Persimmons: Sweet and Puckery Prognosticators

The first frosts have come and with them the wild persimmons have ripened.  Those of us who like to forage in the woods for wild things to eat have a veritable treasure of sweet goodness from the persimmon just waiting for us.  You can tell if a native persimmon is ripe because it will be soft and a bit on the brown side.  But don't let the brownish color of these plum sized  fruits fool you; they are sweet when ripe.  Persimmons must be picked and eaten at just the right time.  If picked and eaten too early, the astringent tannins in the fruit will make you pucker and will lock your jaw.  But if you wait a day or two the fruit is tasty and sweet.  You only have to eat a green persimmon once to learn to tell when the fruit is ripe!  Soft is ripe.

Captain John Smith had this to say about the native persimmon, Diospyros Virginiana, " If it be not ripe it will drawe a mans mouth awrie with much torment; but when it is ripe, it is as delicious as an apricook."  The first settlers at Jamestown not only ate the fruit but also drank it.  The seeds could be used as a substitute coffee and the fruit itself was used for making beer.  Native Americans used the astringent qualities of the fruit and the bark of the tree to treat burns and would make a kind of gargle from it to use for infections in the throat and mouth.

Today we not only eat these delicious native fruits, but we "old timers" use them to predict the weather.  If you cut open one of the brown seeds inside the fruit, you will see an image of a knife, a fork or a spoon.  If you see a fork, the winter will be mild and dry.  The image of a knife prognosticates a cold, sharp winter with winds that "cut through you like a knife."  However, if you see a spoon, expect plenty of snow.  You will have to shovel it all winter long.  I don't know if the legend holds true, but our family living in Christian County said they saw spoons in the persimmons there. Just in case it is, I think I'll  find the snow shovel and get the ice melt ready!