There are persimmons this year, unlike last year. The trees around the pond are loaded with the soft round, orange fruit, which is officially a berry. Yes, a berry. Now you may find that an odd fact, but I also want to point out that you can eat the fruit before frost. And that really did catch me by surprise since everyone says they're too astringent to eat unless we've had a freeze or frost. As of today, I've eaten 3 delicious persimmons, picked directly from the tree, pre-frost.
The official name for our native persimmon is Diospyros virginiana, a tree that grows from Florida to upstate New York. The champion tree is 94' tall, located in Yell, Arkansas, which is much taller than our average 20'. The tree will either be male or female with entire groves of only females, which I suspect have suckered. We had the most beautiful round grove at the nursery (in the day), all were female, which made for quite a mess in the fall as the fruit fell. Although I was happy to have the subsequent foxes who love persimmons and may have inadvertently eaten a few of my marauding voles. Quail, raccoon, squirrel, deer and possums also eat the fruit so I'm encouraged when I see trees loaded with food for wild animals, they need it late in the year.
One year I attempted to make persimmon cobbler and the recipe required 1 cup of persimmon pulp. You may have an inkling of how the pulp sticks to the seeds if you've eaten a few persimmons, but to acquire a full cup, well let's just say it's almost impossible. I now understand that you can peel them first and then work the fruit into a collander or potato ricer to harvest the meat of the fruit, leaving the seed behind. Based on the taste of the cobbler, it's worth trying a few persimmon recipes. An internet search reveals persimmon pudding, cakes, breads, cookies and jam.
The word persimmon comes from the Algonquian word "a dry fruit", derived from their drying the fruit like prunes. In fact this can lead to fermenting fruit and a persimmon beer or brandy, both of which I'm sure are delicious!
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