Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Sunday, October 26, 2008
How Long Must I Wait?
The early hunter-gatherers were a brave lot. Or just very hungry. I've been watching the wild persimmons ever since I discovered them while spraying poison ivy. Since I'm not an early hunter-gatherer and have access to all kinds of advice via the internet, I'd surely be able to tell when these persimmons were ready to eat. Let's run through the checklist.
Color is orange. Check.
Fruit is soft and shriveled. Check.
There has been a frost. Check.
OK, should be good to eat. I plucked the most shriveled one I could find. I brought it in the house and showed it to the spouse (who declined to eat any). I removed the peel, which was thin and came off easily. I cut, or rather squished, off some of the pulp along with one of the large seeds. I put it in my mouth. Hey, this is sweet...not much other flavor though...ACK! Still very astringent close to the seed. Maybe I should have removed the seed first? I wasn't intending to eat the seed, BTW, I was going to spit it out after I got all the pulp off. I cannot begin to imagine how they would taste when they would appear to be ripe by the normal standards of, say, plums.
So I'll wait a little longer. Or maybe try cooking them instead of eating raw. I was disappointed in the flavor though - there wasn't much. Not enough to earn it the name of Diospyros virginiana, which roughly translates to "food of the gods from Virginia". I lifted that line from Wildman Steve Brill, the author of the article to which it is linked - he'll tell you almost everything you might want to know about persimmons. Not being a born Southerner I was unaware that Persimmon Pudding is a Thanksgiving and Christmas tradition. In fact I never heard of Persimmon Pudding until I found this website whose owner fills in everything else about persimmons that Steve Brill may have left out.
I do hope I learn to like these. It turns out that I have not a persimmon tree, but small persimmon grove with at least two small fruit-bearing trees and one much larger (male?) tree.
Labels: persimmon
10 Comments:
I have always wanted a persimmon tree. One of these days I'll get one. Once I was tempted to buy a house simply because it had a bearing persimmon just off the deck. 8-o
Donna
They certainly make a lovely photo. :) Love the shot with the drops on it. I hope they ripen to a usable stage very soon.
They are tart little things before they ripen! Big mistake not to be repeated we were on a walk ant forgot our water bottle! I love how they look each fall...a grove could be a lovely sight!
Gail
well, they are very pretty. i hope they sweeten up a bit. enjoyable post!
This is just hearsay, Entangled - someone told me that if you freeze the almost ripe fruit for a day and defrost it, you can then use the pulp in a recipe. It sounds like you have enough to experiment with!
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Donna: I understand completely :-)
Nancy: We had an all-day rain on Saturday and everything was shiny and bright for Sunday morning photos.
Gail: Oh my, the first thing I reached for after tasting was a big glass of water and even then it took a while for the sensation to go away.
Em: It really is a pretty tree - long drooping leaves - even if it didn't have fruit I'd still like it.
Annie: Interesting tip! I may try that - I was wondering if I'd be able to get to the ripe fruit before the critters did, but that could be the secret.
I can tell you this much. You will only bite into one unripend persimmon and it will be enough to prevent you from doing it again. You can not get that taste out of your mouth! LOL-Randy
Randy: Just the little bit of unripeness I did taste was enough to make me VERY cautious. I'd really hate to taste one that was totally unripe.
Perhaps you need to pop them in the freezer for a day or two. That's what I do with sloe berries before I can use them. And perhaps you could make jam with them and add lots of sugar.
Great pics!
Yolanda: I'll give them a try in the freezer. We had some freezing temperatures last week, so maybe Mother Nature did the trick for me. I didn't know that sloe berries required the same kind of treatment, but the only way I've ever tasted sloe is in sloe gin :-) and that was a long time ago.
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