Fall Harvest Time in Greensboro

Here we see our native persimmons, diospyros virginiana (translates as fruit of the gods). The leaves on this particular specimen are more leathery than we are accustomed to seeing and the plant looked more bush than treelike. Most persimmons are best eaten when fully ripe and after the first frost when the tannic acid taste is less pronounced. The female trees produce fruit and, of course, they need a male tree nearby to produce fruit. Isn't nature fascinating? Some trees are self-fertile, producing a fruit that ripens as early as August. 

In North Carolina, we are famous for our persimmon pudding. Making it is hard work; between the skin and the bulky seeds, not much flesh is extracted from each fruit. One has to sieve and sieve and sieve to get enough pulp for persimmon pudding. However, nothing tastes more like fall or earthier than persimmon pudding. Persimmon trees are hardy, adaptable, and drought resistant. Let's all run out and plant some today! For more information and a map of the growing area in the US, look here.

Comments

[Bill B]

Love 'em.

[Irina]

Great, great photo. We get ours mostly from Azerbaijan, later, in November, they are symbol of winter fruit for me.

[barb farr]

They sure are a pretty color. Never tasted them.

[Janis]

We have the big kind of tree persimmons around here and they are not fit to eat until Thanksgiving week. Once all the leaves have fallen from the tree the nights have been cold enough to turn the fruit not quite sweet but much less bitter.
I love the way Persimmons look in the Autumn scenery!

[jordan 13]

Your ideas about something is so cool and different,many I knew and many I haven’t known,so I am learning them,thanks.and stay them.