Previous Post
Vince’s Books & Shirt
Next Post
Persimmon Seeds Predict Winter
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara logo

  • Home
  • Useful Links
  • Contact

November 4, 2019

Persimmons

Previous Post
Vince’s Books & Shirt
Next Post
Persimmon Seeds Predict Winter

Vince loves persimmons. I like them ok but given a whole bowl of fruit, a persimmon is not the first thing I’d reach for. Persimmons seem to be very misunderstood but really . . it’s just a persimmon and I suppose most of the readers here, either you like them or you don’t but for those who don’t know about them, you can get astringent or non-astringent varieties. You can read about the differences here.

One thing you may not know. Vince is 100% honest . . to a fault if that’s possible. If I say “Does this dress make me look fat?” If it does .. he’ll say yes!

Judy . . not so honest, especially when it comes to food! 🙂

If you’ve ever had an astringent persimmon, you probably know that if they are not ripe to the point of being rotten in the next 5 minutes, they are so bitter that you almost can’t get rid of the bitter taste in your mouth. Therefore, in order to eat them, they have to be so ripe, they’re mushy – like even trying to pick them, they squish and drip down your arm.

But, the non-astringent type are crispy like an apple and delicious and they are not bitter at all. Because Vince grew up with the astringent variety, he will never try our non-astringent variety til they get mushy but they never get mushy because I eat them! I honestly will say “They’re ripe! You can eat them!” and, because the astringent type are so horrible if you eat them before they’re ripe, he will not try them so I just go off by myself and eat them all! Bad Judy!

But, we didn’t get any persimmons on our trees this year. We didn’t get any fruit at all except for about a dozen figs because of the late freeze.

During the week Vince saw an ad on Facebook for someone who had persimmons out past Comanche, about 40 or 45 miles from here so he contacted the lady and made arrangements for us to go pick persimmons.

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day. I brought a jacket but never needed it. Just for the record, our high today is 80. Good grief!

She only had two varieties of big persimmons and they were all astringent but we picked two bags of those. She also had quite a few of the Texas native persimmons, also astringent but they were really ripe so we picked two bags of those too. We ended up with right at 30 pounds of persimmons.

These native persimmons were so good and I think we each ate 6 or 8 of them while picking them. I had one that seemed ripe and it wasn’t. Oh, my . . I couldn’t spit that thing out quickly enough. Then I told Vince . . I need water! But we were out in the middle of an orchard and there was no place to get water.

I think I’m going to freeze dry some of the fruit and see what we think of that but most of it I’ll probably run through the food mill and freeze it. The pulp is great to use in muffins, breads, cookies and things like that.

Here’s a funny story. When I was about 5 years old, we moved to southwest Louisiana from north Louisiana. My mom and dad bought a lot on a little dead end street. I don’t think there were any houses out there yet. There were three lots on our side of the street, which was really a little dirt trail. There were two lots across the street because there was a pond that took up some of the land there.

Dad bought the center lot on our side of the street and my aunt and uncle bought the lot next door. Mom and dad built a house; and then later the guy who owned the lot to our right sold it to dad but the old guy had planted a persimmon tree. I’m not sure my parents knew about persimmons but they got nice and orange and looked ripe so dad picked a bowl of them brought them in, washed them, handed us each one. I think all four of us bit into them at the same time and they were definitely astringent and not ripe. I was probably 7; my sister was 5 and we were spitting that stuff out and trying to get outside to get rid of it before mom killed us for spitting food out on the table. I think it was years before anyone even picked a persimmon but then someone gave my dad a recipe for persimmon cookies and explained that you let them almost fall off the tree before you pick them so it became a Fall tradition for us to faithfully watch that persimmon tree til they were ripe enough to pick for mom to make persimmon cookies.

After we were finished picking persimmons yesterday, we had this conversation:

Vince: How many did you eat in the orchard?
Me: Maybe 6. How many did you eat?
Vince: Probably 10. I don’t think there was a time while we were picking that I didn’t have one in my mouth!

When we lived in East Texas, there was a strawberry farm near Kirbyville. My friend and I would take our kids down there and pick strawberries. She had two girls about 3 and 5 and Chad was 3. When we’d go with the kids to pick, the old guy would always jokingly say “I’m going to weigh those kids before you start picking and after!” My friend and I laughed because she and I were eating the berries the whole time we were picking too. One day we told the guy we wanted to pay extra because we had really eaten a lot of them. He laughed and said “Everybody does it. I expect you to eat them.” He wouldn’t let us pay extra. Fun memories!

Share This!

  • Share
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Twitter

Related

Filed Under: Worthless Chatter

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. w jordan says

    November 4, 2019 at 7:19 am

    My grandpaw always told us don’t pick till after the first freeze or they would be bad. So we always waited. They were ok but like you not my favorite. It old hear pears were my favorite of all the fruit he grew. Never grew strawberries. We also went to a farm and picked. Learned to pick ripe ones because they don’t get ripe after picked.

