22 / OutdoorIllinois October 2006

A fully ripe persimmon looks mushyand over-ripe, and tastes somewhat likebrown sugar. The genus name, Disopy-ros, is Greek for “food of the gods.”Besides tasting rich and delicious, thepersimmon also is nutritious, containinggenerous helpings of iron and vitaminsA and C.

My family hails from eastern andsoutheastern Illinois where persimmonsare found and commonly used, especiallyby the rural folks who live close to theland. I grew up eating many happyThanksgiving dinners featuring fried quailshot (chew carefully) on family land—hunted with grandad’s bird dogs—withpersimmon pudding for dessert. Mymother sold persimmon pulp and gaveaway copies of the recipes from EuellGibbons’ book “Stalking the Wild Aspara-gus” that she (and now I) used. When

Story and PhotosBy Susan E. Dees

There’s an art to collecting these soft fruits in autumn: Don’tpick them when they merely look ripe.

she wrote him asking permission to giveout his recipes, he was delighted.

Persimmons are members of theebony family and have a distinctive,blocky alligator-skin bark. Portions of thewood are black, and the wood was onceprized for golf club heads. Treesbecome clonal, or their seeds sprout, sothat eventually there is a colony. Onlythe female trees bear fruit. There is no

Persimmons are one of thosenative Illinois fruits that generateone of two responses to yourinquiry—either a blank look or anunpleasant face. Many Illinoisanswho grew up in cities or in thenorthern third of the state have

never heard of persimmons. Others mayhave been the unfortunate brunt of arite-of-passage joke in which they werehanded a perfectly fine, round andorange fruit, told it was delicious, only tofeel as if they had eaten an entire lemonafter the puckery tannic acid kicked in.

Persimmons on Your Plate

Persimmon recipes are available atwww.fooddownunder.com/cgi- bin/

search.cgi?q=persimmon and www.allrecipes.com.

Whether raw or in baked goods,

persimmons offer a delicious and

nutritious treat.

October 2006 OutdoorIllinois / 23

If you would prefer not to collect yourown persimmons—though that is franklyhalf the fun of using them—pulp may bepurchased at various fall country fairs.The Christian County Historical Societyin Taylorville, has held a persimmon fes-tival the first weekend in Novembereach year for at least a decade. Theirpersimmon cookbook boasts 164 pagesof mainly dessert and salad recipes—many given out as samples during thefestival. They even serve delicious per-simmon ice cream.

If you are lucky enough to find a per-simmon tree and beat the raccoons, deer,opossums and other humans to the deli-cious fruits, you are in for a treat. Try dif-ferent recipes and then show your friendswhat persimmons really taste like.

way of telling if the tree is a female ormale for several years. If the tree doesnot bear fruit, and there are other per-simmon trees nearby that could havepollinated it, the tree is a male.

With orange fruits hanging from thebranches, persimmon trees are easilyseen on fall drives in the countryside.About one inch in diameter, fruits resem-ble miniature pumpkins, and are ripearound Halloween. Some persimmonsripen before frost and are especiallydesired, as the “pre-frost” ones are sweet-

er. But most fruits require a hard frost ortwo to break down the tannin into sugar.

Ripe persimmons—darkened to acinnamon color, mushy and laying onthe ground—truly look past their prime.There seems to be about an hour win-dow of time before persimmons ferment,so smell each persimmon picked up.Check again as you process the fruitsas several may have fermented by thetime you get home.

Process persimmons as soon as pos-sible, but they will keep a couple of daysin the refrigerator. Wash the fruits toremove bits of grass and stem, thenremove the skin and seeds using a sieveor food mill. Pulp stored in a non self-defrosting deep freeze in labeled, recipe-sized one-cup increments in heavy-dutyfreezer bags will last for several years.

Persimmon Folklore

American folklore says opening per-simmon seeds to review the shape

of the light-colored heart or germ againstthe dark background can be used to pre-dict the coming winter weather.� spoon—the winter will contain lots ofheavy, wet snow to be shoveled.� fork—snow will be light and powderyand the winter mild.� knife—the winter will contain a cut-ting, bitter, icy wind.

Although some may swear by thisprediction technique, all three shapesare found if one splits open enough per-simmon seeds.

Susan E. Dees is a biologist with the Illi-nois Department of Transportation spe-cializing in endangered species, highquality habitats and wetlands, and hascooked with persimmons for 25 years.

Orange ripened fruit cling to

bare branches.

The bark of a persimmon is

likened to the skin of an alligator.

Removing the skin and seeds

from persimmons is easy when

using a simple, old-fashioned

food processor.