Pomegranates are deciduous shrubs or small trees of the crape myrtle family, bearing grapefruit-sized berries with edible seeds and surrounding flesh (arils). A single fruit may contain up to 600 arils. The plant is native to Southwest Asia, and has been cultivated since ancient times, referenced often in Judaic and Greek mythos. In fact, dried pomegranates have been found in Egyptian tombs from the third millennium BCE, and the biblical city of Jericho. Today they are grown around the world wherever the climate is not too wet, due to their propensity for root fungus.

Eudicots; Rosids II; Myrtales; Lythraceae; Punica granatum

The word pomegranate comes from Latin, meaning "seeded apple", which has influenced the name in other languages as well. Our words "grenade" and "grenadine", as well as the Spanish city Grenada, owe their origin to the pomegranate, which was once used to make grenadine, and gave the city its name during the Moorish period. I assume the term grenade comes from the fruit's ability to blow its arils in every direction when thrown against a solid object. Judaism has had a long history of admiring the fruit, and associates it with righteousness as one of the seven foods special to the land of the Hebrews. In Greek mythology, Persephone was forced to stay in Hades four months out of the year, because she had been tricked into eating four pomegranate seeds. This explained the onset of winter, when her mother Demeter (goddess of the harvest) would mourn Persephone's return to the underworld. Pomegranates are also a common motif in Christian religious decoration as a symbol of Jesus' suffering and resurrection.

The fruit has many culinary uses, though the arils are often eaten raw. Pomegranate juice is a common ingredient in several Persian and Caucasian dishes and soups, or may be drunk on its own. When thickened and sweetened, it forms grenadine, included in many cocktails. The acidic tannins in the juice, along with the natural sugars, make it an excellent basis for glazes and sauces, applied to duck or other poultry. The fruit contains many beneficial phytochemicals, such as vitamin C, pantothenic acid, potassium, and antioxidant polyphenols. As such, it seems to inhibit many health problems, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, dental plaque, breast cancer, prostate cancer, diabetes, lymphoma and rhinovirus infection! For me, they are fun to eat, and the juice's citrus/berry flavor can't be beat.