Pomegranate Christmas Wishes

People often wish for a "white Christmas" and decorate things accordingly, but the "true colors" of Christmas, at least in Germany, are often green and red. What then, could be better suited than a pomegranate plant? The ornamental (dwarf) pomegranate produces small fruits that are not interesting to eat, but the flowers are of a showy and intense red. Because the plants are small enough for a small yard or even a balcony they have started to become popular over the last years.

To my delight the DDC planted many pomegranates on New Campus. Some grow between gates 4 and 5, and a little orchard was planted behind the library and the administration building, surrounded by petrified wood. The plants are about 1m to 1.5m high, and will continue to bear red flowers and fruits for another few weeks.
The pomegranate is common in our part of the world, and many people I know love the fruit, whether to eat directly, use in the form of grenadine or to drink as "sharbat." The ornamental and the edible plant are varieties of the same species Punica granatum.

Punica granatum is a hardy plant that can survive difficult conditions, which is reflected by the many trees that can be found inside and outside Bedouin gardens in Sinai. The photos of the trees below were taken in Wadi Arbaeen in St. Kathrin, at about 1700m elevation. This is a dry environment, the soil is sandy, and at that elevation, it can get very cold in winter. In fact, we had all the color- and weather-ingredients for a picture-book western Christmas when we went climbing in St. Kathrin 2 years ago. It was below zero degrees Celsius, there was snow, and the pomegranates were in perfect "green and red."

By the way, the sweetness, slight acidity, and intensive taste of the fruit are ideal for jellies. Use the juice of the pomegranates (without the seeds). Make sure to use about 25 to 30% more pectin (or gelatin) and/or sugar than for a jam made out of fruit. I wonder… perhaps this would also taste good together with venison instead of cranberry jam? It is worth a try.

The problem, apparently, is not purple cows but yellow ducks.

The other day, when I was explaining the aim of this blog to a friend of mine, I told him the very illustrating example of how city kids think that cows were purple because of the advertisement for a particular brand of chocolate. The study wonderfully demonstrated how we city folks are alienated from the natural world!

" … In 1995, 40,000 (fourty thousand) children were to color a cow during a competition in Bavaria. Every third child chose the color purple. The Milka Purple Cow is a symbol of quality…" (from the official Milka website, translated from German).

Not true.
No evidence.
None whatsoever.
It turns out it's a myth.

The Journal "Psychologie Heute" published the results of a study by the name "Studie Lila Kuh", which was undertaken in 1997 to investigate this alarming phenomenon (whether, and how serious, the "purple cow syndrome" was). According to this scientific study, only about 1 out of every 100 children that were questioned replied that the color of cows was purple. City kids did not think so more often than country kids, nor did younger ones reply "purple" more often than older ones. Publicly and privately funded projects continue to take place using the theme "purple cow" to address a problem that doesn't exist.

Well, the problem of alienation from nature probably does exist. But the cow, in its purpleness, is not the problem.

Nor is it purple dogs, for that matter. It is YELLOW DUCKS!!

My yellow rubber ducky is supposed to be a problem? But everybody KNOWS that ducks are yellow!

References (I apologize, they are all in German)

1. Brämer, Rainer (1998) Wie Jugendliche heute die Natur - oder was sie dafür halten - erleben. Psychologie heute, Issue 8/1998: 64-77)
2. Full report is available at: "Jugendreport Natur 2003" (http://www.sdw-nrw.de/aktiv/ente.htm)
3. Follow-up study is available at "Studie Lila Kuh 1997" (http://www.sdw-nrw.de/aktiv/lila.htm)
4. See also Wikipedia: http://de.wikibooks.org/wiki/Enzyklopädie_der_populären_Irrtümer/_Biologie#K.C3.BChe_.282.29:_Gro.C3.9Fstadtkinder_denken.2C_K.C3.BChe_seien_lila
5. Example of a current project that uses the theme "purple cow" http://www.oekoherz.de/aktivi/2024.htm

Martians read the Caravan

Sunday morning I arrived to class a bit late. I couldn't help it.

It was delightful to cross the courtyard under the Department of Biology. Trees had been planted. Finally!! Continuing to the next courtyard with a great smile pasted on my face, I noticed that different trees had been planted here (more on the trees of both courtyards later).
Then my eye caught something else. Right there, emerging from the roots of the trees: four green figures. Obviously sentient creatures, capable of communicating with each other and of reading a newspaper. "Welcome friendly beings! Are you visiting us from planet Mars?" (Just in case you were not aware - all aliens from Mars are green).
We managed to converse in the same tongue, I was given permissions to photograph them, to post their pictures online and to send them to the Caravan (the pictures, not the creatures). It turned out that they were green primates, members of the species Homo sapiens, clad in their green DDC working attire. They were reading the Caravan.