I’d been looking around the yard trying to figure out what could be edible when I noticed the persimmon trees. The trees were obvious by the huddles of deer that gathered under them, not to mention possums, raccoons, coyotes and birds.
I’ve taken to noticing what critters eat and wondering if their food sources would be any good for Sam and me. I have this romantic idea that we could live off the land as much as possible.
Sam asked, “Well, wouldn’t your research job be sort of like living off the land?”
“No,” I answered. “It is not the same.”
I think Sam is a little fearful of what he may be ingesting. Not long ago, when eggplants were plentiful, I hid one under mounds of spaghetti sauce that I made with homegrown tomatoes. Sam lifted the sauce with his fork and asked, “What’s under this?”
“OK, “I confessed. “It’s eggplant, but there’s so much sauce and Parmesan cheese you won’t even taste it.”
Now I’m on to persimmons. I don’t want to make jellies or jams, ’cause I don’t consider that real food. So I’ve been checking into soup, bread, and there’s a pudding recipe.
Not only is the persimmon loaded with nutrients (more potassium than bananas), but the color is fantastic for fall and it’s in season. And it couldn’t get more local than my own backyard. Furthermore, they’re free for the picking.
I do have five Oriental persimmons growing on a non-native tree (thus the Oriental part), which won’t make a lot of soup. But if you don’t have your own source of persimmons, then the next best thing might be the Reese Orchard over in the Sessums Community near Starkville. I checked their website and the persimmons are reportedly abundant. Oriental persimmons are much larger and easier to prepare than wild persimmons; they’re local and you would need fewer persimmons.
The website food-skills-for-self-sufficiency.com goes into detail about preparing, storing and using persimmons.
The site reminds one not to use fruit on the ground that has been stepped on or nibbled at but only what is on the tree. And make sure the persimmons are ripe to avoid that awful astringent taste of the unripe persimmon.
Further instructions say refrigerate the fruit if you’re not going to process it in 24 hours. You can pluck the “cap” off as you pick or before preparing. The next steps that I’ve seen on every site involve using a potato ricer to separate the skin and seed from the pulp. The potato ricer is shown as a cone-shaped metal colander-like utensil on a stand with a wooden plunger for mashing the pulp into a bowl sitting under the contraption.
The only thing is modern potato ricers look nothing like this grandma version. So I’m not sure about how to best separate the pulp for my soup, but I’m looking.
So all this to say, it’s not about being an earth nut, it’s just common sense and increasing one’s own level of self-sufficiency.
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