Stalking the Wild Persimmon

On our walk this morning, I was passing a wild persimmon tree and decided to test the fruit for ripeness. I found one perfectly ripe, dark orange, soft persimmon which practically fell into my hand when I touched it. It has been years since I last tasted one of these. This is because the last one I tried to eat was SO terribly astringent, it sucked every drop of moisture out of my mouth.

According to Euell Gibbons, the author of Stalking the Wild Asparagus, the persimmon is sweet and delicious once it is fully ripe. I decided I'd take him at his word and give this fruit another try.

When I cut my persimmon in half, I found about 8 large brown seeds in the pulp. Since the fruit is small to begin with, this left very little space for pulp! And as it turns out, this lack of pulp was not a huge loss. Because Euell Gibbons exaggerates. The pulp was perfectly pleasant, not bad at all, but I would not go so far as to call it "sweet." And this is coming from someone who eats almost no refined sugar.

In his book, Gibbons gives a recipe for making a persimmon and hickory nut quick bread. But I may not be making it any time soon. Because in order to get a cup of persimmon pulp, I think I'd have to collect about 1000 wild persimmons. So far, I have picked 3 ripe ones. 4 if you count the one I ate, but it's too late to make that one into quick bread. And if you take into account all the time I'd have to spend picking the fruit, there would be nothing quick about this recipe.

I guess I will just eat my persimmons whole. The skin is edible, as well as the pulp, but there is no chance of filling up on this meal. Each fruit probably only provides about a tablespoon's worth of food. At the most.

Thank goodness I don't have to survive in the wild.