Garnets on a rind
posted in conversation, fathers |Once, just once, my father bought a pomegranate. I remember him looking at it in the store, and weighing it in his hand, and looking at me and saying “everyone needs to see a pomegranate at least once.” We took it to the house of some friends ( it was pinochle night ) and I remember him cutting it open and out poured handfuls of the red gems inside. I remember thinking that it was tasty, but seemed like too much work for so little fruit; each little gem was mostly seed. It is one of those memories I have that are relatively clear.
Pomegranates are two for one at Safeway this week, and I looked at them and at Miss B the same way my dad did. So I bought a pair and brought them home. I cut one open and was surprised that the little glossy red seeds weren’t just pouring out. They were attached to a rind inside the pomegranate. I pulled it apart under some water and got the little gems out. Miss K came in while I was doing it and announced that she thought the other one was an apple and wanted a slice. I told her that it was something else, and showed her the colander with the pomegranate pieces all atumble within it like wet garnets I’ve just rescued from the sea.
As far a “weird” fruits go, I like kumquats. I like the word and I like the utility and the economy of popping one into your mouth. I was surprised that Miss K liked the pomegranates so much; she sat there and ate pretty much all of them, putting one garnet into her mouth, popping it and swallowing the juice and spitting out the seed. Miss B liked it too, she thought it was “weird” but tasty– but the real lover was miss K.
They certainly feel like an ancient fruit; it may have been the way I cut it open but there was no real pattern of rind to set of seeds. I know that they’re old, they’ve been around as long as artichokes, and that they were probably the apple in the garden of eden story.
It was neat, watching the girls and the pomegranate. I’m glad they enjoyed it. Them. Whatever.
