Persimmon
The other day someone on the FisherPark e-mail list asked if anyone knew where he could find some fruiting persimmon trees. I have personally only seen one here in Greensboro, and it does not bear fruit very heavily. Anyway, before I go on to talk about persimmons, I was wondering, do any of you Greensboro/Guilford readers know where I can find a good persimmon tree to admire, and maybe snag a persimmon or two?
Anyway, it was funny to me that one should have asked about persimmons. Just a couple of weeks ago, in a sermon following up on an overview of the second commandment, I was dealing with what had later become an Israelite adage “the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” To convey the idea of this I spoke of growing up with a large persimmon tree just up the road from my house, on the edge of a woods, and learning the hard way when to eat and when not to eat persimmons. I talked about and illustrated the terrible contortions which eating an unripe persimmon would create upon one’s face, and talked about how it would be weird if I were to eat a bitter persimmon but my child would then make all the facial contortions. That was the illustration of the parable.
Anyway, I took a few liberties and went on to speak fondly of persimmons and persimmon trees, which seemed more common in Columbia than here. I loved to eat persimmons, once I got used to the fact that to be good to eat they had to be almost mush, which was kind of gross. Once I even got my mom to make a persimmon cobbler or something similar.
Anyway, I would appreciate any feedback you could pass my way about local persimmon trees. I have no need to go collecting but I wouldn’t mind eating one or two. I miss the taste. Quite unique. Nothing like it. Seriously, just sitting here thinking about it my salivary glands are getting nervous! Sometimes you think you’ve got a sweet one, and then you open up the fruit and suck out the mushy insides (staying away from the skin and seeds), expecting this wonderful tangy sweetness, and instead it feels like your mouth is swelling up, and no matter how much you spit the taste stays there all day…
Persimmons are rather non descript straight up smallish trees. Their most distinguishing feature is perhaps their bark – very alligator in nature with very dark small squarish blocks. The bark looks much like a darker dogwood, though the tree is taller and the leaves longer and narrower, and opposite with no teeth. The bark can also be confused with the black gum, though that tree has leaves more like a dogwood and also grows much taller, with its own little blackish fruits. It’s bark, though dark and blocked, is more irregular. I’m quite fond of the black gum, but that’s for another day
Persimmons can grow in various places, on a dry hillside, in an open field, or as an understudy tree in a mature forest. They seem not to be terribly picky and take to bad soils fairly well.
Their fruits have long been eaten by man and beast. They were made into cakes of various sorts by our native forbears. Early colonists made persimmon cakes as well as puddings. And to the animals of the forest the persimmon is a favorite. If one is inclined to look, one can find persimmon seeds in the scat of most of our common woods mammals, as well as many birds. Possums love them. If you like having Possums around, plant some persimmon trees!
Persimmon wood is exceptionally hard and heavy, and was used in great amounts in the hey day of the textile industry as shuttles for the looms. It was a very valuable wood and was thus logged heavily, about everywhere it could be found, and so truly old large persimmons are hard to find today.
Most persimmons you see these days are smallish trees, maybe 30-40 feet. They can get much taller – up to 120 or so feet. The 2005 GuilfordCounty treasure tree program identified a persimmon in Jamestown at 37 feet high and 8 inches in diameter as our county’s biggest, but there have to be bigger ones than that around. Anyway, I’m in a persimmon eating mood, so if you know of any good fruit bearing trees, give me a shout.
I got this from persimmon pudding recipe from “A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America” by Donald Culross Peattie, p 537, original copyright 1948 (though it is still in print and available at amazon.com).
Professor Milton Hopkins (see note) tells us how to make a persimmon pudding:
“Three eggs, ½ teaspoon salt, 2 cups sweet milk, 31/2 cups flour, 1 qt. seed persimmon fruits, I pint cold water, I teaspoon soda, I cup granulated sugar.
Wash and seed the fruit (to make 1 quart, about 3 quarts of whole fresh fruit required) and soak them in cold water for about an hour. Then run them through a colander. Mix the other ingredients in the order given, stirring thoroughly. Pour the batter into a greased pan and bake at 400 degrees for one hour or until the pudding is a dark brown in color. Serve either hot or cold with whipped cream or hard sauce, and garnish with maraschino cherries. The pudding keeps well in the icebox for several days.”
Note: recipe from “Wild Plants Used in Cookery,” New York Botanical Garden Journal, col. 43 (1942), pp. 71-76
But just remember, “if you don’t eat your meat you can’t have any pudding!” |
