An Inconvenient Fruit
2007, yesterday
"Pomegranate!"
"What?"
"Pomegranate. An inconvenient fruit."
"What are you talking about?"
"You've just said something about an inconvenient fruit, and I think it's a pomegranate."
"Hang on. Hang on. I said I've just finished watching Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' DVD. You know, Mr Gore's extremely serious appraisal of how we are all producing far too much CO2 which is leading to global warming."
"I must have misheard you."
"Right."
Something deep in my psyche was awakened. Flash back to...to...
1967
An eight year old working class boy sits in his council house home in front of a blazing coal fire. This is the heart of a thriving mining community. In the boy's left hand sits half a pomegranate, in his right hand a dress pin borrowed from his mother's needlework drawer. Meticulously the boy uses the pin to extract individual pomegranate seeds one by one and places them in his mouth. The boy has been allowed to stay up to watch Steptoe and Son, and the delicate and tedious task of eating the pomegranate is punctuated by his glances at the TV. As the muted trumpet plays out the closing credits and Harold Steptoe is yet again frustrated by his Father's emotional grip on him, the pomegranate is all but consumed.
Back to reality
It's not really surprising that the pomegranate never really took off is it? They are just too difficult to eat. Even if you decide to sink your teeth into the matrix of seeds, the membrane in which they are held is just so bitter. Even though Jamie Oliver has included them in one of his recipes they still haven't found their way into the nation's shopping basket. Although according to research they should have. Apparently pomegranate juice contains the highest antioxidant capacity compared to other juices, red wine and green tea. We all need a good daily dose of antioxidants as they protect the body from free radicals, or "bad" chemicals in the blood.
So can you grow pomegranates on your allotment? Well, yes if you are reading this in Spain or California - you could be! As for the UK, very unlikely, unless you have a very large greenhouse that will hold a 16ft tree. Having said this, if Al Gore is as convinced about the spread of global warming as he is about dodgy voting practices in Florida which made him the "ex next president of the USA", then we might start to see pomegranate cultivation in Bournemouth.
"Pomegranate!"
"What?"
"Pomegranate. An inconvenient fruit."
"What are you talking about?"
"You've just said something about an inconvenient fruit, and I think it's a pomegranate."
"Hang on. Hang on. I said I've just finished watching Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' DVD. You know, Mr Gore's extremely serious appraisal of how we are all producing far too much CO2 which is leading to global warming."
"I must have misheard you."
"Right."
Something deep in my psyche was awakened. Flash back to...to...
1967
An eight year old working class boy sits in his council house home in front of a blazing coal fire. This is the heart of a thriving mining community. In the boy's left hand sits half a pomegranate, in his right hand a dress pin borrowed from his mother's needlework drawer. Meticulously the boy uses the pin to extract individual pomegranate seeds one by one and places them in his mouth. The boy has been allowed to stay up to watch Steptoe and Son, and the delicate and tedious task of eating the pomegranate is punctuated by his glances at the TV. As the muted trumpet plays out the closing credits and Harold Steptoe is yet again frustrated by his Father's emotional grip on him, the pomegranate is all but consumed.
Back to reality
It's not really surprising that the pomegranate never really took off is it? They are just too difficult to eat. Even if you decide to sink your teeth into the matrix of seeds, the membrane in which they are held is just so bitter. Even though Jamie Oliver has included them in one of his recipes they still haven't found their way into the nation's shopping basket. Although according to research they should have. Apparently pomegranate juice contains the highest antioxidant capacity compared to other juices, red wine and green tea. We all need a good daily dose of antioxidants as they protect the body from free radicals, or "bad" chemicals in the blood.
So can you grow pomegranates on your allotment? Well, yes if you are reading this in Spain or California - you could be! As for the UK, very unlikely, unless you have a very large greenhouse that will hold a 16ft tree. Having said this, if Al Gore is as convinced about the spread of global warming as he is about dodgy voting practices in Florida which made him the "ex next president of the USA", then we might start to see pomegranate cultivation in Bournemouth.
Labels: Pomegranate