Yes, I know. You’ve probably heard that persimmons are so bitter they will turn your mouth inside out. That is true enough when they are unripe, but when they are fully ripened in the late summer sun, they are as good as it gets in terms of wild fruits. Sugary sweet and filled with natural goodness, a ripe persimmon is a treat for even the most discriminating taste buds.
We have a persimmon tree down the driveway across from our garden. For the next three months, our daily routine will include ambling off down the driveway and taking advantage of what my wife, Jane, calls “Mother Nature’s candy.” Apart from indulging in the fresh fruits lying on the ground, we also gather enough to put in the freezer for persimmon pudding and a type of persimmon preserve that we spread on toast and her wonderful, silky smooth whole wheat biscuits. My mouth is watering as I write this.
My persimmon pudding recipe is an heirloom treasure given to me by a lady I met in Greensboro, North Carolina way back in the early 1970’s. Persimmon pudding is not what you think. In this instance, “pudding” refers to an old British culinary term for a dense sweet bread, more like a brownie than banana pudding. You can find numerous persimmon pudding recipes on the internet.
Jane discovered several years ago that she could make a persimmon spread for toast or biscuits by taking the persimmon pulp and preparing it for the freezer with any freezer jam recipe for fruits. We can attest that it lasts for at least a year in the freezer.
To prepare persimmons for use in either of the above, first gather the persimmons. Forget about that old adage, “never eat a persimmon before first frost.” Persimmons begin ripening in late September. You may have to get in line with the deer, bears, raccoons, opossums, coyotes and foxes that also have an inordinate fondness for the seasonal sweet treats, but it is worth the wait. Use this rule to discern the fully ripe from the not-ready-for-prime-time persimmons. If they are on the ground, deep orange like a pumpkin and wrinkled like a raisin, they are ready to eat.
Gather ripe persimmons and process them either with a hand-cranked food mill or press them through a colander with the back of a large spoon. This separates the creamy pulp from the flat, hard brown seeds. Most persimmon pudding recipes call for one cup of pulp.
This is not breaking news that wild persimmons are delicious table fare. For centuries, American Indians have not only been eating them fresh, but they also preserved them for later use by drying them in the sun and forming little cakes that they later used in making persimmon bread, an ancient traditional food that the earliest explorers in this area, from Hernando De Soto in 1540, to John Lawson in 1705, reported as “having a very good taste.”
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September 23, 2021 at 04:07PM
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Field Notes: Don't be bitter about sweet persimmons - Greenville Journal
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