Did you know... Punic Apples...

[Dog]

Did you know that Punic Apples otherwise known as Pomegranates are the forbidden fruit of the garden of Eden and more strangely that they each have exactly 840 seeds.

I only know this as I was searching for a recipe to use up the big box of heavily ripe and exploding pomegranates my 90 year old neighbour just gave me. I still had ten from the other week.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

How do we know they're the forbiddon fruit of the garden of Eden when the Bible doesn't even state which fruit was on the tree?

[Dog]

Should have said they are considered to be the forbidden fruit mentioned in the Bible. Please accept my humble apologies.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Your humble apologies are humbly accepted [:)]

[Dog]

I am humbled to the power of two.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

But there is no need to eat humble pie.

To eat apple pie is fine though.

[Dog]

OK OK I like apple pie but right now I have 5 or 6 kilos of pomegranates I need to eat - I do like humble pie pulses are the protein of the gods.

[mint]

You lucky dog, Dog!  Pomegranates are supposed to be the superfood of the moment with all sorts of anti-oxidants and what have you.

I just think ripe, juicy ones are wonderful and the seeds look so pretty, like little red gems.

All I know about them is that Katharine of Aragon had them as her "symbol" and that pomegranates symbolise fertility.  Poor woman only had one daughter, Mary, who survived to adulthood.  And she, of course, famously was divorced by Henry the Eighth and led a sad life thereafter.

I did wonder whether they'd grow here in the Charente but I wouldn't know where to get a tree.

 

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

You lucky dog, Dog!  Pomegranates are supposed to be the superfood of the moment with all sorts of anti-oxidants and what have you.

I just think ripe, juicy ones are wonderful and the seeds look so pretty, like little red gems.

All I know about them is that Katharine of Aragon had them as her "symbol" and that pomegranates symbolise fertility.  Poor woman only had one daughter, Mary, who survived to adulthood.  And she, of course, famously was divorced by Henry the Eighth and led a sad life thereafter.

I did wonder whether they'd grow here in the Charente but I wouldn't know where to get a tree.

 

[/quote]

From Trees-R-Us [;-)]

[Dog]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

You lucky dog, Dog!  Pomegranates are supposed to be the superfood of the moment with all sorts of anti-oxidants and what have you.

I just think ripe, juicy ones are wonderful and the seeds look so pretty, like little red gems.

All I know about them is that Katharine of Aragon had them as her "symbol" and that pomegranates symbolise fertility.  Poor woman only had one daughter, Mary, who survived to adulthood.  And she, of course, famously was divorced by Henry the Eighth and led a sad life thereafter.

I did wonder whether they'd grow here in the Charente but I wouldn't know where to get a tree.

 

[/quote]

I  certainly am - have you seen the price of pomegranate juice?

I can send you some seeds if you want - they grow well here in 24.

There are other fertility rites involving pomegranates - arab women throw them at the floor - when they split and the seeds spill out the number of seeds indicates the number of children they will have.

[Gardengirl]

Sweet, they had pomegranate trees in our local garden centre by the lemon trees etc; cost €€€€€! They were quite big, though. I had never seen pomegranates growing before.

GG

[buelligan]

IIRC, pomegranates are also the reason we have winter.  Or rather, when Hades abducted Persephone to the Underworld she was tempted to suck on some pomegranate seeds (she was there for quite a while and was very hungry).  This was before Hermes (or possibly Hecate) rescued her and returned her to her mother, Demeter.  Demeter is Goddess of the Earth, she'd got a bit depressed during Persephone's absence and stopped producing food.  When Persephone came home all was good again, for a bit, until Hades reminded her about the pomegranate seeds.  These put her in Hades' debt and meant that, for all time, she would have to return to the Underworld for a few months each year to be his consort.  Every year, the pomegranates ripen to remind Persephone it's time to go and Demeter responds by ending our summer.[:(]

[Dog]

Good stuff ehh!

When Persephone was held captive in Hades, the Greek goddess of spring and fruit swore she would not partake of food until her release.

But she couldn't resist the tempting pomegranate, ceating nearly the entire fruit before stopping herself and leaving only six seeds uneaten.

From this story people think our yearly cycle of six months of growth and harvest followed by six months of winter is derived.

There is so much lore surrounding this wonderful fruit.

Perhaps next we will find Odin fed his goats pomegranates.

[Iceni]

Verrry interesting - til now I had only known Hermes as the god of typewriter scarves.

But why did Rome and Carthage fight the Punic Wars? Some sort of spat over trade barriers that got out of hand ?

John

[woolybanana]

Roman expansionism was being hindered by the Carthaginians and control over the food production area of North Africa

[Pierre ZFP]

So they started lobbing grenades at each other?

It's all starting to make sense now [Www]

 

[Dog]

Yup the French named their explosive device the grenade after the grenadine.

Today I asked wifelet if I could juice the pomegranates after a 10 minute lecture about not making a mess in the kitchen and being told not to use every implement and to clear up after myself and not flood the floor and where I was to store the juice and and and.....

It was all going well breaking the pomegranates up in the kitchen bowl with the pithy bits floating to the surface - just as wifelet came in for an inspection a rather large and juicy pomegranate had a liquid explosion and blasted juice high up above the sink where it is untiled and even pebble dashed the frigidair with bright carmine spots. OOPSSS I managed to calm her down by promising to go christmmas shopping this afternoon and further agreeing to a haircut etc etc.

I took the pithy bits out of the bowl and drained the water and then bunged them in the food jizzer-upper on pulse and hey presto a bit of a leak but unnoticed by the boss. The blades knocked the outer sacs off the grains but didn't break the grains - bingo!

Two litres of pomegranate juice and a slightly stained wall.... bonus....

 

 

[buelligan]

Sounds fabuloso, except for the bit about christmas shopping.  This has been banned in my domain for many years.  Still, it gave me a pleasurable frisson of schadenfreude to hear of someone else undergoing such a trial.  Thank you Dog for brightening my evening...[:D][;-)]

[Dog]

It was fan dabby dossey I am glad you enjoyed your delectatio morosa - may I enquire if you are saddled with a wifelet?

[buelligan]

Yes Dog, you may.  And, No Dog, I am certainly not for I am not male and I am heterosexual (making the role of wifelet slightly supernumerary in my home).[:D]

[mint]

Hey you, Dog and you, Buelligan, have you two been on anything else besides pomegranate juice?

[buelligan]

That's a rather personal question isn't it Sweet?[:D][;-)]   Pray tell why you ask?[:D]  (And be more specific, do you mean ever..?   ...in the last 10 minutes..?   ....What...?)[:D][:D]

[mint]

I meant before you two posted those last two messages, getting all your words in a twist, of course!

[buelligan]

Oh!  I'm sorry Sweet but I'm afraid I can't see the confusion (other than my own, now).  But I suppose it is normal not to be able to see one's own glaring mistakes![:D]  PM me if you don't want to embarrass me in public![:D][:D]

[Dog]

[quote user="buelligan"]Yes Dog, you may.  And, No Dog, I am certainly not for I am not male and I am heterosexual (making the role of wifelet slightly supernumerary in my home).[:D][/quote]

You are a rare rose and sound just like my third wife - I do like alpha females.