We had the usual pumpkin by the door, but it seemed like… It just needed a friend. Or something a little more, anyway.
Several years back, someone posted an offer on the local freecycle page for persimmons. He had lots. I said something about, if you still have some after you’re done with everyone else who asked, I’d love to pick a few up from you; he said, Hey, I’ll drop them by your place on my way by.
Delivery too? Wow, hey, sure!
So. The bell rang, I opened the door–and we both stood there speechless, staring. And then laughing.
Had you asked me his name I’d have been lost, but I definitely knew that face. He recognized me as his folks’ friend from their church.
So every year since, he has offered to bring me some by, and every year I am very happy to be the recipient. I love persimmons. His are the hachiya type, which I prefer and which you don’t want to eat until they’re completely ripe and the tannins are gone: they take on a jelly texture in a puddle of goodness. Peel the skin away and scrape into a bowl with a spoon.
Eric sent me a link to a lot of good recipes last year, but when he asked about it this time, I confessed that I just eat them. (Or freeze towards persimmon-less times of the year and then just eat them.) The fruit is dessert enough.
Those tannins though are why the critters leave them alone until they’re falling off in big rotting splats of orange sugar on the ground, and so, if you have a hachiya persimmon tree, it will become a big, heavy-laden tree, some of it quite high up there, and you will get a whole lot of fruit.
Of which my husband is not a fan. Nor do we have the room, even though they are quite pretty trees. Nor do we want the flock of crows that come feasting on the splats. And so there is not one here.
My saying I could keep one small by growing it in a tub got me a don’t-you-think-you-have-enough-fruit-trees look.
Eric brought me a big bagful a few days ago.
I was looking at that pumpkin out there. All alone. No fake spiderwebs, not even wool roving pulled and shredded to make a natural version thereof.
I grabbed a Sharpie. I drew a happy face. I wrote Boo! And I put that little pumpkin-colored fruit in the windowsill outside next to the doorknob where it would be eye level to the little kids. (Prior to its epic photo session here.)
Richard walked through the door tonight, commented, and then went–Wait. THAT wasn’t a pumpkin!
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We didn’t have persimmons but we did color on our pumpkins! My kids used markers (added by Mommy’s sharpie) rather than carving this year. We had to keep our pumpkins instead to keep them from freezing and rotting–and the adults couldn’t cope with carved pumpkin smell…but trick or treating was a blast in any case!
Comment by Joanne 11.01.17 @ 12:31 pmPersimmons make a wonderful steamed pudding! The texture is like that of a very moist bread/cake. Hard to explain, delicious to eat!
Comment by Shelly H. 11.12.17 @ 4:56 pmLeave a comment
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