Foto Friday – Miraculous Pomegranates

September 24, 2010 - 5:56 PM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: design, Environment, Food, Foto Friday, General, health, History and Culture, Holidays, Medical Breakthroughs, Picture of the Week, Religion, Technology 

It was at about 9:30 last night when I spilled the pomegranate seeds on the floor. While picking them up, one by one, I reflected first on the story of Demeter and Persephone, then on the fact that some Jewish schoolchildren are taught that there are 365 seeds in a pomegranate (the number of days in the year) while others are taught that there are 613 (the number of mitzvot or good deeds), and finally (it took some time collect them all) about the long-standing Jewish relationship with the pomegranate as a symbol of fertility and plenty. Well, it has a lot of seeds so you can see why that might be.


© Пётр Рогов

It’s hard to say where Judaism’s connection to this beautiful and fascinating fruit begins; some scholars believe is was the pomegranate, not the apple, that got Adam and Eve kicked out of the Garden of Eden. It is mentioned often in the Bible both as a fruitand as a symbol and is one with the Seven Species celebrated at Sukkot.


© RomKri

What is for certain is that the pomegranate has been in this region for thousands of years. According to the California Rare Fruit Growers (CRFG) site, “The pomegranate is native from Iran to the Himalayas in northern India and was cultivated and naturalized over the whole Mediterranean region since ancient times.” The pomegranate features prominently in this mosaic fruit basket from the Nabatean city of Mamshit.


Photo: Pikiwiki

Also from CRFG: “The pomegranate widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies and tropical Africa, and was introduced into California by Spanish settlers in 1769.” In those days, pomegranates and their juice were valued as much for their medicinal properties as for their beauty, but in modern times they were for decades nothing more than a martini mixer or an exotic decorative item.


Photo: Pikiwiki

And then researchers like Dr. Ephraim Lansky, co-founder of Israel’s Rimonest came along, with proof — as reported by ISRAEL21c — of the pomegranate’s high anti-oxidant activity: “the stuff of potential anti-cancer therapies”.

Israel wasn’t the first country to produce pomegranates for commercial export but — as always — is an innovator. Israel was first, for example to give pomegranate juice an upgrade via wineries such as Azarad and Rimon, which produce varieties such as dessert wine, port style wine and dry wine, all the while touting the fruit’s antioxidant properties.

The rise in global interest for all things Punica granatum has resulted Israel’s doubling its pomegranate growing capacity, and the establishment of companies like Pomeg-Tech that provide expertise to those wishing to get into the pomegranate growing game. Here, in case you’ve never seen it, is a picture of the fruit’s flower:


Photo: Lior Almagor, Frommycamera.com

And Israeli pomegranate innovations don’t stop there: Shoham, inventors of a new gadget, the ART – Arils Removal Tool (that’s a pomegranate seed plucker to you and me), were recently awarded the 2010 Innovation Award at Fruit Logistica Berlin, one of the major events in the fresh produce industry. Here’s a picture of the happy Shoham team. An instructional video can be found on their website – and while it can’t prevent you from dropping the finished product on the floor, I can vouch that the ART actually does the job.

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Gone in the Golan

August 10, 2008 - 8:31 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Life, Travel 

What do you do when you want to take a summer vacation, but can’t afford Italy, France, or even Slovenia or Cyprus, and you don’t want to go to one of those glitzy Eilat or Dead Sea hotels where doing the “Macarena” and singing karaoke  is still part of the nightly entertainment fare?

Well, vacationing at a ski resort in the summer may seem a bit backwards, but in this case, it provided a refreshing break from the city hustle bustle, some spectacular views and hikes, a rustic environment without a huge crowd of noisy vacationers, and a chance to spend some time in a part of Israel whose future is not so solid.

Neve Ativ, a moshav at nearly the northernmost edge of the Golan Heights, just south of the formidable Hermon mountain range, turned out to be the perfect location for a quick family getaway. The Rimonim resort there offered quaint, red-tiled Swiss-style chalets, a spacious pool and Jacuzzi, and a breakfast that made lunch extraneous.

 

Only three hours or so away from Jerusalem, the Golan is like another country. Highlights – we took the ski lift to the top of the 2,000 meter Hermon peak and enjoyed a 2-hour guided tour that focused not only on the topography but also the history of the area, and then the kids go-karted down part of the mountain on the “Extreme” track; we spent a morning exploring the expansive Nimrod Fortress built in 1228 by the Ayyubi governor Al-Aziz, and  reenacted scenes from  Gladiator and Spartacus (alright, different eras, I know); we ate some great humous in the nearby Druze city of Majdal Shams, and heard from the locals that they’re not very happy about the prospects of going back to Syrian rule; and we did an amazing water hike in the Masjare River in the southern part of the Golan. At Rimonim, we joined the other vacationers for a hike and ‘kumzitz’ (bonfire) in the area with Avi, a gruff with a heart of gold ex-paratrooper type, who regaled the kids and parents alike with stories about the area, delicious herbal tea made from plants within hand’s length, and some good old fashioned ‘walking the land’ Zionism.

And like Where’s Waldo, Avi showed up everywhere else - checking us off at the dining room, filling the Coke in the vending machines, and manning time at the front desk. Therefore, when we decided to attend the nightly entertainment show in the nightclub, it wasn’t surprising to find Avi leading the karaoke (alright, so it isn’t really another country). If you’re here, you should get up to the Golan now and enjoy its multitude of charms. And if you’re not, then make sure to include it on your next visit instead of one of the tourist traps.

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