I grew up in the Southern Indiana countryside. During my 16th birthday year of 1976, the surroundings were hastily being repurposed into tidy residential suburbs. But we still had pastures and some woods, raised some Angus, kept a garden, and looked upon a single gnarly persimmon tree just down the hill from our house.
When late autumn arrived my parents indulged in the solemn ritual of persimmon pudding production.
My recollection is that the persimmons at their peak of ripeness had to be gathered as they hit the ground, preferably with our cows sequestered elsewhere to keep them from eating all the pre-pudding pulp. It usually made them ill, much as beer did to me each weekend.
This persimmon pulp itself required messy preparation with knives and sieves, amid much grumbling about the necessary pain required in life to gain maximum pleasure. After all, the finished pudding could be frozen, usually to be expended upon the arrival of guests amid the Christmas holidays, when there’d be approval all around.
As for me, all these life lessons passed unnoticed. I didn’t much like persimmons, having elected at one point to pick one that looked quite pretty, but tasted like a soured Quintuple IPA. Waiting patiently for the fruit to be shriveled and gooey didn’t click with me at the time.
(Persimmons actually can be used to flavor a tasty beer: Persimmon Ale from Bloomington Brewing Company, a seasonal release spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg.)
I’ll never be a persimmon connoisseur like my parents, and that’s fine. This way, there’ll be more pudding for you, and I’ll just drink one of those ales.
The Fruit Of The Gods From An Indiana Tree?, by Lenny Farlee (Purdue University Forestry and Natural Resources)
The American persimmon tree’s scientific name, Diospyros virginiana, is loosely interpreted “divine fruit” or “fruit of the gods” of Virginia. If you have tasted a ripe persimmon on a crisp fall day, you might agree with that assessment. Several persimmon tree species are found in both the new and old world and have been used for food and wood products for centuries. Our American persimmon is native to the southern half of Indiana but can survive in the northern half of the state as well.
I’m being careful to reference universities in both states.
American Persimmon, by Cheryl Kaiser and Matt Ernst...Read more
