It is Time to Collect Wild Persimmons!

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; - Ecclesiastes 3:1-2

The passage of time is marked by things that the Creator made that arrive and depart like clockwork - Clockwork more sophisticated, precise and accurately made than the finest Swiss craftsman could ever hope to create.  If you are observant, you can pick these things out.  As the tired long days of summer play out each year in late August and early September, if you glance upward you can see golf-ball sized, golden-orange fruit dangling from the limbs of our wild persimmon tree.

They dangle there, heavy and sickly sweet until the appointed time at which they fall.  Some hit the ground and burst spilling the flesh onto the freshly mown grass.  Some fall intact, but are eaten up by blue jays, blackbirds and crows.  If we are diligent and get out to the side yard with a bucket, we are able to scavenge the fruit that the fall and birds hadn't ruined.  Each day we try to get out and harvest the persimmons.  This tree is a wild persimmon tree, probably planted by birds.  Ever since we moved here in 2001, we've enjoyed its fruit.

Many people wouldn't bother as there are many big seeds in the little fruit.  However, we like the flavor.  It is a lot of work to process the wild persimmon flesh.  The best way we've found to do it is to press the flesh through a sieve placed over a glass bowl.  The flesh oozes through the sieve, while the large seeds and skin remains behind in the sieve.  It is slow work.  Once you work your way through it, you turn the sieve over and scrape the remaining persimmon flesh that is stuck to the sieve into the glass bowl.

The seeds and skins can be composted, but be ready.  I've never seen a seed that has a higher germination rate than wild persimmons.  Well, maybe the Chinese tallow tree's germination rate is higher.

The persimmon flesh in the bowl is clean and ready to be packaged and frozen for later use.

Our favorite thing to do with the wild persimmon we process is to make persimmon cake.  The recipe Tricia uses calls for 1 and 1/2 cups of processed persimmon so we package that amount in zip loc bags and freeze them.  That way, we can look in the freezer and ask, "How many future 'persimmon cakes' do we have in the freezer?"

Right now we have 12. My goal is 'just a few more'...