What are the Benefits of Pomegranate?

Pomegranates grow in hot, dry climates around the world and the trees have extraordinary long life spans. Some have been known to live for 200 years. Much of today's crop comes from California and Arizona and there are 5 varieties of pomegranate. The most common is called the wonderful variety, which is available from October thru January. Pomegranates are picked when ripe, so just look for a fruit that is heavy and has skin that is firm, taut, and it's almost leather like. Small service bumps and scrapes are ok on pomegranates, they don't affect the quality of the fruit inside. At home, store whole pomegranates at room temperature, away from sunlight. If you're not using them right away, however, they can last up to 3 months in the refrigerator if you store them in a plastic bag. The seeds which are called arils and juice of a pomegranate can be refrigerated up to 3 days or frozen for up to 6 months. So the seeds and the juice are the edible parts of the pomegranate. The seeds, which are those shiny red jewels are full of sweet and tart juice and that juice surrounds a white, fiber rich seed. Both the red and white parts are edible, but you don't want to eat the white membrane that surrounds both seeds. Pomegranate juice, which is high in vitamin C, potassium, and antioxidants that are called polyphenols can be extracted with a juicer or a blender or just by rolling the pomegranate on a flat surface. Now if you use the latter method, just roll the fruit gently to break all of the seeds inside, you'll hear a crackling sound when you do this. When all that sound stops, you've opened up all of the seeds. Now carefully pierce the rind and squeeze the juice.