Persnickety Persimmons
Monday, October 13, 2008 at 08:55PM 
On Sunday, we visited the University of Alabama Arboretum for their annual fall plant sale to pick up the requisite fall pansies, and a few more herbs and greens just in case the seeds we planted last week decide to bail on us. As we were leaving, I remembered that the Arboretum was home to a number of persimmon trees. I figured that since we had just gotten oriental persimmons from Petals from the Past on Saturday, the American variety must not be too far behind. It was worth having a look around anyway.
Sure enough, a visit to the trees proved that they were indeed still producing. We spent about half an hour scavenging the ground underneath the tall trees, looking for signs of the diminutive orange fruits. At first, all we saw were their characteristic stems, littered like confetti on the forest floor. But then, after our eyes adjusted, the fruits began to pop out at us. Most were a little bruised or slightly smooshed after their long descent from the tree tops, but all in all we managed to collect a fair sized crop. Our only mishap belonged to Andy - the nascent persimmon forager - who managed to bite into a fruit that had not quite ripened. And of course, as any persimmon connossieur knows, the astringent taste of a young persimmon will give your face a good grimace and your lips a good pucker. Rookie mistake! But luckily all the persimmons we collected were soft, very ripe and very ready to be eaten! I love the taste of persimmons - they're incredibly sweet and they also have a strong floral aroma.
When I got those persimmons home and into the kitchen, they proved to be quite persnickety. I quickly discovered that they were laden with seeds, and that trying to separate the seeds from the fruit with any hopes of keeping the persimmon intact was an impossible venture. I also discovered that the pulp was quite sticky, and much of it remained coated around the seed. So by removing the seeds, I was losing a lot of the fruit. Finally, I decided that my best course of action would be to mash the persimmons and then pass the pulp through a sieve in order to separate out the seeds and the skins. This, although time consuming, worked fairly well. I was then left with about 2 cups of clean pulp to transform into some delicious baked good. I had my heart set on persimmon cobbler, but in the end I decided that the pulp would probably work better in a bread. So, I used half of the pulp to make a loaf of persimmon bread. The other half is in my refrigerator just waiting to be used up. I think tomorrow I'll try a persimmon pudding.
Reader Comments (2)
I wish we had persimmons here. I keep looking for them but never find them.
Dora Renee' Wilkerson
I don't know a thing about persimmons, but I do have a Vita-Mix machine. I'm wondering if the power of that machine could PULVERIZE the seeds so that you wouldn't even know they were there! I mean, you can put rinds in there!
I know Sarah from CBS Bible Study. I also have visited India 4times since September 2007! :-) Neat to see y'all are still doign this!
Elaine Oakes