POMEGRANATES: Festival to Focus on Gift from the Caucasus

The ancient Pomegranate, exalted by Homer, extolled in the Bible, is a deciduous fruit-bearing shrub or small tree that grows well in the Valley of the Sun. It will be the focus of a Festival sponsored by the Arizona Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers Association on the weekend of November 3-6. Lectures scheduled at Arizona State University over the weekend will feature the noted Richard Ashton, Texas Pomegranate Grower, founder of the Texas Pomegranate Cooperative, and avid fruit grower. Mr. Ashton translated into English the works of Proffessor Gregory Levin, whose expeditions to the Caucasus region, including Armenia, and Azerbaijan, led the widespread propagation of varieties indigenous there throughout the western world. Jeff Moersfelder, Curator at the University of California Davis’s extensive collection of pomegranate varieties, as well a Harvey Correia, a commercial grower in Fresno, California are also among the long list of speakers. In addition, garden tours of some remarkable fruit-bearing gardens in the Valley are scheduled.
 
Recent years have seen the widespread cultivation of pomegranates in California, marketed under such popular labels as POM. The Arizona Chapter has been testing a number of varieties for use in the desert. While most nurseries carry only the “Wonderful” variety there are more than 500 named cultivars; some are ornamental but many have different ranges of fruit size, coloring, hardness of seed, taste and harvest period. Patrick Hallman, a former club President, who heads the testing program, said “We are looking for varieties that really excel in our climate. We can have ten failures, but that one success creates a lot of excitement. We see a future where cultivars of pomegranates will be grown commercially in Arizona and where homeowners can enjoy some really splendid backyard varieties. Further information is available at www.festivaloffruit.org .