Who Knew Pomegranate Jelly Rocked?

A couple years ago, we planted a pomegranate tree after Little Miss showed an interest in this anti-oxidant rich fruit. This year, we only got about six fruits, which is fine - I mean, who really needs more than six pomegranates in one year anyway, right? I've still yet to consume that many in just this lifetime.

But last week I was at Costco, of all places, and just happened to notice a flat of six GIANT, organic pomegranates for $12. Not cheap, but they were HUGE, and they were pomegranates. I dreamed of canning something new and different (what, I had no idea) and so I grabbed some.

I found a very simple recipe in an old-school book on canning and everything sort of fell into place from there.

I juiced the store bought fruit, as well as a couple from our own tree, and got exactly 3-1/2 cups of juice, just what the recipe called for. The pure pomegranate juice was really quite good. Much better than the POM drink you can buy at the grocery store. Go figure.

I put the juice in a pot and dissolved one 1.75 oz pouch of pectin in it and brought the mixture to a boil. I then added (gulp) 5 cups of sugar (organic), returned it to a boil, and let it roll for one minute.

Removing it from the heat I worked quickly to fill sterilized half-pint jars before processing in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.

The end result was so good - really, I didn't expect it. To me, pomegranates have always been a bit too tart for my liking, but these GIANT ones from Costco were exceptional. And what's more, the juice-depleted seeds where still worth snacking on, and when we were done doing that, we delivered 3 cups of them to the chickens who went after them like they were living worms. A real win-win for everyone!