POM Wonderful: Blogger Harvest Tour of the processing plant

On the last day of our POM Blogger Harvest Tour we got to go to the main POM plant. There we learned all about the life of the pomegranate from picking to juice bottling. We decked ourselves out in hard hats and hair nets before taking a tour of the plant, led by Brad. He told us all about the 15-week pomegranate harvest while truckloads of pomegranates came to the plant that morning.

The POM plant tour was eye opening. It was amazing to watch hundreds of pomegranates roll through the plant to determine their fate: POM Wonderful Juice? Kept as fresh fruit and put into a bin headed to Wal-Mart? Or packed into a smaller case to be sold to Costco shoppers? The plant was so organized and detailed – you could sense all of the dedication and hard work that goes into every POM product.

I was in awe as I watched the pomegranates roll down a chute where they’d be photographed rapidly 25 times so computers and cameras could detect any scratches, cracks, bumps and bruises. It was like a pomegranate photo shoot! As if that attention to detail wasn’t high tech enough, there are POM people who still check each and every pomegranate by hand.

We got to see (but not photograph) some top-secret parts of the POM processing plant that really help POM Wonderful be the successful brand that it is. The whole tour was making us SO thirsty for POM juice! Can you believe we hadn’t had a single sip yet? I assumed we’d be bathing in the beverage! I loved learning about the bottling. Those little POM bottles are so unique – designed to look like two pomegranates stacked upon each other. It’s not an easy shape to create and label!

The entire experience made me so much more appreciative of where my food comes from. Sure there is a whole farm-to-table movement going on, locally grown food is becoming more popular, and I regularly consider where my food is coming from, this POM experience made me think even more of those who picked the pomegranates by hand that morning in the hot sun, and the individuals who hand-checked for a little bump or bruise in every piece of fruit. I rarely eat an apple or carrot as a snack and truly think of the work that went behind getting me that fruit or veggie. I’m a big food fan, but now my appreciation for good, wholesome, sound agriculture has been heightened even more.

We finished the tour with lots of POM samples and even got to see a new product: POM Arils. For all of you intimidated by the idea of cracking open your own pomegranate, now you can purchase containers of arils! These are not yet in the Boston area, but hopefully soon! Though I don’t mind the work that goes into plucking these lil’ arils out of their pomegranate shell. They’re well worth it.

We made a quick trip back to the airport and we all said our goodbyes. It was a whirlwind trip and I loved every second of it. I am still in awe that I got to take part in this Blogger Harvest Tour and now that I’m home, it feels like a dream! Pinch me…POM, you’re wonderful.