Farmers in Yemen’s northern governorate of Saada have been hit hard by recent fighting between Yemeni government forces and Houthi-led Shia rebels, according to farmers and officials.
About 60 percent of Saada farmland was abandoned, looted or damaged during fighting in 2008, according to Mohamed al-Emad, head of Saada local council, “but during the 2009 clashes, which were fiercer and more widespread and continued for a longer time, the figure may be even higher,” he said.
He said over 140,000 people in Saada depend on pomegranate and peach cultivation. “Their livelihoods are in jeopardy as they couldn’t make money during the last harvest, which coincided with the clashes.”
A few years back, when I was a beginner in the food world, I took a pastry job in a very busy restaurant. My job included making and plating desserts during dinner service. When serving between 500 and 600 people a night, this is a daunting task. My inner planner never felt fully prepared.
Loud, hot, and fast-paced, a restaurant's kitchen is a place where people yell and scream at each other. You get used to it. The keys: Don't take all the criticism to heart, and stay sharp at all times.
One night, I was tasked with seeding pomegranates for a pastry garnish, and also with running the pantry station that would use the many remaining seeds in a salad.
I was a bit put out at the request, as I had mounds of mise en place (prep work for the chef) that I needed to get through and it took me a long time to seed just one pomegranate – cutting it open, banging it with a spoon to get the seeds to fall out, then setting to the task of dislodging the little pink seeds that didn't want to leave their cozy cobweblike membrane.
A whole food diet advocates eating unprocessed fruits and vegetables, unrefined grains such as wheat, oat, barley, maize and brown rice instead of white rice, white flour and white bread. Does the logical extension of the whole food diet mean we should also eat fruits whole, peel, pulp and pith? Recent research suggests that in some cases we should.
Whole and unprocessed foods contain high levels of antioxidants, fibre and phytochemicals — natural plant chemicals — that protect the body from chronic diseases. As a very basic rule, the darker the colour of your fresh fruits, the more antioxidants they will have. Phytochemicals include potentially cancer-fighting compounds and polyphenols that are antioxidants present in high concentration in the skins of fruit.
Pomegranate extracts treat diseases of inflammation
Emerging research continues to strengthen the evidence that pomegranate extracts can be used to treat chronic inflammation, and the diseases that go along with it.
Short-term inflammation is a normal immune response, but chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of diseases including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, dementia and autoimmune disorders. Scientists are increasingly coming to believe that pomegranate helps combat inflammation, in part due to its exceptionally high content of antioxidants, particularly those in the ellagitannin family, such as punicalagins and punicalins.
Afghanistan looks to squeeze new markets from pomegranates
Clogged with overloaded trucks, construction firm yards, hardware shops and police checkpoints, the Jalalabad Road on the outskirts of Kabul is an unlikely place for an agricultural revolution.
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“The city of Elche can be recognized through the date palms that cover its entire district. (...) For a moment, one believes himself to be transported to the plains of Syria or to the shores of the Delta.” The words of the French traveler Alexandre de Laborde still apply even 200 years later. Despite the buildings that now inevitably punctuate its present-day landscape, this Mediterranean coastal town–a little powerhouse of world pomegranate production–still has a distinct look of Al-Andalus about it. Its Palmeral was declared a World Heritage Site in 2000: this area of formally laid-out date palm groves is an eloquent example of man’s battle against the elements to transform a hostile, arid environment into fertile land.
