Pome-Great

I think I bought one pomegranate in my life, many years ago, and didn’t enjoy it. I thought you had to eat just the red juicy part and spit out the seeds. Way too much work to eat that way, and way too much waste.

Years later I learned that you’re supposed to eat everything, but I just never bought another one of these fruits. Didn’t really know what to do with them.

More years passed, and we started hearing all sorts of things about how wonderful pomegranates are for our health. I bought some pomegranate juice, and really liked it, particularly when I extended it with water or seltzer.

Then a few weeks ago my friends from WV were coming over. I’d be feeding them dinner. I went to Canticle Farm’s winter sale and picked up some wonderful organic spinach and lettuce for a salad, and made that great beet soup. I still had to stop at the store to pick up a few things.

That’s when the pomegranates called out to me in the produce aisle. Why this time? I can’t say, except that their beautiful redness certainly caught my attention. So I bought one, intending to put it in the salad.

I did put the whole thing in that salad, and it was marvelous! My friends and I agreed that it added a great freshness to the salad, with the perfect blend of sweet & tart. Plus the ruby seeds were beautiful.

We didn’t use up all the spinach & lettuce, and I loved the pomegranate so much that I went to the store and bought another for my salad. Again I used the entire pomegranate in the salad, and again I loved it.

This is really the end of pomegranate season, and the little store closest to me had some very sad-looking ones left, marked down considerably. I decided that they’d probably be fine, and picked up four.

Not feeling great most of the day today, I thought some fruit might cheer me up, and sat at my kitchen table making quite a mess. And loving it.

The skin is hard & drying out, indicating that I’ll have to eat them up pretty fast. It’ll be a sacrifice, but I think I can handle it. 😉