The thing about persimmons

Every year we've been on our farm (five now) I've seen our persimmon trees have nice fat fruit on them in the fall and thought, "I should do something with those." So yesterday I picked some. Bryon asked me if I had ever actually eaten a persimmon. I said "sure". Well I guess I hadn't because I took a big bite and it made my tongue feel like it was wrapped in big white medical gauze! It was terrible!! Grace of course had to have some too. I told her she wouldn't like it but gave her one anyway. She ate it for a while then spit it out just like I had. Foolishly I picked some more, hopeful that covered in sugar and pectin and made into jelly it would be a wonderful fall treat.

Well let me tell you about persimmons. They are darn near IMPOSSIBLE to do anything with. I peeled then and then tried to get the seeds out (which were plentiful) and all your left with is a sad little stringy pulp. And not much at that! By the time I got my little bucketful of persimmons peeled and seeded I had less than a cup of fruit pulp! I was frustrated but determined so I took my internet searched recipe for persimmon jelly, divided it by fourths and took my almost one cup of fruit and proceeded to jellify it.

I got ONE sad little 1/2 jar of jelly for all my efforts. Bryon kept telling me to abort the mission but by that time I was committed. I tasted the spoon as I sealed up the jar. Still gauzy tongue taste. The sugar did NOT help!

Now I know why there aren't big quart sized jars of Persimmon Jelly alongside the grape and blackberry. Patty at work said I should have waited until after the first frost but I used ripe persimmons. They were all mushy. She says persimmon bread is the way to go...hmmm...bread...Google on.