate ranch. They are a family owned organic pomegranate ranch and hold their U-pick event normally during late October.
We had initially planned on doing the apple picking this year but we missed a couple of apple picking events and later dropped the idea of going to one. When I found out about the pomegranate picking, I knew I had to go to this one with my family. I had no idea how a pomegranate tree looked like before this. We love pomegranates and their amazing health benefits further motivated me to attend this event.
We started early in the morning from south bay and it took around two hours for us to reach the pomegranate ranch. We did stop half way for a coffee break at Starbucks. The drive was smooth and as we arrived in Winters, California we saw a hot air balloon landing. Now, that’s an amazing start. We didn’t have any problem finding the ranch, we just had to follow the GPS. Upon arrival there were volunteers who gave us parking instructions. They had plenty of parking spaces although it wasn’t a paved parking lot. That was expected as we were in a farm/ranch. There wasn’t anyone from the ranch to guide us what to do next or where to start. There was a gentleman at the checkout but he was busy helping people who had already picked up the poms. We kind of figured it ourselves and took the bucket that was kept to help you collect all your picks.
They did have a lot of trees with plenty of pomegranates. I had no idea on how to choose a really good one. I did check on the internet for suggestions on how to choose good, ripe pom (pomegranates) before we left and put those to good use while I was there. I also met a nice lady who was kind enough to tell me a little bit about picking some good ones. We did take a pair of cutting pliers with us as suggested by the host and that was a must have. We wish we had taken a pair of gloves too. Finally, after lots of looking, feeling and tapping the pomegranates , we managed to pick a bucket full of them. We clicked some more pictures on the ranch and headed to check out. They were 20USD for a bucket full of pomegranates which was a pretty amazing deal considering they are all organic and fresh from the tress. The ranch was nice with rows and rows of pomegranate trees and the experience was lovely. It was a beautiful morning, very calm, with a few people talking around you. At one point, all I could see was my family and the pomegranate trees around us.
There is one thing that I didn’t like about this ranch was that there was no one to whom people could talk to and learn more about their ranch or ask questions and get answers from. Other than that it was great and they also frequently updated their Facebook page which was good. The picture below was shot half way through our picking. Most of the pomegranates were deep red and of course delicious!
A few tips on picking the best pomegranates
- Always try to feel the weight of the pomegranates. If they feel heavier compared to their size, they are definitely fuller and juicier. That means they are ready to be picked.
- Gently tap on the pomegranate , if it gives out a metallic sound then they should be ready.
- Last tip is, pick the one’s that are deeper red in color. This may not be true in all cases but from my experience all the deeper red ones tasted sweet and juicy compared to the lighter shades of red.
We mostly snacked on the pomegranate jewels but also tried out a few different recipes using them. The first thing that I made was yogurt rice with pomegranate jewels as toppings. A few other recipes that I am planning try or have already tried are-
1. Sweet Potato – pomegranate stir fry or salad
2. Pomegranate chia yogurt parfait.
3. Pomegranate molasses.
4. Pomegranate tea
5. Pomegranate lemonade.
Let me know how you like to add pomegranates in your diet. I hope you enjoyed this post.Please leave a comment and let me know if you would like to do Pomegranate picking next year?