A Mystery Any Ideas

[Delmonico]

I've had this one on the back burner for a while and dug it out today, gonna do some research on Overton Newbrassky as to who setted there.  Why, well I found this a couple of years ago and have been wondering.  First picture, a grocery store in Overton in 1904, picture 13142 in the Butcher Collection.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/nbhihtml/pshome.html

Typical turn of the century small town grocerey store.



Looking in the window we find coconuts, no surprise since coconut pies show up a lot in period cook books.



And not as clear, because of glare in the window, but a large bunch of bannanas.  Also common in recipes of the time plus a popular song of the time was "Yes We Have No Bannans."



But in the doorway in a box, it looks like this fellar also stockes pomagranates.



We move to the bakery, picture 13372 and we even see a fella talkin' on the phone through the window.



But in the window it also looks like they stock pomagranates.  Note on one in the lower box, it sure looks like a flower end of one.



Now the fact one could have them shipped from California to a town on the UP dosen't surprise me, but why?  Never seen a recipe in a period book made in this country that had a recipe or mentioned them.

[Silver Creek Slim]

I downloaded both pictures and have zoomed in. They definitely look like they could be pomegranates. I'm no pomegranate expert, but they look like other pictures of pomegranates I found on the internet.

May the caption for the second picture be incorrect? Would cigars and tobacco be for sale in a bakery? Also, what are the pomegranates in the lower box setting on?

Slim

[Delmonico]

As for the other item, I'm not sure, as for if it is a bakery there is another one of it, #13373 and it lists it as a bakery, the 2 women and the man are all wearing aprons.  Perhaps a side bussieness.  You can also see what looks like wrapping paper through the doorway, backed goods were often wrapped and tied with string.

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[Forty Rod]

My dad was born in Almon, MO in 1908, and used to tell of pomegranates when he was a kid.  Set his mother set store by them for the color and tarness it put in her cookin.

No idea where they came from or what they cost, but it couldn't have been much.  His folks were the kind of poor we can't even imagine in this day and age.

[Delmonico]

They would have came from Cally-fornia, the Friars planted them there when the came in the 16th Century, along with grape, almonds, citrus and such.

[Forty Rod]

He loved avocados, too, but he "discovered" them in the late 20s after he'd moved to Oregon or Idaho.  Don't remember which he told me.  I've seen him sit down with a peck basket of avocadoes, a sharp knife, and a jar of Miracle Whip and wipe out the whole thing in an afternoon.

Used to try to get those avocado pits to grow in the backyard, but they didn't like the Utah climate much.  Neither did I.  That's why I live here in southern California now.

[River City John]

Underneath the pomengranates looks a little like artichokes, maybe?

[Singing Bear]

Don't know about cooking with them, but seems I read somewhere that it was the "in" thing to do, in those days, to suck on pomegranate seeds.  Mostly by the women.  Could have also been a European fad that caught on on the mainland.

[Delmonico]

I seem to have forgot one of the pictures in the first post, the close up of the mystery fruit in the doorway.   Guess that is what happens when you have a puppy help you post.

BTW we are kicking this around on the Labrador Forum in Odds and Ends, the mstery of the other fruit may be solved and go back and look at the picture of the fruit in the grocery store door, they might be more of the mstery fruit wrapped in paper.  Got a lady who read aboutthe agressive marketing of the Pomegrante Grows in the time promoting the fruit, seems it also has a Christmas connection.  Oh and we are searching the lable on the box.

[Forty Rod]

Artichokes!!!

I ain't ever gonna eat nothing that looks like a hand grenade and has "choke" in its name.

[22lr]

Amen, Forty!!

[Delmonico]

Since Arty-chokes are a member of the thistle flower, I ain't eatin' no durned thistle.

[Singing Bear]

Yaoughtachokes?  Our Melanie can't get enough of the stuff.  We buy them as fresh as we can find, nuke them for a few minutes to steam and serve it to her with a little bowl of ponzu sauce or a spoonful of mayo and a couple of splashes of soy sauce.    Ooh, everyone of them chockies has drawn blood...mine.

[Forty Rod]

Whutz "ponzu sauce"?

[Wishbone]

If I remember right, many years ago they used to wrap fruit in tissue paper. A lot of California Fruit & Veggies were wraped in Tissue paper.  I grew up in the San Jaquin Valley 40 miles south of Fresno. We had a Pomagranate tree in our back yard. My Mother & Sister used to make Jelly out of the Juice. As kids we pick them off the tree when the outer skin started to split open. Dig out the Juicey seeds  & Suck out the juice & spit out the seeds. They have little seeds like some Grapes. One of the best tasting jellys I have had. Also my neighbor had an Apricot Orchard & they had Wooden sheds where they split the fruit in two & place then on big 4ft x 8ft trays to dry. Hundreds of trays in each shed.  They would burn sulpher in them sheds to keep bugs out. Still love Dried Apricots today. I like any dried fruit. Wishbone-Ks

[Delmonico]

One must also note that geranadine syrup is made out of pomegranites, although I do doubt they were making tequaila sunrises.

[Singing Bear]

Whutz "ponzu sauce"?

Basically, it's a citrus based soy sauce dressing.  A good variation is filadeni (sp?) sauce from Guam.  Soy sauce, lemon juice, finely diced onions and chili pepper flakes.  My wife uses this sauce when we have fried chicken.

Basic ponzu sauce is a mixture of soy sauce, rice vinegar and lemon juice.

It's actually pretty good with yaoughtachoke.  "You have to at least try it, Daddy!"

[Dr. Bob]

I'm with you Forty Rod!

[Forty Rod]

Ponzu sauce...one more thing I have to try.

Thanks.

[Mogorilla]

Love them pomegranites.  Watch who you eat them with, you may have to stay