Persimmons

Being a couple with roots outside Indiana, neither of us understand the persimmon craze here. Everyone has a persimmon tree, and those who don't buy persimmon pulp from their neighbors. We are lucky enough to have two large persimmon trees in the backyard, so we inquired from friends as to how to tell when they are ripe. Everyone said they would ripen and drop right after the first frost, and to pick them up off the ground.

We've had several big frosts, and the most I get off the ground at a time are 5 or 6.

Yesterday I went out with an 8 foot tall stick and banged on the branches. Remember, we live on a busy road, so there are many people who saw me waving an 8 foot tall stick in a tree. This knocked about 10 off the branches. Here's all I was able to collect:


Here are the chickens eating them: (What the crap was I supposed to do with 10 persimmons?)


And a video...


But the story isn't over! Roger went out and shook the trees for me and we gathered about half a gallon! I decided to try my hand at cooking a staple Indiana persimmon dish... persimmon cookies. (Not pudding, sorry, I've had it and it's not very good.)

Without a cheese cloth or netting, we made pulp by squishing the fruit in a colander with a potato masher. True to the rumors (UNLIKE the rumors that persimmons will just drop off the tree) all that fruit made about 2 cups of pulp. We saved out the stuff in the colander for the chickens.





And here's the cookie batter:



And the recipe:
1 cup sugar
1 stick butter
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups persimmon pulp
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cloves

Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

The batter was pretty gross, but happily, the cookies were tasty!