  2. Judy H says

    November 4, 2019 at 9:00 am

    There’s a strawberry farm about an hour away, but I haven’t been in years. When I had kids at home we could blow through strawberries, but now not so much. There’s a blueberry farm about 45 mins from me and I used to go yearly, but now I only go about every other year. I pick enough for two years in one visit to the farm. I love blueberries and eat them regularly, but when you pick three gallons and only need about 1/2 a cup a day, they last awhile!

  3. Stephani in N. TX says

    November 4, 2019 at 9:15 am

    Love persimmon cookies!

  4. Arrowhead Gramma says

    November 4, 2019 at 9:32 am

    One thing to remember about persimmons is the amount of natural sugar they contain. If you are a diabetic you must be very careful about eating persimmons as they can really spike your blood sugar. My husband was diabetic and loved persimmons but ended up not being able to eat them due to the high spikes in his blood sugar after eating just one.

  5. Teri says

    November 4, 2019 at 11:08 am

    Loved the story about the strawberry man….I don’t like persimmons much either, but never had a good one….

  6. Joyce says

    November 4, 2019 at 3:17 pm

    My mother always said to wait to eat persimmons until we had a hard freeze, otherwise they would make you pucker because they would be sour. I think our local persimmons have shovels this year too.

  7. Nelle Coursey says

    November 4, 2019 at 7:32 pm

    I remember my one and only time eating a persimmon! I guess it was the wrong kind because it was not ripe and my mouth puckered worse than I can ever remember! The old man that gave it to me laughed! He thought it was funny! I did not!

  8. Susan Nixon says

    November 4, 2019 at 7:55 pm

    What a nice berry memory! I’ve never once eaten a persimmon. It’s totally foreign to me. However, I’ve picked black raspberries and blackberries and even currents and made jelly until my eyes crossed. I love picking black caps! The ripe ones just pop off and they taste so good! I love eating them, too. =) Regular raspberries are okay, but a little seedy and not as sweet as the black ones. Oh such fun to think about. Long past picking time, though.

Primary Sidebar

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • RSS

Subscribe Via Email

2021 Knitting Plans

WIPS to Finish:

  • Ravencliff – Test knit currently working on.
  • Mi Casa Wrap – Not much done. Started November, 2017
  • Tabouli – 1/4 done – Started May, 2018
  • Persistence is Key – 1/3 done. Started March, 2019
  • Arkansas River Pullover – 1/3 done. Started November, 2019.
  • Gilda – 1/3 done. Started December, 2019
  • Stained Glass Cowl – Not much done. Started September, 2016
  • Leftovers Cowl – 1/4 done. Started February, 2015
  • Brickless – Not much done. Started December, 2019
  • Itatiaia Cocoon – Not much Done. Started September 15, 2020
  • Avalance – About 1/3 done. Started February 10, 2020
  • Match & Move – Over halfway done. Started October 10, 2020

New Projects:

  • Sugarcane Cardi – Using the purple Madelinetosh Work Sock.
  • Boulevardier – Using Baa Ram Ewe Winterburn DK.
  • Mariechen – Using Madelinetosh Longrider in Raspberry Cordial.
  • Magnolia – Using Madelinetosh Farm Twist Solid in Beautiful Liar.
  • Metropolis – Using Madelinetosh Chunky in Curiosity.
  • Superbloom Cowl – I made one of these as a Christmas gift but I’d like to make one for me. Miss Babs Yowza Mini Set, which I have.
  • Lizard Eyes – This look so interesting. Wollmeise – I already have it.
  • Rattlesnake – I need this to remind me that I survived living in the wilds of Texas for 9 years. Pretty sure I have yarn for this.
  • Lumber Jill Cowl – I have the yarn.
  • Heather Hoodie Vest – I’ll use Cascade Eco+ in Valentine.
  • The Weekender – Not sure about yarn for this one.
  • Homebody – I’ll probably use Kathmandu Aran 100 or Cascade Eco Wool.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

Recent Posts

  • Monday’s Meat Loaf
  • Vacation Bible School Certificate
  • Chicken Jambalaya
  • Nocturnal Activities
  • Thankful – January 23, 2021
  • Sewing Machines are Set Up
  • Another Day of Working in the Sewing Room
  • Shortages
  • Cross Stitch Progress
  • Menu Plan – January 25, 2021
  • Thankful – January 22, 2021
  • Menu Plans Again

Archives

Looking For Something?

Calendar of Posts:

November 2019
S M T W T F S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« Oct   Dec »

Copyright © 2021 · Patchwork Times

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.