November 9: Pomegranate

In the French Revolutionary Calendar, the Pomegranate was celebrated on this date. So here are some facts about pomegranates.

1. The botanical name for pomegranate is Punica granatum, and there are over 760 different varieties.
2. A pomegranate tree can grow to 5 and 8 m (16 and 26 ft) tall, and there are pomegranate trees in France which are 200 years old.
3. The name derives from the Latin words for "seeded apple". Some scholars believe it was a seeded apple, a pomegranate, which Eve ate in the Garden of Eden rather than an actual Apple. An old English term for a pomegranate was "apple of Grenada". The city of Granada in Spain was named after the fruit. The French word for the fruit is grenade, and that is where the word for a small hand held bomb comes from.
4. Pomegranates have been around a long time. The ancient Egyptians used them as a treatment for tapeworm and other infections, and a pomegranate was found in the tomb of Djehuty, the butler of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt.
5. The ancient Greeks believed the fruit came from the Blood of Adonis, and in the myth of Persephone, when Hades kidnapped her, he tricked her into eating six pomegranate seeds in the Underworld, so she was condemned to spend six months in the underworld every year. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's painting Persephona depicts Persephone holding one. In Greece today, pomegranate seeds are traditionally eaten at funerals as a symbol of the sweetness of the heavenly kingdom.
6. In the Bible, it was pomegranates which the scouts brought to Moses to show him that the Promised Land was fertile. Exodus 28:33-34 says that images of pomegranates should be woven onto the hem of the robe worn by the Hebrew High Priest, and King Solomon's crown is said to have been based on the calyx of a pomegranate. They are seen as symbols of fruitfulness and are eaten on the Jewish festival of Rosh Hashana. A pomegranate is also said to have 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 commandments of the Torah. However, in actuality the number of seeds varies between 200 and 1400.
7. In the Qur’an, pomegranates are named as one of the fruits that will grow in the gardens of paradise.
8. Pomegranates often appear in heraldry. Granada has pomegranates on its coat of arms. Pomegranate was also an emblem in the arms of Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII’s first wife. When Anne Boleyn took her place as Henry’s wife, she changed to emblem to an image of a white dove pecking at a pomegranate. Ouch.
9. The Indian spice anardana is made from pomegranate seeds.
10. Before eating the seeds have to be separated from the inedible pulp they rest in. As the pulp floats and the seeds sink, it's easier to perform this task in a bowl of Water. Freezing the fruit is another way to do it.