Yet Another Use for Persimmons

It is a sure sign that fall is around the corner when the little wild persimmons start falling from the tree in the yard.  Although it is very hard to see in the photo below, there are numerous persimmons still clinging to the branches of the tree.  Many, however, have fallen to the ground.  The overripe ones burst on impact, but most survive the fall intact.

They wait there on the ground for us to come along and pick them up.  Those that we don't get in time are feasted on by birds.  We posted about the persimmons before in THIS POST FROM 2015.  Then we also showed you how we process the persimmons we gather in THIS POST and within that post is the link to yet another previous blog post that contains the recipe for delicious persimmon cake.

We've gathered and processed enough persimmons already this year to meet our family's needs for many persimmon cakes.  The inventory of processed frozen persimmon in the freezer is at capacity.

And yet the orange-golden sickly sweet little fruit keeps falling from the sky. I am not a wasteful guy and I always feel that there are other outlets to use nature's bounty.  I walked out to the persimmon tree and surveyed all the fruit that lay beneath the tree.  Then I thought to myself, "I know who can use this excess fruit!"

I went to the backyard and picked up a molasses bucket and picked up every persimmon I could see.  My fingers were sticky when I was done as I picked up even the ones that had burst.

Then I carried the bucket over to the side of the garden at the entrance to the barnyard and called the chickens, "Here, chick, chick, chick, chick, chick!"  They came running with wings flapping.  Although they have very small brains, they have figured out that when I call them like that, it's time to eat!

I turned the bucket over and banged my hand on the bottom to dislodge those persimmons that were clinging stickily to the bottom.  Then it was feast time.  The chickens encircled the pile of wild persimmons and gourged themselves on the fruit.

The chickens quickly transformed the messy pile of fruit int a pile of big seeds. That was the only thing left.  These 'food processors' did the dirty work and seemed to enjoy their meal.  I laughed as I watched the chickens grooming themselves when they were done, wiping off their sticky beaks on the grass.  They truly transformed the waste with haste.