Nature and its wonders
Pomegranates, a lovely delicacy to enjoy in your salad or in your yogurt. Or as a drink, a freshly squeezed pomegranate juice is a healthy one.
October is regularly the month to harvest the pomegranates. Almost simultaneously with the harvest of the olives, we now are processing the pomegranates. Like you can see on open-air markets, mercadillos, lots of pomegranates have burn marks because of the heat this summer. Nevertheless, inside the fruits nothing is wrong, they are still delicious.
Originally the pomegranate is from Persia. Like a lot of trees they have wandered and now you can find them in the mediterranean area like for example in Spain. Did you know that the Spanish town and province is named after this lovely ‘Granada’ ? Near Granada you have the Sierra Nevada, the snowy mountains, a lovely place for skiing. Last year we were there for 5 days and enjoyed skiing. We went home without injuries, two weeks later I broke my ankle with my Vespa, how retarded can it be. Anyway, the pomegranate is also very well known in Spain. And Granada with that as well.
Count the seeds
The pomegranate is a symbol of fertility because of the enormous amount of seeds in just one piece of fruit. There is a lot to do about the number 613, I prefer not to explain because it has many religious explanations. It is (sadly?) not in the Fibonacci series, so there is no mathematical explanation. A lot of figures in nature can be related to this series, but apparently not this one. Her elegant form is used in many art objects. The image of the fruit is often used in utensils, in decoration and in religious objects. For me especially the fertility thing means a lot, we can use that factor on our finca, yes please!
If you do not work properly you could easily need to repaint your kitchen, because the sparks of the fruit can end everywhere. For the juice, if you press it by hand with a kitchen press, the first thing to do is roll the fruit so the white and bitter peel gets loose easier from the little seeds. You will get more juice out of it this way and there is less peel taste.
My press is a professional press, it is in fact a tiny version of the press we use for the grapes, for the wine making. The majority of the juice is stored in special bottles in the freezer. What are the products next to the juice? I take a lot of pomegranates seeds to store them in the freezer so we can use them for salads or in recipes with for example meat. I keep another amount to make marmalade. It is a funny thing that the 613 tiny pomegranate seeds are actually the fruit you can eat. Don’t be too precise, of course you mostly can’t have them all. Some get lost during the process of cleaning the fruit or end up on the kitchen floor.
Attractive and delicious
A jar of pomegranate marmalade does look very attractive, especially with the holidays and Christmas coming. I think I will add them to my Christmas baskets, next to our homemade wine and olive oil. You need to have a celebration now and then and spoil yourself with good things. Things that make you enjoy time, enjoy people and enjoy good food. Many people that live in the country, in Spanish named Campo, value Friendship and Meals, Amistad y Comida, as the most important values in life. We understand that, without both of them life would be boring and rather meaningless. Our life in the campo means that we must be able to rely on people, we simply need each other. With all the different trees and fruits on our land you need to share knowledge. Sometimes new problems occur and it is nice to find solutions with each other’s help. As a consequence we cherish the good results with each other and celebrate the wine making with a barbeque together. Celebrations are very important.
Next time I will talk about the connection between people and the reason why there are so many parties.
For now, I wish you a lovely weekend, enjoy your dear ones and relax a bit!
Enjoy! Te disfrutes.
Warme omhelzing van Monica