Pomegranates

When I was growing up, a neighbor down the street had a pomegranate tree in their yard. The tree bore well, and there was no way the family could use all the pomegranates. At least that is what the couple dozen kids on the block told ourselves to justify "sneaking" to the tree to grab one.

To open the thick skins, we'd throw the fruits down on the asphalt of our dead-end street, sit on the curb, and pick through the membranes to eat the gorgeous little jewel seeds. As neat as we tried to be, there were always stains on our fingers and lips to give us away - and a big mess on the road. Our parents would scold us a little, but I suppose the neighbors from whom we swiped the pomegranates didn't mind so much or a bigger stink would have been made.

Several years ago, before this latest pomegranate craze really revved up, I spied some pomegranates in the market and brought them home. The boys loved them, and still do. Then one Thanksgiving, on the spur of the moment just before sitting down to eat, I put a handful of pomegranate seeds into the cranberry relish. And a family Thanksgiving tradition was born.

A couple years after that, when visiting my family, I noticed that my brother has a pomegranate tree in his backyard. I arranged a trade with him: he would send me pomegranates from his yard, and I would send him cranberries from the local bogs. That was really fun. My sister-in-law, who didn't much care for cranberry sauce before, liked the recipe I gave her and the pomegranate addition.

Last year and this year, there were no cranberries for sale from the local bogs (some bad production years), and my brother's tree didn't bear well. No matter. When the local bogs and their tree are bearing well again, we'll resume.

Meantime, I made my favorite cranberry sauce last night. It's this recipe. I have a pomegranate ready for the boys to take apart tomorrow morning while I work on other parts of Thanksgiving dinner.

By the way, a trick I learned from Sunset magazine (at least I think it was Sunset): the best way to separate a pomegranate's seeds from the white membrane is to do it in a bowl of water. The membranes float to the top and the seeds sink to the bottom.

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving.