Juice with the tastiest pomegranates (Valencia)
A successful trip: My name is Chema and I am the creator of “La Imperfecta”.
After keeping my agricultural project in mind, everything began to take shape one sunny day in 2013 when I traveled to a nursery in Elche, the cradle of the Mollar pomegranate, to select varieties and seedlings of pomegranates, to bring them to my agricultural farm in Cullera (Valencia ), plant them and carry them forward under the strict rules of organic farming on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.
Because of the climate, the land and the attention I give them, I harvest each autumn healthy, exquisite, unique organic pomegranates with a marked personality, hence its unique name, "La Imperfecta".
Ruby Island: This fruit inspired me the name of the farm because of the color of the pomegranates in bloom and their grains. Those red tones contrast with the white of the orange blossom of the orange and grapefruit fields that surround us.
Quite a crush: On that trip, I am not sure if the varieties of pomegranates were chosen for me or I for them, really. The selection I made has been a success, so the following year I planted the Wonderful variety, the best known in the world, some large, intensely red pomegranates, with a more acid flavor, precious, they look like "models".
To the tropics! I have planted, in a small plot of the farm, some guavas to grow them organically for fresh consumption and to enjoy them in jam or canned husks. Why guavas? Because they are as healthy as pomegranates, a good antioxidant and one of the foods richest in vitamin C (even more than citrus fruits) since each 100 gr contains 228mg of ascorbic acid.
Why La Imperfecta and Amara?
“La Imperfecta” because it is a perfect pomegranate on the inside: big heart, precious, juicy, large grains, with a priceless pine nut, sweet and very tasty and imperfect on the outside: because the color of its skin depends on the part of the tree where it is They have reared and are very sensitive to the friction of leaves or branches, no two are alike.
"Amara" for our guavas because it comes from the Greek, means "moon flower petal" and evokes the radiant white of the guava flower.
MY PROJECT
In Isla Rubí, every pomegranate and guava harvested has a function, that is why our business has four mainstays:
• Ecological cultivation: Pomegranates and guavas, for fresh consumption, harvesting them at their optimum point of maturity (several passes per tree)
• Juice with value: We allocate part of the harvest to the production of our juice "La Imperfecta", in limited quantities and, therefore, revaluing it, because we only transform our own "Imperfectas" and Wonderful.
• Another superfood: Small production of marmalade and natural preserve of peeled Mediterranean guava husks grown on Isla Rubí.
• Sustainability and respect for the environment: We make compost with the rest and vegetable residues after making the juice, jam and small pieces.
Three kilos of pomegranate. Fruit and nothing else:
For each 750 ml bottle of juice, more than three kilos of organic pomegranates have been squeezed, most of "La Imperfecta" and a small proportion of the Wonderful variety and nothing else, NOTHING. With it we have managed to make the consumption of natural and pure pomegranate more accessible throughout the year, not only fresh in autumn season.
Health on all four sides: Our juice, with an exquisite flavor, will provide well-being to those who consume it thanks to its multiple properties because the pomegranate, a superfood, is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals and in antiocyanins as well as being a purifying fruit , digestive, hypocaloric and even to help prevent certain diseases.
The same happens with jam and guava hulls, a unique fruit loaded with properties.
Restless: Our journey with these fruits still has steps to take after the research we are carrying out, we still want to go further.
THE TEAM:
Blanquet 1 and 2, Manuela, bees, birds ..., you can already imagine how diverse our team is headed by Blanquets and Manuela, the Ruby Island cats who have fun climbing and caressing the trees with their nails or having a happy nap in its shadow.
Here we do not use pesticides of any kind and we maintain a varied biodiversity: flowers of different colors that conquer the bees of Toni, our reference beekeeper and those in charge of enjoying flower after flower while they pollinate; grasses that serve as green compost after passing the brush cutter, tortoises, pairs of birds of different species and nests with eggs, ladybugs and other insects, truly all are part of the "team" together with Richard, (an expert in the cultivation of the guava), Artur and Isabel under my direction, Chema.
Together we cultivate pomegranates and guavas, taking great care of details and scrupulously, we only use manure, fermented vegetable remains such as nettle and aromatic oils (rosemary) that help in a natural way to get rid of the impertinent aphid on the tender leaves of the trees.
