persimmon harvest

Last weekend a crew of folks came from the other side of the county to gather up what, at this point, is the only crop that Circle Acres produces – American persimmons (Diospyros virginiana).

These native fruits are very much a southern tradition.  It’s uses in the folklore of the South are many, from making tea from the Spring leaves to predicting the Winter weather by the shape of the innards of the seed.  We cut open a batch of seeds only to find the bad news – they all had “spoon” shapes, indicating a snowy Winter.  The seeds can also be roasted and made into a hot drink that tastes like coffee.

The trees we have are really tall, pretty much at the top end of height for virginiana.  I hauled out the ladder with the intention of just climbing to the top of the ladder and shaking the tree.  By the time I had the ladder out, two of the persimmon crew were already up the tree, shaking the top branches.  As the fruits came down, everyone had to duck and cover under the pelting and splattering of the small projectiles.  The tarps caught the majority of the fruit, but the grass still became sticky under the rain of orange and red.

The tree climbing was the most impressive part of the afternoon.  Adah and Moya were fearless in their attack on the heights, leaving me to worry, ultimately unnecessarily.

The second set of trees did require a ladder to get to the first set of branches.  After that, Adah and Moya again tore through the branches, leaping back and forth between the trees like a persimmon hunting video game.

The fruit piled up as it fell, getting all mixed up with leaves and twigs in the process.

The really ripe fruits taste like soda pop; the unripe fruits taste a little sweet but with a heavy chalk aftertaste.  The unripe fruit are also very astringent, drying up a person’s mouth with just one bite.

I haven’t tasted any of the finished product from the gathering.  I’m hoping to get some of the seeds back to try and make that hot beverage out of the roasted seed.

This was the first visit to the farm for most of the folks that came out.  As we move the farm into production in January, I’m hoping that they come back to see what else we have going on.