IUKA, Ill.--My pastor Jim Williams called last week and said we had to hit southern Illinois: persimmons were ripe.
He was concerned the high winds forecast for mid-week would shake the trees clean.
So we planned to make an adventure today, but his work duties, funeral arrangements in this case, called, so we moved it up to Sunday after church.
We hit it absolutely perfectly.
Many persimmons were on the ground in Marion County, while the ones hanging in the trees were ripe enough that a good shake sent persimmons showering down.
This is the first one found by his wife Debbie. She held it out for me to give a perspective for anybody who has never seen a persimmon.
We found them. In an hour or so, I collected about five gallons.
Persimmons are used in many desserts. What my wife makes most often is persimmon pudding, a decadently sweet dessert usually served with lots of whipped cream.
More later.
The highlight for me, no surprise to regular readers, was a stop at a country cafe. It was unique enough that some other time I will get to that cafe. I bet hunters can guess what cafe.
Williams was quite pleased with himself for showing me the cafe. And I was glad he did.
On the way home, on a perfect ending in my world, he took the back way north on Routes 37 and 45 before we went back on the Interstate at Effingham.
Perfect ending.
Just got through putting some paper bags around persimmons (fuyu or japanese persimmons that you actually eat when they are firm and hard – they taste kind of like a very sweet carrot) on our backyard tree (in CA). The kind you showed look like native american persimmons I remember from my childhood growing up in KY. We would walk to school past a massive old persimon tree and I remember finding the ripe ones lying all over the sidewalk and lawn. Delicious. The asian variety called Hachia is like that you have to eat them when mushy, but they can be huge. I remember being up in Napa county north of San Francisco in October and seeing a huge old hachia tree where all the leaves had fallen and the globular orange fruit was hanging from the tree skeleton – gorgeous.