Heroes Not Zombies

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve noticed a new stall in the covered market in Cognac. It only sells one thing – pomegranates.

They’re from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan? From Azerbaijan to Cognac is just under 5000 kilometres and, according to Google, about 54 hours by road. There’s an Azerbaijani (is that the right term?) at the stall and the only thing on the stall is a heap of pomegranates which look like the one in the photo above. Well, I’m no pomegranate expert but I did go to Grenada in Spain last year and the pomegranates there looked shiny and smooth – not like these ones. However, Hilary decided last weekend that she felt sorry for the man because nobody seemed to be even approaching his stall, let alone buy any pomegranates. It turns out he’s selling them for one euro each….so what to lose? She bought two.

I must admit that I didn’t think it looked up to much but when I cut it open, look what I found –

Wow! Sparkling, bright red pomegranate seeds oozing juice onto the cutting board. I don’t know how you get the seeds out of a pomegranate but I hit it with a wooden spoon – until it’s empty and I have this –

Have I ever tasted better pomegranates? Nope! What a surprise! I’ll be going back to see if he’s still there tomorrow.

This experience has reminded me not to judge by appearances, and it’s also reminded me how little I actually know about the world. I just thought “Azerbaijan”? Why all the way from there, just with pomegranates? Well, a quick search online has already shown me that the pomegranate is of HUGE significance to the country of Azerbaijan and there is even an annual pomegranate festival in Goychay.