Pome·gran·ate [pom-gran-it, pom-i-, puhm-] a chambered, many-seeded, globose fruit, having a tough, usually red rind and surmounted by a crown of calyx lobes, the edible portion consisting of pleasantly acid flesh developed from the outer seed coat.

The Jewish New Year is fast approaching. As with every Jewish festival – food plays a pivotal roll, Rosh Hashana being no exception. In fact, it is probably one of the holidays that brings with it the most symbols, many relating to blessings for a prosperous, healthy new year. Some foods included in this holiday are honey cake, apple dipped in honey, the head of a fish (my favourite), round challot, tsimmes (see blog post: http://rantingsfromaranga.blogspot.com/2011/02/tzimmes-tsim-is-also-tsimmes-jewish.html), and the not-so-humble pomegranate. As September rolls around, the markets in Israel are bursting with pomegranates. I was extremely disheartened when my first pomegranate I purchased in this country turned out to be black inside. 

A little bit of history...

Here’s a cool little Greek myth about the pomegranate

“…In the story of Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter, Hades, the lord of the underworld, kidnapped the beautiful maiden. Because she ate a few pomegranate seeds before being rescued, she had to spend several months every year in the underworld with him. According to the myth, that’s when the earth was forced to endure winter…” Intriguing..

So what is the symbolism of eating pomegranates (or in Hebrew Rimonim) on the Jewish New Year?

To start off, we generally eat new fruit on the second night of the festival in honour of the new year. Because pomegranates are in season at this time of year, they are often one of the new fruits we enjoy. Growing up, I was always excited for the fruits that would show up on our dinner table. Celebrating the new year in Australia meant that our seasonal fruit differ to those of the Holy Land. However, we needed not to despair as pomegranates are always imported to Australia from Israel (at a generous price of course) specifically for the occasion. Aside from being in season, in the Torah (Bible), Israel is highly praised from its pomegranates.

Going into more of a symbolic approach, pomegranates apparently contain 613 seeds – representing the desire we should have in the new year to fulfill the 613 mitzvot commanded to us by G-d. As convenient as that parallel sounds, I challenge you to count the seeds in the pomegranate and see if this number is really correct.

The abundance of seeds also symbolize fertility, while the sweetness alludes to having a sweet new year. 

A Spot of Nutrition...

It is unsurprising to find that the illustrious pomegranate with its ruby red coating and glistening red seeds inside is brimming with nutrients. It has been known to rank as one of the top “superfoods”. Many people assume that super foods are some sort of magical food that when consumed will provide us with all the nutrition we need in one go. Wrong. A super food is really just a food that has an exceptionally large amount of certain nutrient(s). Some examples are acai berries, salmon, avocado, beetroot and yoghurt. The reason pomegranates merit such a name is because of their health benefits they offer such as improving heart health, protection against prostate cancer (lucky for us girls), delaying the progression of arthritis, assistance with diabetes, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, reducing the risk of Alzheimers, reducing plaque formation, helping with diarrhoea (wow that was a mouthful!) and the big one – the massive amount of antioxidants they contain. Antioxidants are really good at reducing the risk of cancer by fighting off unstable little molecules in our body called “free radicals”.

Check out the nutrition information for pomegranates:

Nutrition Facts
whole fruit, 8cm diameter, 154g (88g) oz g
(What's CD) CD:
Calories 70      ( Kilojoules 290 )
		% Daily Value*
Total Fat	0.2 g	0%
Saturated Fat	0 g	0%
Trans Fatty Acids	0 g
Cholesterol	0 mg	0%
Sodium	4 mg	0%
Carbohydrate	11.9 g	4%
Sugars	11.9 g
Dietary Fibre	5.6 g	23%
Protein	1.7 g
Calcium	12.3 mg
Potassium	184.8 mg
Note: A dash indicates no data is available.

Impressive? If you want to try something different this year

jazz up your Rosh Hashana Table with this Pomegranate Sangria..

Ingredients:

·                         1 L pomegranate juice

·                         2 cups papaya or mango juice (substitute apple if necessary)

·                         1 orange

·                         6-8 strawberries

·                         2 kiwis

·                         1 mango or papaya

·                         1/2 cup sugar

Preparation:

Mix juices and sugar until sugar dissolves. Wash orange and berries and slice into thin slices. Remove mango or papaya skin and cut fruit into chunks. Remove kiwi skin and cut into thick slices. Place all fruit into juice and let flavors meld in fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight before serving.

One word of advice: pomegranate wine = not good.

And just in case you were wondering the best way to seed a pomegranate ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpiLZHlXErM


Happy New Year to All!!