FRUIT

Our local markets feature pomegranates this season. Many have never seen nor eaten one and don't buy. As a kid, I would buy one and take it to a Saturday movie matinée...very messy to eat, even at home, impossible in the dark.

My clothes looked bloodied on the way home, but it sure beat buying popcorn. If you are interested in this fruit, follow directions on how to get to eat it.

Our earlier culture produced another, shameful Strange Fruit. I loved the song, especially in the angst of late teen age and when I hadn't the foggiest idea what it meant. The music was soulful and Billie Holiday was at her best, vocally. I recall with shock my discovery that the strange fruit were lynched bodies. The lyrics were quite clear for someone who could take them in. I obviously was not ready to comprehend.

Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.

In addition to Pomegranate, a gift of Nature, and man's Strange Fruit, we have Ugli fruit.


This is a citrus, native to Jamaica, and is sometimes known as
unique fruit.








As if Nature and Man isn't strange enough, we also have this anomaly. Looks like a fruit, acts like a fruit, but is a nut (the Cashew you see on the end of it). I bought a wooden one, thinking it was a strange pepper and commented loudly, as I am prone to do, prompting the salesperson to inform me it's real identity.


What fun to know something in trivia...hardly my strong suit.