Seven Things I Love About Pomegranates

by Pan Tangible
(Wolf Creek, Oregon)

1. I love that each individual pomegranate seed looks like a beautiful faceted ruby. If you hold it to the light, it even appears to be jewel-like, and light pours through it like stained glass.

2. I love that they fit together inside their rind in a snug and symmetrical fashion reminiscent of the structure of a honeybomb. Nature wastes no space and has a fondness for geometry!

3. Native to an area of the globe where human culture first flourished, pomegranates still carry some of the ancient symbolism of fertility worship. How easy and obvious are the similarities to a woman's womb; red and juicy and full of seeds.

4. Pomegranates ripen near Halloween, my favorite childhood holiday. Their season is fleeting, and their fruit all the more special for being unavailable the rest of the year.

5. They grow on a particularily ugly tree/bush with dry leaves,sharp branches and gnarly trunks. They keep their beauty within, rather than splashing it vainly about.

6. The seeds are completely self-contained, without aroma and flavorless until they suddenly release a burst of flavor when bitten into, rewarding you with a perfect balance between tart and sweet.

7. Most people don't know the proper way to open one. This makes the pomegranate sort of a puzzle, or a treasure box available only to the initiated.

The proper way is this... Slice off the crown. Take a sharp paring knife and cut a groove all the way from top to bottom and back to the top, a complete circle only 1/4 inch deep. Now plunge the tip of the knife into the center of the top about 1 inch and twist the knife. The pomegranate will pop open without any mess. Now YOU are among the initiated!