The Persimmons Are In!

A small bucket of persimmons

We have a large persimmon tree in our front yard and I can tell it's Fall when the persimmons start falling off of it. This year looks as if it will be a bumper crop! Persimmons just taste like Fall to me and I look forward to all the great goodies we can make with them; persimmon pudding, persimmon bread, I may even try my hand at persimmon wine if we get enough. That might be good.

These are the native species of persimmon, not the big Asian varieties one can buy in the grocery store. They are small, seedy and kind of a pain in the butt to use because of all the large, black seeds they contain. After we gather the fruit, we rinse and dry them, remove the tops and then throw them in our food mill to make a persimmon pulp for use in our recipes later in the year. Most don't look very nice because they are very soft and get a little mangled after falling from 20-30 feet to the ground. I grind them up anyway so it doesn't really matter what they look like.

We used to take the time to pick the seeds out of the food mill and get as much of the pulp as possible, but this year I have decided it is not worth the effort for the little bit of extra pulp we gain. I am just running the persimmons through the mill once with a big screen and discarding what doesn't go though the holes. I then run the pulp from that through a smaller screen to make it just a bit more fine. A medium Tupperware bowlful of persimmons will make enough pulp for a double batch of persimmon pudding (about 2 cups)... Mmmm Mmmmm!

If you would like to learn a little more about persimmons, read this Clemson University Info Paper. Also, here is a great persimmon pudding recipe to try from food.com:

1 cup very ripe hachiya persimmon pulp (Editor's note: Of course you can use the wild species as well)
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/4 lb butter or 1/4 lb margarine, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:

Combine persimmon pulp with sugar.
Beat in eggs. Mix in milk, then butter.
Sift or stir flour with baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg.
Mix with persimmon mixture.
Pour batter into a well greased 9-inch square cake pan.
Bake in a 315-325°F oven for approx 60 minutes or until knife comes out clean.

Do you have a favorite use for persimmons? Leave a comment.