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Eat The Seeds. You probably don't know that pomegranate seeds are edible because only five percent of Americans have ever even tried a pomegranate, as reported by David Armstrong in Forbes (2/2/04). That's pretty sad for a fruit that's been around since 3000 B.C. The pomegranate's stock is rising, however, because, according to Mintel's Global New Product Database, some 59 new pomegranate products were introduced last year. One of the hottest is a pomegranate drink called Pom Wonderful, said to be "the fastest-growing drink in the premium refrigerated juice market." Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver are also working pomegranates into their recipes, and an uptick in pomegranate seeds on salads and deserts has been noted at upscale restaurants.
Not all of the pomegranate's new juice is showing up in food items, however. Estee Lauder Origins has introduced "a line of pomegranate-based body washes, while Herbal Essences and Fresh have products for your hair." From where did pomegrantes suddenly arrive? From the farming operations of Stewart and Lynda Resnick of Franklin Mint and Teleflora fame. The Resnicks also own Paramount Farms, where they grow pistachios, almonds and citrus.
It seems that the couple noticed "a small orchard of pomegranate bushes on pistaschio acreage they purchased in 1987, found out that most Americans didn't know a pomegranate from a block of granite and promptly "planted 6,000 acres, thereby doubling U.S. pomegrante farmland." They have since hyped the fruit with everything from its health benefits (high in antioxidants) and history (they say it was a pomegranate, not an apple, In Agadda Da Vida). Bottom line: "Paramount Farms has sold 785,000 cartons of pomegrantes from the 2003 harvest, for an estimated $20 million, four times what it sold in 2001. That gives it a 60 percent share."
Tim Manners, editor
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