My brothers and sisters and I were fortunate to grow up in the small southern New Mexican village of La Luz. It had good soil and ditch water. Some of my fondest memories are of the foraging adventures we had each summer. When hungry, we would often walk barefoot in the cool ditch water through town, eating a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables that grew along the ditch banks. The people of our village generously shared nature’s bounty with children and friends.

We were especially fond of the big juicy pomegranates. My mother planted pomegranate trees on our property and every fall we would harvest the ripe fruit. We kids would break open the tough shell and eat the juicy seeds. My mom always said pomegranate juice was good for us. To collect the juice to drink or to make jelly was always a challenge.

A few years ago I decided that there had to be a better way to efficiently collect pomegranate juice, and I started searching for a pomegranate press. A thorough search of catalogs and the Internet produced only blenders and juicers for other fruits. Our research showed that juicing pomegranates this way would release bitter tannins from the skin and inner membrane into the juice. A friend actually used a juicer and got a bitter, un-drinkable solution. I tried a traditional apple press that worked well with apples, but not with pomegranates.

I am a public school shop instructor by occupation and an inventor by avocation. I have had successes over the years designing and building other devices that I have needed. Some have even made it to market. My personal motto is “frustration is the mother of invention”. Being frustrated with the “labor of love” required for obtaining pomegranate juice, I decided to keep the “love” but do something about the “labor” part.

I realized what was needed was a mechanical press, preferably hydraulic, that would squeeze the pomegranates and release the juice into a collection container, while leaving the shell, membrane and seed hulls behind. After designing, building and testing prototypes, we have a model that performs precisely as intended. We named the press “Mr. Mac’s PomXpress”. “Mr. Mac” comes from the nickname my students have tagged me with for many years.

The pomXpress™ will reduce the waste of pomegranates that are allowed to dry up on the tree because they are too difficult to deal with. The pomXpress™ will enable more people to harvest and enjoy the healthful benefits of pomegranate juice.