the persimmon

        I was sure I'd heard that word before, but never had acknowledged it to the point of actually knowing what it was.  While reading an old-fashioned novel, I came upon it and became interested to find out.

         It surprised me a little because it just looks like a small tomato.  For some reason I thought it would be more exotic.  Technically its a berry, just like a tomato is technically a fruit.

        So here's the important persimmon info you have been waiting all your life for: you can eat them raw, dried, or baked into a cake, bread, cookies, pudding, or pie.   Most of them hail from Asia.  They have a creamy texture and taste somewhat like a plum or a date when very ripe, but more like a melon or apricot when just slightly ripe.

       You definitely don't want to bite into one of these if it isn't ripe enough -- it can be hideously bitter.  Also, if you eat an unripened persimmon a bezoar can form in your stomach which will have to be surgically removed!  Yummy.  Even the wood from a persimmon tree is flaky and splits easily, so not much can be made from it.

 This took a looong time.

         I find the mythology about persimmons much more interesting.  Apparently, their seeds are said to predict bad winter weather.  If you slice open a persimmon seed there will appear one of three shapes.  A knife, fork or spoon.  If it is a knife shape, the freezing weather will cut through like a knife. 

        The fork shape signals a mild winter, which apparently never happens seeing as I couldn't find even one picture of a fork-shaped persimmon seed.  The most common shape is the spoon shape, which signals great precipitation, in that you will have to dig yourself out of the snow.

          Persimmons are geniuses.  They almost always predict snow in wintertime.  

Who would have thought?

          Honestly,  the more I read about these babies the farther I want to run from them, but it looks like someone else was discovering them along with me and decided to throw in all her cards!  

          Here is a recipe put up today for Spiced Persimmon Cake with Dates.