In Praise of Pomegranates

Few foods have as many mystical qualities as the pomegranate; often found in Christian art, the pomegranate figures prominently in many representations of the Madonna and child.  Judaism holds the pomegranate dear, as well – the old wives' tale is that pomegranate seeds number 613, one for each commandment found in the Torah.  Legend in the Islamic world says that each pomegranate contains one seed which has come down from Paradise.

And in Buddhist teaching, the three blessed fruits are citrus, peaches, and pomegranates; the demoness Hariti, who devoured children, was transformed when the Buddha gave her a pomegranate; she then became a guardian goddess who in her various incarnations is invoked by infertile women.  This mirrors medieval European Christianity, wherein the headboard of a marriage bed was frequently carved with pomegranate flowers to ensure fertility.

The pomegranate has a fairly long agricultural history, probably first being cultivated in what is now Iran and Afghanistan.  Military conquest led to the pomegranate’s westward migration; Herodotus, in fact, mentions golden  pomegranates adorning the spears of soldiers in the Persian phalanx during the Graeco-Persian wars.  There were undoubtedly numerous oral traditions surrounding the fruit prior to recorded history; we have only the faintest traces of these prehistoric accounts – the Persian myths reference the warrior Isfandiyar who gained invincibility by means of eating a magical pomegranate.

And the most famous reference of all is the capture of the flower goddess Persephone by the death god Hades, who tricked her into eating the seeds of a pomegranate fruit, ensuring that she must remain with him for one month for each seed she had eaten, and thus was winter born.

However, as popular as this fruit has traditionally been, it seems to have dropped off the map in the West.  Still widely grown in Portugal, Spain, and Turkey, few other places in the Western world treat the pomegranate as anything other than a novelty food.  Southern California, so perfect a climate for growing practically anything, is home to a burgeoning trade in pomegranates; very few other places in the United States boast more than a few scattered trees grown by hobbyists.  Commercial orchards just don’t grow them.

That may soon be changing.  Pomegranate juice is on the minds of many nutritionists and dieticians, particularly as people look for ways to combat high cholesterol and other ailments related to the chronic American problems of poor nutrition and obesity.  The medicinal qualities of the pomegranate have long been known; it is not a coincidence that the British Medical Association features the pomegranate in their coat of arms.

Overwhelmingly, the scientific community is lining up behind this fruit.  As summarized by Penugonda and Basu of Oklahoma State University in their 2009 paper “Pomegranate Juice:  A Fruit Juice”:

Pomegranate juice is a polyphenol-rich fruit juice with high antioxidant capacity. In limited studies in human and murine models, pomegranate juice has been shown to exert significant antiatherogenic, antioxidant, antihypertensive, and anti-inflammatory effects. Pomegranate juice significantly reduced atherosclerotic lesion areas in immune-deficient mice and intima media thickness in cardiac patients on medications. It also decreased lipid peroxidation in patients with type 2 diabetes, and systolic blood pressure and serum angiotensin converting enzyme activity in hypertensive patients. Thus, the potential cardioprotective benefits of pomegranate juice deserve further clinical investigation, and evidence to date suggests it may be prudent to include this fruit juice in a heart-healthy diet.

Miguel, Dandlen et al. pointed out in their 2004 paper “The Effect of Two Methods of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L) Juice Extraction on Quality During Storage at 4°C” that pomegranates are rich in precisely the kinds of polyphenol compounds which are best suited to fight a whole range of human ailments:

“Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that the composition of phenol-rich food retards the progression of arteriosclerosis and reduces the incidence of heart diseases by preventing the oxidative stress, that is, lipid peroxidation in arterial macrophages and in lipoproteins.More recently, some authors reported that anthocyanins decreased cadmium accumulation in liver and kidney, the concentration of bilirubin and urea in blood serum, and aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase activities.  Pomegranate juice is an important source of phenolic compounds, with anthocyanins being one of the most important, especially the 3-glucosides and 3, 5-diglucosides of delphinidin, cyanidin, and pelargonidin.”

With all of this going for it, why has the pomegranate not supplanted the Dorito as America’s snack food of choice?

For a few obvious reasons, and some not so obvious.

For starters, Americans have grown increasingly disenchanted with fruit generally over the past several generations.  A quick review of the most popular breakfast foods reveals that berries and grapefruit, formerly staples in most households, have been displaced by pop-tarts and microwaveable sausage biscuits.  Even the most health conscious consumers all too often forego fruit first thing in the morning, opting instead for a granola bar or a container of yogurt.

Then, too, among fruit choices, the pomegranate is perhaps one of the most labor intensive once it reaches your kitchen table.  Grapefruit?  Slice it in half, and then dig in.  Oranges?  Peel them and go.  Grapes?  Wash them, then pop them in your mouth.  Apples?  Peaches?  Pears?  Munch away, peel and all.

But pomegranates require a bit more work.  First, you have to break open the outer leathery layer and find some way to peel it off.  Then you have to soak the insides and allow the arils (the edible portion which includes the seeds) to sink to the bottom of the bowl, while the pulp floats to the top.  Finally, you take the arils and either eat them raw, or mix them into whatever concoction you are making with them.  That’s a lot of steps for people who now eat breakfast “on the run” instead of at the family dining table.

Finally, there is the question of taste.  Raw pomegranate arils, especially of the golden varieties like Wonderful, are fairly sweet, in addition to being tart.  However, as anyone who has drunk pure pomegranate juice can attest, there is a definite bitter component to the flavor, making consumers who are used to downing high-fructose corn syrup by the bucketfuls in the rest of their dietary lives somewhat averse to even trying pomegranates.  Like cranberries, pomegranates have been relegated to the “fruit juice cocktail” category for many would-be imbibers.

This is a shame, but it is not an irreversible state of affairs.  The pomegranate has a glorious history, and, we believe, limitless potential for an equally glorious future.  Renewed interest in healthy whole foods diets, coupled with changing conditions brought about by global warming and the increasing unpredictability of water supplies make this plant a perfect fit for 21st century production needs.  We have noticed a surge bordering on a tidal wave of increased interest in pomegranates at local garden centers over the past couple of years; we suspect there will be even more interest as our local climate shifts further from sub-tropical and more towards temperate or even semi-arid conditions over the next several decades.

The conditions of the fertile crescent, the birthplace of civilization and of the pomegranate, are becoming more commonplace in parts of the world currently unfamiliar with the foods of a bygone time and place. 

M. Pekmezci and M. Erkan of Akdeniz University in Turkey note that “The pomegranate requires a long hot Summer for fruit to mature, can withstand low temperatures in the Winter and is drought and salt-tolerant.”  If this does not describe the ideal fruit crop for farmers facing uncertain weather, we don’t know what would be. 

We at Myrtle’s are just getting a jump start; we suspect a lot of other growers will be joining us in planting pomegranates.

Happy farming!