Last night, Maus and I watched the last stage of the Tour de France and we felt a real affinity with the riders.  We acknowledged how weary they must have been after all the stages they had endured.   We could understand the pain of the mountain climbs and the disappointments when team mates fell.  We, too, had survived an endurance for we were down to our last bucket of pomegranates.

We did not waste one.  I made 3 batches of grenadine (pomegranate cordial), 2 batches of pomegranate jelly, a bottle of pomegranate molasses and dried some seeds.   We had a pomegranate themed dinner party and had used them in dips and accompaniments for a couple of months.  We felt that we deserved to be on the podium with Bradley Wiggins.

This humungus mountain took us the whole evening to de-seed but if you have TV on at the same time, what the heck?

We have learned quite a bit about pomegranates in recent months.  Firstly, when de-seeding them, the juice can easily fly 3 metres.  For weeks, you will find little red dots in the strangest places.

Secondly, the juice does not stain your hands but, interestingly, the membrane does.  After several hours, you end up with cracked, black and yellow-stained sore fingers.

We decided that we were better off de-seeding then rinsing the seeds in water to remove the last of the membrane.  If you start off with your hands in water, they are a shrivelled mess by the end of the episode.

Now to find uses for those lemons, limes and mandarins.

BTW, we have put a sign out in our garden directing the birds to the pomegranate tree.  Next year, they will be most welcome.