ellipsis wrote:
I have an enormous pomegranate tree in my backyard which produces an
abundance of fruit each summer - it always looks quite festive around
Christmas.

You are about the first person who I have found who has expressed much
interest in them. While they do look good, and the tree is quite
attractive, with beautiful bark, actually eating them is an exercise in
futility. A lot of large, bitter seeds, with a smallish amount of
delicately flavoured pulp around each, the whole lot encased and
permeated with highly bitter and adhering pith. You basically chew the
pulp off a mouthful of these seeds, then spit them out. Genuine
grenadine is made from juice extracted from the pulp, but there does
not seem to be much more that can be done with them.

Now comes a science announcement that pomegranate juice is good for
the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The pink pomegranate juice stops the
growth of the cancer, I think they said. No doubt a google search will
turn up more information.

I'd be interested to learn how many teaspoons of juice they managed to
squeeze out of an ordinary 200g pomegranate! I wonder can any harm come
from swallowing the pips?
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)