When the goddess Demeter, the great Earth Mother wandered the earth spreading sunshine and happiness she was accompanied by her beautiful daughter, Persephone.
Persephone was young, gorgeous and poised on the brink of womanhood, lush with promise and the first hints of summer’s bounty. No wonder Hades, tall, dark and handsome God of the underworld, swept her off in his midnight chariot and locked her away in his domain where he could keep her all to himself.Surprisingly, the beautiful and gently reared Persephone was not too thrilled with this treatment, and wanted only to return to her mother. Hades had other plans. He was deeply in love and determined that she would learn to love him back. Stalemate.

While Demeter mourned her lost daughter and the earth grew barren without her loving attention, Persephone pined for the sunshine and was only tempted out of her hunger strike by the exotic jewelled promise of that fabled fruit, the pomegranate. When Zeus ordered Hades to return the fading child to her mother he had no choice, but the four pomegranate seeds Persephone had been unable to resist meant that she was condemned to spend four months a year in the underworld. Which she does to this day. I like to think she spends her time nibbling on pomegranate seeds which accounts for her eternal youthful beauty, while above the decks the earth cries, the sunshine hides her face and the world is cloaked in the purples and greys of half mourning.

These are my fanciful musings every time I eat one of these subtly rewarding fruits. We used to have a pomegranate tree, which only offered up a handful of the gorgeous fruits a year. Luckily a little goes a long way with roughly 600 seeds per fruit. Cracking open the tough outer shell reveals the beautiful little bursts of juice, perfectly packaged in their own little vials, and ready for shipping in the tough webbing that surrounds the seeds.

And it’s the seeds, so simple and unassuming that are the real treasure. The only hint of delights to come is in the deeply glowing cerise colour and it is easy to understand how a goddess found them impossible to resist. Let one or two of these little jewels burst on your tongue and you will be surprised at the sudden rush of intense juice. Delicious notes of sunshine and summer berries make them a perfect addition to some chilled prosecco. Or sprinkle some over a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the colour contrast as mouth-watering as the taste combination. I couldn’t resist their siren call so had some of the ruby seeds for breakfast, combining them with some homemade honey granola with dried berries and homemade live yoghurt.

Pomegranate seeds are classed as berries and are also a superfood, filled with vitamins A & B,and anti-oxidants. They are thought to reduce heart disease (which I view as a mere side benefit to being delicious) and combined with heart healthy oats and yoghurt this makes a perfect entry for Heart of the Matter (HoTM #7), being hosted this month by Ilva at Lucullian Delights.

Homemade live yoghurt is easy to make, so do give it a try. Apart from a healthy heart, pomegranates could be the secret to the fountain of youth. I can certainly think of less appetising health foods.

Vanielje Kitchen Cook Book

Homemade Honey Granola

Homemade Organic Live Yoghurt

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