Celebrate Shab-e Yalda with pomegranates at the farmer’s market

Pomegranate season is short in Southern California, but the fruit looms large in Iranian culture and cuisine. Market correspondent Gillian Ferguson is at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, where she is met by cook and writer Naz Deravian, who describes eating pomegranates like candy as a child. Deravian prepares for Shab-e Yalda, the winter solstice celebration, by sharing recipes that use pomegranates (symbolic of the rising sun) in the New York Times.

Along with her family, Margarita Smith grows pomegranates at Mud Creek Ranch in Santa Paula. She describes how to open the fruit with a pocketknife by scoring and segmenting it to showcase almost every seed.