Tuesday eating from your yard tip~one of the greatest blessings of a hard freeze is the joyous ripening of American Persimmons! Before they are ripe they are astringent mouth puckering yuckiness, but a period of freezing temperatures transforms these lovely little orange egg shaped fruit into mushy messy sweetest fruit on earth! My buddy Bob Henrickson makes persimmon pudding and bread, which I covet. For me persimmons are like raspberry, which I eat once picked never to make it into the house. American persimmons can also be made into ice cream, jams, syrups, pie, fermented into alcohol, fruit leather, substituted for bananas in cake and bread recipes. I even found a recipe for persimmon chili ~ which would be a lovely sweet counter balance to the spiciness. Seriously though it is such a lovely piece of heaven just eat them off the tree with a napkin nearby because they are messy. To get fruit you need a male and female tree. The Nebraska Statewide Arboretum is a good source for the trees. I have also had good luck the last two winters germinating seeds after a three month stay in my refrigerator. How do you eat American persimmons?
- Jill Kuhel
