Pomegranate fields forever The nation's -- or at least the nation's grocers' -- love affair with pomegranate seems to be spinning wildly out of control. Mr. Tidbit is becoming concerned that vast tracts of foreclosed suburban housing in Sunbelt states might have to be plowed under to feed the nation's snowballing need for pomegranates. Recent entries include V8 Fusion pomegranate blueberry juice, Yoplait Yoplus digestive yogurt in new blackberry pomegranate, and, for that matter, Softsoap pomegranate & mango body wash.
But the most pomegranatey entry of all is from local dairy firm Old Home Foods: an entire line of pomegranate flavored 100-calorie yogurt. The five flavors are pomegranate blueberry, pomegranate strawberry, pomegranate vanilla, pomegranate pear and pomegranate yumberry. Yes, yumberry. No, they didn't make that up, although the fruit is also known as yangmei, yamamomo, and Chinese or Japanese bayberry.
From Old Home's website we learn that yumberry is a subtropical fruit rich in antioxidants, such as oligomeric proanthocyanidins (those of us who move in oligomeric proanthocyanidin circles call 'em OPCs), and it also contains vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin and carotene. The flavor is described as sweet-sour, similar to a cranberry or pomegranate.
Mr. Tidbit fears that we are just moments away from V8 Fusion, Yoplus and Softsoap yumberry.
Del Monte meals Mr. Tidbit must acknowledge that he doesn't often spend much time in the part of a supermarket aisle devoted to shelf-stable (store at room temperature) dinners that heat in the microwave in 90 seconds. The main entrant in this category has long been Hormel, so Mr. Tidbit wasn't completely surprised to see that there are now some shelf-stable Chi-chi's Fiesta Plates (Salsa Chicken, for example), given that other Chi-chi's brand groceries are from Hormel.
More unexpected to Mr. Tidbit is a line of shelf-stable meals from Del Monte, a brand best known for canned fruits and vegetables.
Indeed, the Del Monte items are called Harvest Selections (Beef & Vegetable Stew, for example), and according to the packages each contains 40 percent of your daily vegetables.
AL SICHERMAN
